“The Crofter and the Laird” by John McPhee
I admit it. I’m prejudiced.
Against nonfiction. Take a look at my reading list and it’s pretty clear. So when a member of my book group chose John McPhee’s Crofter and the Laird, I was hesitant. I dragged my feet, and was late to reserve it from the library, and relieved when I saw it was short. But I humbly recant my bad feelings, because I thoroughly enjoyed the book, learned from it, and plan to do follow-up research as well.
McPhee has written a variety of books and essays on a variety of topics. In The Crofter and the Laird, he traces his family history to a small island in Scotland, then goes to live there.
The Scottish clan that I belong to–or would belong to if it were now anything more than a sentimental myth–was broken a great many generations ago by a party of MacDonalds, who hunted down the last chief of my clan, captured him, refused him mercy, saying that a man who had never shown mercy should not ask for it, tied him to a standing stone and shot him down. The standing stone was in a place called Balaromin Mor, on Colonsay, a small island in the open Atlantic, twenty-five miles west of the Scottish mainland.
McPhee has an engaging, conversational tone that is at once easy to read as well as instructive. Additionally, my library’s copy of the book contained beautiful pen and ink drawings by James Graves. The book is less a travel essay than an ethnography, as he delves into the history, myths, and community of Colonsay. Along the way he investigates, celebrates and debunks a great deal.
January 14th, 2009 at 12:27 am
This is the book that introduced me to John McPhee. I read it twenty-threeish years ago and have returned many times. This is what good non-fiction should be, not just information but information shared well.
In what little time I can glean while raising two children and working fulltime I find that nonfiction, my first love I admit, leaves me most satisfied.
I have always found the fiction vs nonfiction divide fascinating and have generally sided with Helene Hanff in not being able to get too excited about people who never existed. But then Helene discovered Jane Austen and P&P. After all, Elizabeth Bennet is real.
January 14th, 2009 at 8:13 am
McPhee is one of very FEW nonfiction writers I will always read. He has a great book about Bill Bradley (senator) during his basketball years at Princeton.
January 14th, 2009 at 9:42 am
I am with Girl Detective on this one - I just find it hard to get into non-fiction writing. Whenever my bookclub has selected non-fiction choices, I have always failed to finish the book… When reading for pleasure, I like to sink into the writing and the story, and I find that fiction is a better conduit for that.
January 16th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
I love both but read more and more nonfiction as I get older. I find that I am more critical of fiction as the years go by, and too often I’ll pick up a novel to find that I hear the gears turning beneath it all — I lose patience with it. I love history, essays, crime and biography/memoir. I recommend the “Best Essays of (insert year)” and “Best Crime Writing of (insert year)” series for those wishing to discover “new” authors in these genres. The same series holds true for short stories and poetry. And the library always buys them!
January 17th, 2009 at 11:38 am
I like John McPhee’s non-fiction. I have not seen or read this book, so I’m glad you reviewed it!
January 17th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
I have a friend who prefers to ONLY read nonfiction which is what I see in school libraries too. I’ve read another McPhee which was utterly fascinating..
La Place de la Concorde Suisse.
From Amazon:
Anyone who has ever traveled in Switzerland cannot help but to have remarked upon the overwhelming tranquility of the country. But this tranquility is illusory. As John McPhee writes… “there is scarcely a scene in Switzerland that is not ready to erupt in fire to repel an invasive war.” With a population smaller than New Jersey’s, Switzerland has a standing army of 650,000 ready to be mobilized in less than 48 hours. The Swiss Army, known in this country chiefly for its little red pocketknives, is so quietly efficient at the arts of war that the Israelis carefully patterned their own military on the Swiss model. You’ll understand why after reading this outstanding book.