Product Description

Pieces of the Frame is a gathering of memorable writings by one of the greatest journalists and storytellers of our time. They take the reader from the backwoods roads of Georgia, to the high altitude of Ruidoso Downs in New Mexico; from the social decay of Atlantic City, to Scotland, where a pilgrimage for art’s sake leads to a surprising encounter with history on a hilltop with a view of a fifth of the entire country. McPhee’s writing is more than informative; these are stories, artful and full of character, that make compelling reading. They play with and against one another, so that Pieces of the Frame is distinguished as much by its unity as by its variety. Subjects familiar to McPhee’s readers—sports, Scotland, conservation—are treated here with intimacy and a sense of the writer at work.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #269208 in Books
• Published on: 1979-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review
“One always has the sense with McPhee of a man at a pitch of pleasure in his work, a natural at it, finding out on behalf of the rest of us how some portion of the world works.”—Edward Hoagland, The New York Times
-- Review

Review

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

Pieces of the Frame, John McPhee
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.

If You Love McPhee
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!