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Title details for The Patch by John McPhee - Available

The Patch

by John McPhee
John McPhee
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
An "album quilt," an artful assortment of nonfiction writings by John McPhee that have not previously appeared in any book. The Patch is the seventh collection of essays by the nonfiction master, all published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. It is divided into two parts. Part 1, "The Sporting Scene," consists of pieces on fishing, football, golf, and lacrosse-from fly casting for chain pickerel in fall in New Hampshire to walking the links land of St. Andrews at an Open Championship. Part 2, called "An Album Quilt," is a montage of fragments of varying length from pieces done across the years that have never appeared in book form-occasional pieces, memorial pieces, reflections, reminiscences, and short items in various magazines including The New Yorker. They range from a visit to the Hershey chocolate factory to encounters with Oscar Hammerstein, Joan Baez, and Mount Denali. Emphatically, the author's purpose was not merely to preserve things but to choose passages that might entertain contemporary readers. Starting with 250,000 words, he gradually threw out seventy-five per cent of them, and randomly assembled the remaining fragments as "An Album Quilt." Among other things, it is a covert memoir.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    December 1, 2018

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781980005346
      • File size: 237973 KB
      • Duration: 08:15:46

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from September 3, 2018
      The latest collection from McPhee (Draft No. 4), a New Yorker staff writer, provides a bountiful cornucopia of insightful essays that display the wide range of his interests and tastes. The title essay begins as a characteristically detailed and observant account of fishing for chain pickerel in a New Hampshire lake before becoming a poignant reminiscence of communicating with his stroke-debilitated father via their shared fondness for fishing. In the other selections grouped under the heading “The Sporting Scene,” McPhee riffs on his interest in professional golf, college lacrosse, and even bear sighting at his home in New Jersey. The bulk of the book is composed of “An Album Quilt,” a patchwork miscellany of excerpts from never-before-collected, and in some cases unpublished, pieces—each of which could have become a full essay or book on its own—that hopscotches from a visit to the gold-stacked vaults of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to an aromatic traipse across the floor of a Hershey chocolate factory. McPhee delights in cracking open subjects, both ordinary and esoteric, and making them accessible to the layperson in works that testify to his virtuosity as one of the greatest living American essayists.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      This is a must-listen for anyone who values great nonfiction writing and storytelling. John McPhee is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author who's been called a master of creative nonfiction. This collection is made up of some of McPhee's earlier essays and stories that have never appeared in book form. McPhee does the narration, and although it is apparent that writing, not narration, is his forte, the listener will come away with a deep appreciation for just how keen an observer, and how great a writer, he is. These stories reveal the author's boundless curiosity about all that surrounds us--from the natural world and sports to icons in entertainment and those with an interesting story to tell. J.P.S. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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