Word: mcpheeã
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Although it is pleasant to see a talented writer branch into new territory, exposition remains McPhee??s strength and thus his longer, more journalistic pieces are most rewarding. McPhee??s style is unique, but in a way that does not encroach upon the material. The worst narrative journalists are those that cannot overcome their fondness for their topics; the slightly better ones have trouble overcoming their fondness for their own voice. McPhee is able to avoid both of these pitfalls...
Compare the essays of “Silk Parachute” to those of McPhee??s “New Yorker” colleague, Malcolm Gladwell: although the writers share an interest in people, their processes are polar opposites. McPhee starts with a detailed discussion of a topic, be it “eccentric food” or Europe’s chalk country, and allows his topic to elucidate a truism about society with such finesse that it seems accidental. Rather than spend pages reveling in the significance of what he has found—like Gladwell?...
Because of this, McPhee??s journalism can be challenging. His writing has a crisp physicality and attention to detail: he is fond of lists, and he does not cut corners. It is easy to see how a younger writer, more enamored of punch and cleverness, might sigh at a passage like the following from “Under the Cloth;” “They cross the George Washington Bridge to New Jersey and go north on the Palisades Parkway to Rockefeller Lookout in Englewood Cliffs.” The cacophony of place names does nothing...
...McPhee??s obsession with setting hints at the true significance of “Silk Parachute”: collected, these essays reveal not only a stunning attention to detail, but also the degree to which McPhee is steeped in the world in which he was raised—the intellectual scene of the American Northeast. When he writes that “Los Angeles might as well be Tokyo” in the East Coast-centered world of lacrosse, he could easily be talking about himself; his entire oeuvre could well be seen as an unsuccessful attempt...
...fact-checker and subject. It’s enough to deter many who, after the quiet delights of the preceding essays, might understandably wish to quit their day jobs and write for “The New Yorker.” But while it certainly obliterates any illusions that McPhee??s job is an easy one, it is also an affirmation of why his essays are worthwhile, both for the writer and the reader. Each piece demonstrates exceptional command of style and tells a penetrating story, and while the topics are occasionally obscure, they never feel unimportant...