Oranges [Hardcover]

John McPhee (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 20, 1967

A classic of reportage, Oranges was first conceived as a short magazine article about oranges and orange juice, but the author kept encountering so much irresistible information that he eventually found that he had in fact written a book. It contains sketches of orange growers, orange botanists, orange pickers, orange packers, early settlers on Florida’s Indian River, the first orange barons, modern concentrate makers, and a fascinating profile of Ben Hill Griffin of Frostproof, Florida who may be the last of the individual orange barons. McPhee’s astonishing book has an almost narrative progression, is immensely readable, and is frequently amusing. Louis XIV hung tapestries of oranges in the halls of Versailles, because oranges and orange trees were the symbols of his nature and his reign. This book, in a sense, is a tapestry of oranges, too—with elements in it that range from the great orangeries of European monarchs to a custom of people in the modern Caribbean who split oranges and clean floors with them, one half in each hand.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

While many readers are familiar with John McPhee's masterful pieces on a large scale (the geological history of North America, or the nature of Alaska), McPhee is equally remarkable when he considers the seemingly inconsequential. Oranges was conceived as a short magazine piece, but thanks to his unparalleled investigative skills, became a slim, fact-filled book. As McPhee chronicles orange farmers struggling with frost and horticulturists' new breeds of citrus, oranges come to seem a microcosm of man's relationship with nature.

Like Flemish miniaturists who reveal the essence of humankind within the confines of a tiny frame, McPhee once again demonstrates that the smallest topic is replete with history, significance, and consequence. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Review

"Fascinating. A sterling example of what a fresh point of view, a clear style, a sense of humor and diligent investigation can do to reveal the inherent interest in something as taken-for-granted as your morning orange juice." --Edmund Fuller, The Wall Street Journal

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 149 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; First Edition edition (February 20, 1967)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374226881
• ISBN-13: 978-0374226886
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,131,001 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John McPhee was born in Princeton, New Jersey, and was educated at Princeton University and Cambridge University. His writing career began at Time magazine and led to his long association with The New Yorker, where he has been a staff writer since 1965. The same year he published his first book, A Sense of Where You Are, with FSG, and soon followed with The Headmaster (1966), Oranges (1967), The Pine Barrens (1968), A Roomful of Hovings and Other Profiles (collection, 1969), The Crofter and the Laird (1969), Levels of the Game (1970), Encounters with the Archdruid (1972), The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed (1973), The Curve of Binding Energy (1974), Pieces of the Frame (collection, 1975), and The Survival of the Bark Canoe (1975). Both Encounters with the Archdruid and The Curve of Binding Energy were nominated for National Book Awards in the category of science.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Succulent botany and history lesson, March 11, 2005

By 

E. A. Lovitt "starmoth" (Gladwin, MI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Oranges (Paperback)

"Oranges" (1967) was Pulitzer-prize-winning author John McPhee's third book and it begins simply 'in medias res' -- as a pungent celebration of oranges and orange juice. This is a mouth-watering introduction to the different types of oranges, and how various humans consume them. Then, in the following chapter the author takes us to the geographical heart of his story in a Florida orange grove.

All is not sweetness and orange juice in this book, which was written when LBJ was President. Frozen orange juice concentrate was make large inroads into the fresh orange market, much to McPhee's dismay. He stopped at a Florida Welcome Station on his way into the state, and was given "a three-ounce cup of reconstituted concentrate." The motel where he stayed also served reconstituted orange juice so McPhee finally had to buy himself a plastic orange reamer and a knife, and pick his own oranges from a nearby grove.

We meet the 'Orange Men' in the following chapter and learn the details of the citrus-growing industry. You might think this is the boring bit, but nothing McPhee writes is ever boring. Pomologists are an eccentric lot, most of them migrants to Florida from cold places like Kansas, Minnesota, and Great Britain. At the time this book was written, Englishman William Grierson, Ph.D, a former officer in the Royal Air Force, was "trying to keep growers and shippers interested in fresh fruit...despite the tidal rise of concentrate." He considered himself "the leader of His Majesty's loyal opposition."

We also learn from Grierson that, "a citrus fruit is, botanically, a berry" and "The sex life of citrus is something fantastic." (Citrus is so genetically perverse that oranges can grow from lime seeds.) By this part of the book you will be up to your ears in sweet and bitter oranges, grapefruits, lemons, tangerines, limequats, citrons, and Persian Limes. If you haven't already run out to the kitchen for a citrus fix, you're made of sterner stuff than I am.

McPhee wanders (as only he can) through the history of citrus, the orangeries of European nobility, the Indian River orange groves, the production of reconstituted orange juice, and throws in a riff on Minute Maid and the old-time orange barons. Go ahead, settle down and drink in this author's delicious prose. His books are much more satisfying than novels.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful novel of the orange through history, January 29, 1998

By 

Mary P. Reeve (Cambridge, MA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Oranges (Paperback)

You might think that a whole book on oranges was just too much, but I read this book as eagerly as if it was a mystery and I couldn't wait to see what was on the next page. It is worth reading for the writing alone, as McPhee's style brings the groves to life and makes you laugh aloud at times with subtle humor.

In addition to describing the origin of oranges, their cultivation and rising popularity from when the Hesperides would watch them to the present of the book (1967), he explains how it came to be that most of us have orange juice for breakfast. There is some very interesting science in the book as well, and it seems quite thorough in every respect (after all, it is an entire book on oranges!). There are some excellent character descriptions of the original settlers and orange barons as well: "The Indians hated Russell and always had. One of them fired at him and nicked him the arm. Feeling pain that night, Russell went into the boat's cabin and groped in the dark for a bottle of salve. Picking up a bottle of ink by mistake, he poured it over his arm. When the sun came up, he thought he had gangrene. The others knew that it was ink, but they thought even less of Russell than the Indians did, and they said nothing." It is a must-read for anyone who is traveling to FL and wants to know more about the real FL and less about theme-parks!

The only disappointment might be for those who live in California, as although CA oranges are given a place, the main focus is on FL.

A great read!

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good & good for you, December 6, 2002

By 

John Anderson (Bar Harbor, ME USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Oranges (Paperback)

Every time someone asks me about John McPhee (I am, I admit a total fan) I find myself saying "Look, Here is a guy who can take a subject like, say ORANGES, and make it fascinating." This is the book where he does just that. I gather that ORANGES started out as a short magazine piece & like so many of McPhee's books became an obsession. Here we can get the history, the ecology, the landscape of orange groves along with discussions of the effects of oranges and orange growing on both the culture and the surroundings, all in McPhee's eminently readable prose. This is a fast read about a subject that you probably haven't though much about, but you will walk away from this book not only better informed about the fruit but also taken with the infinite possibility of the wonder that can be found in what seem to be every-day things.