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66
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
38/100Critics
94/100Scholars
Author:
John McPhee
Publisher:
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Date:
July 11, 2023
A collection of essays and essay fragments John McPhee wrote over the course of his career, stressing the work he never completed, and why.
What The Reviewers Say
A charming, breezy collection of reminiscences about projects that didn’t make it, ideas that never got fully baked, research never written up, either because the subject died or because McPhee, who was born in 1931, lost interest along the way.
There are plenty of snippets here that will make readers wish McPhee had indeed delved deeper into particular topics.
What Tabula Rasa really is about is John McPhee, now 92, and, along with his last couple of books, it is as close to an autobiography as we will get.
There are simply too many compelling and witty pieces in Volume 1 for a reviewer to recount. McPhee chooses his words with the care Proust did, only McPhee is always far more informative and funnier than Proust.
