McPhee embarks on a cargo ship to South America, scouting the endangered life of the American Merchant Marine. The masterful essayist (most recently The Control of Nature, 1989, and Rising From the Plains, 1986) follows Andy Chase, second mate, onto the merchant ship Stella Lykes. Andy is among the oversupply of mostly aging sailors forced to spend too much time looking for a ship. From Charleston to Valparaiso, Cartagena, and Callao, these men sail, picking up and unloading cargo by the ton—here, including mattresses, methane, a fire engine, and starving horses. McPhee's sculptured prose sets us out on the water. The momentum of more than forty thousand tons, he writes, is as absolute as the darkness. Into the time-suspended pace of ship life—the meals, the watches—he intercuts geology, history, and navigation, letting 1835 Darwin evoke Chile today. At sea, tension abounds, not simply in the chance of storms (where walls of water can sever a ship), collisions, and pirates (who board the ship at Guayaquil), but in the ulcerated mst eating away the aging hull. Once No. 1 in the world in total ships, with over 2,000, the US Merchant Marine now has fewer than 400. Weighed down by taxes, insurance, and wages, American carriers can't compete with often-subsidized foreigners. (The Russians carry 50 times as much freight.) This loss we feel, watching the command of captain Paul McHenry Washburn, 65, who navigates by dead reckoning and docks a ship the length of Rockefeller Center as if he were closing a drawer. The romance of the Andes back-lighted from the water; the reality of stowaways, 150-degree engine-room heat, and a ship dead in the water—like the Merchant Marine itself: these McPhee captures. This classic sea story, previously published in The New Yorker, also asks why America responds in slow motion to global conditions.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1990
ISBN: 0374523193
Page Count: 252
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1990
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s...
Music journalist and musician Wald (Talking 'Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap, 2014, etc.) focuses on one evening in music history to explain the evolution of contemporary music, especially folk, blues, and rock.
The date of that evening is July 25, 1965, at the Newport Folk Festival, where there was an unbelievably unexpected occurrence: singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, already a living legend in his early 20s, overriding the acoustic music that made him famous in favor of electronically based music, causing reactions ranging from adoration to intense resentment among other musicians, DJs, and record buyers. Dylan has told his own stories (those stories vary because that’s Dylan’s character), and plenty of other music journalists have explored the Dylan phenomenon. What sets Wald's book apart is his laser focus on that one date. The detailed recounting of what did and did not occur on stage and in the audience that night contains contradictory evidence sorted skillfully by the author. He offers a wealth of context; in fact, his account of Dylan's stage appearance does not arrive until 250 pages in. The author cites dozens of sources, well-known and otherwise, but the key storylines, other than Dylan, involve acoustic folk music guru Pete Seeger and the rich history of the Newport festival, a history that had created expectations smashed by Dylan. Furthermore, the appearances on the pages by other musicians—e.g., Joan Baez, the Weaver, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Dave Van Ronk, and Gordon Lightfoot—give the book enough of an expansive feel. Wald's personal knowledge seems encyclopedic, and his endnotes show how he ranged far beyond personal knowledge to produce the book.
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s personal feelings about Dylan's music or persona.Pub Date: July 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-236668-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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