The best American essays 2003

Lavender / André Aciman

I bought a bed / Donald Antrim

Lost cities / Rachel Cohen

Yes / Brian Doyle

In a snob-free zone / Joseph Epstein

Memoria ex machina / Marshall Jon Fisher

Home alone / Caitlin Flanagan

Researchers say / Ian Frazier

The learning curve / Atul Gawande

Bumping into Mr. Ravioli / Adam Gopnik

The debacle / Francine Du Plessix Gray

Circus music / Edward Hoagland

F. P. / Myra Jehlen

The reporter's kitchen / Jane Kramer

Wooden Dollar / Ben Metcalf

A delivery for Fred Astaire / Frederic Morton

An animal's place / Michael Pollan

Learning to drive / Katha Pollitt

Citizenship in emergency /

Elaine Scarry

Looking at war / Susan Sontag

The habit / Francis Spufford

The love of my life / Cheryl Strayed

Swann song / Judith Thurman

Whose war / John Edgar Wideman.