Customer Reviews

Pieces of the Frame

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The always excellent McPhee gives us a collection of short pieces on a wide variety of subjects, including the monsters and whisky and Macbeths of Scotland, playing basketball and tennis in England, racing horses, paddling canoes, and several more.

My favorite is "The Search for Marvin Gardens," an examination of the famous game Monopoly from two perspectives. As McPhee plays several games of Monopoly with an unnamed partner--they take no more than 20 minutes for these masters--he takes us on a tour of Atlantic City. Names of avenues like Vermont and Ventnor, Illinois and Indiana, Pacific and Park Place are given form by McPhee's fine prose.

Fans of "The Crofter and the Laird," McPhee's description of his months on a Scottish island, will appreciate three pieces in this collection: "Josie's Well," about the wonderful small whisky distilleries of Scotland (written in 1970, well before the recent fad for single-malt scotches); "From Birnam Wood to Dunsinane," his quest for the locations in Shakespeare's "Macbeth"; and the title piece, in which we are treated to the serious folk who are investigating the Loch Ness Monster.

An enjoyable book from start to finish, there is truly something for everyone here.

In my opinion, this is the best thing he's written. It's one of the only collections of indivdual essays he's published, but it's a great glimpse into where he got his start, and from where his quirky, ravenous outlook on the work comes. A stunner!