One of my favorite essays is “The Musical Husbands,” written about 20 years ago by Adam Gopnik. His recent stuff, though (for example, his recent book of essays about New York), is spoiled by spelling things out too much. He explains every idea in too much detail, beyond what these little insights can support. Gopnik is not a public utility (in the memorable words of Bill James) and he can do what he wants, but I strongly recommend that he loosen up a bit, let the reader figure things out more, and not take his own ideas so seriously.
I discovered Gopnik when I read his NYer essay on trying to find a fitness/sports club in Paris — a gym where he could work out. I still like most of the essays on Paris collected in Paris to the Moon, and found one of them quite relevant in my own blog post on the "enough thinking, already" statement by Sarkozy's finance minister. (http://montclairsoci.blogspot.com/2007/07/thinking-and-working.html)