Silk Parachute
John McPhee
Essays
John McPhee may well be America's greatest living non-fiction writer. This isn't his greatest work, but it's pretty good. These are mostly short pieces, mostly autobiographical, several dealing with sports. The best of them is "Season on the Chalk," which glides seamlessly, McPhee-fashion, across the geology of southeastern England, its extensions and permutations, French winemaking, the extinction of the dinosaurs, and other such fascinating whatnot. It's like a non-fiction version of Garrison Keillor's "News from Lake Wobegon". If you've never read McPhee, this isn't the best place to start, but it's not the worst either.
You said it isn't the best book to start. Which is? I've heard a lot about McPhee, but never read, so I would appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteGosh, that's hard to pick. Here are some personal favorites.
ReplyDelete* If you want a collection of shorter pieces, I like Irons In the Fire.
* Among McPhee's best-known works are his books on geology and plate tectonics, published collectively as Annals of the Former World. I like all the components, but my favorite among them is Rising From the Plains
* The Control of Nature is about various attempts to achieve just that, such as stopping a lava flow in Iceland.
* Uncommon Carriers is about transportation--a long-haul trucker, a Mississippi River towboat pilot, a coal-train locomotive engineer, etc.
I do hope you'll check McPhee out, and that you'll let me know what you think.