Giving Good Weight
John McPhee · 1979
McPhee is the master of the long-form literary essay. Geology, nuclear physics, basketball, farmers' markets rendered with astonishing precision. His structural innovations (braided narratives, nonlinear architecture) changed magazine writing.
The case against
McPhee's even temper is both brand and limit: a floating nuclear power plant, an anonymous chef, a pinball game, each gets the same unhurried treatment and the same refusal to say why it matters. You supply the stakes or there are none. The pinball piece is a trifle; the title essay earns everything around it.
Essays · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
if this one calls to you, so will these →
