About the Book: Silk Parachute
A WONDROUS NEW BOOK OF MCPHEES PROSE PIECES--IN MANY ASPECTS HIS MOST PERSONAL
IN FOUR DECADES The brief, brilliant essay "Silk Parachute," which first
appeared in The New Yorker a decade ago, has become John McPhees most
anthologized piece of writing. In the nine other pieces here--highly varied in
length and theme--McPhee ranges with his characteristic humor and intensity
through lacrosse, long-exposure view-camera photography, the weird foods he has
sometimes been served in the course of his reportorial travels, a U.S. Open golf
championship, and a season in Europe "on the chalk" from the downs and sea
cliffs of England to the Maas