At the New Yorker, Leslie Jamison interviews Charles D’ambrosio; they touch on narrative omniscience, the impossibility of achieving it, and just what it is that makes for a wonderful essay:
Most of the time I think of the self as a snare, and I don’t like being trapped in it. I try to reach out beyond my pittance of experience and connect to the world, but it turns out one way to do that is to be honest and accurate about my own life. I’m not convinced the personal is all that unique, anyway.