Ian Frazier's New Book "The Snakes That Ate Florida"

The year begins auspiciously with a gift from Ian Frazier – a new collection of his incomparable reporting, essays, and criticism called The Snakes That Ate Florida. It’s been out for about a month. I’m just discovering it now. If I’d been on the ball, I would’ve seen a capsule review of it in newyorker.com’s “The Best Books of 2026 So Far.” But that’s a big “if.” The review reads as follows:

In this collection of essays, reported pieces, and criticism dating back to the nineteen-seventies, Frazier’s sharp eye for finding the complex in the quotidian is on full display. From tales about monster trucks and the Maraschino-cherry empire to musings about lantern flies and Lolita, the collection—much of which was published in this magazine—spotlights the vibrancy of topics often under-noticed. In the playful and diligent hands of the seasoned staff writer, these ordinary things feel extraordinary.

I don’t know who wrote that, but whoever it was knows his/her Frazier. I’m trying to cut back on the number of books I buy this year. But this is one I absolutely must have. Frazier is one of my heroes. I love his work. I’ve likely already read a lot of these pieces when they originally appeared in The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books. But that’s okay. Like Chekhov’s stories, they’re worth reading and rereading. It will be great to encounter them again, this time as a collection – perhaps the most significant nonfiction collection of the year.