The Pine Barrens by John McPhee Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $5.68 You Save: $8.32 (59%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $3.23 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of The Pine Barrens
Book Review: A Great Read
Summary: 5 Stars
Like others, I grew up spending summers at Long Beach Island, driving through the Pine Barrens on our way to and from the Jersey shore. It wasn't until I was a teenager that I was tempted by the Barrens, camping and exploring the backroads of this magical place. There is so much history and John McPhee does a wonderful job bringing this place to life. Now I live out west, but this book can bring back lots of great memories of such an unusual habitat. Definately worth the read.Book Review: A Non-Fiction Landmark
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a non-fiction classic that, forty years on, still is a brisk and entertaining read. McPhee sketches the geography, history, and people of the Pine Barrens, a surprisingly undeveloped section of the country's most densely-populated state.
McPhee starts with "The Woods from Hog Willow," a description of a visit to the house of a longtime resident that sets the tone of the rest of the book. The author's part of this chapter, as we see the pines and two typical residents through his eyes. From there, he shifts into a more or less straightforward third-person narrative of the region and its history.
There's something almost poetic about the solitude of the Pine Barrens that McPhee artfully conveys. He really captures the eerie timelessness of the deep woods when he describes several areas that used to have bustling towns and mills that are now indistinguishable from the surrounding forest-there is no trace at all that humans once lived there. It will certainly make you think about how ephemeral our enterprises can be.
I'd really suggest this book for any student of good non-fiction writing because McPhee infuses the Pine Barrens with drama and charm, in the process teaching the reader a great deal about an obscure section of America. It's been forty years since he wrote The Pine Barrens, so this is probably not a completely accurate guide to today's pinelands, but it's nonetheless a landmark book.
Book Review: A gem
Summary: 5 Stars
On February 22, 1963, a high-school classmate and I foolishly set out to walk 50 miles across the center of New Jersey. As we crossed into the forlorn pine barrens, we were haunted by a constant, eery moaning. What sounded like so many lost souls turned out to be the effect of wind blowing over the tops of holes in the frozen cranberry bogs. By the time we reached midway our feet were a mass of blisters. We stopped at a clearing where there was a little store: Chatsworth. The owner bandaged our feet in his powder room, and we regaled the villagers who had gathered to hear of our adventure. Years later, I read McPhee's book and was delighted to see our Chatsworth friends described--along with much else. The mysterious allure of the pines and its unique history is all here in McPhee's finely observed book. There is no other account like it, nor will there ever be. Alas, when I cycled through Chatsworth years later, I saw the general store again, boarded up by the side of a busy highway. What it was, and who it held, are now preserved in the amber of this magical book.Book Review: A snapshot of nature, now passing
Summary: 5 Stars
While John McPhee's best known bit of nature writing is his tribute to Alaska, "Coming into the Country", before it he wrote "The Pine Barrens". The Pine Barrens were a chunk of New Jersey (!) that was mostly unspoiled sandy woodlands in 1968. Filled with colorful folks, and even more colorful tradition, the Barrens were a retreat for those who knew to escape to them from the cities that surrounded it. Now, alas, development has slunk deep into the Barrens, were there was once dirt roads and craftsmen still making bark canoes, now there are commuter suburbs with cutesy names like "Piney Haven". Please don't think that the book isn't worth your time, just because most of what it describes has passed. The genius of McPhee is that his prose is so wonderfull and timeless, that the people and places of the Pine Barrens still live in the book. Read it, and resolve to maintain the little slice of nature near you that is still there. Don't know where it might be? This book will inspire you to find it, around the corner and back behind something. When you find it, you'll know it, and you'll want to help it survive.Book Review: Amazing
Summary: 5 Stars
McPhee can get you interested in any subject. Here he takes
the reader into a huge wooded area in New Jersey, perhaps
the biggest and most unsettled region on the Eastern
Corridor, not far from NYC. The people are shy and primative
but not as backward and inbred as their reputation. He
uncovers an entire culture, bringing the reader along with
him. The writing and reporting are excellent.