If you are not familiar with the writings of John McPhee, it is truly and honour to introduce him to you. He is perhaps the best writer of documentative non-fiction. His successful career - writing regularly for the Times and the New Yorker; taught non-fiction writing at Princeton; and (nearly) winning a Pulitzer Prize 4 times - is well deserved.
His writing is so good that it has created a new genre of in-depth journalistic writing called ‘creative non-fiction’. This basically means that his writing is as pleasant to read as fiction can be. He has written on a large variety of topics. He goes into a theme, he submerges himself in it, he learns all that he can about it, and he then manages to write magnificently about it.
McPhee's writing takes his reader into many worlds. See the world with John McPhee as your guide, and you will surely see what is true, interesting and significant about the places you visit together. The main reason, I believe, that he writes so well: is that he tells his stories by focusing on people. He creates profiles of interesting people, and puts them together in such ways that you can see their worlds too. I recommend many of his books and essays. Find the one that is on a topic that interests you, and you will be better off for having read it. John McPhee will take you to places you can never go to otherwise.
This particular book is my personal favourite McPhee book. That is because I have been fascinated by its theme. It is centred around a very particular man who lives alone in the woods and makes traditional Birch Bark Canoes with his few handmade tools. The character is fascinating, the world around him, and the history of bark canoes are shown to us by McPhee with all the thrill of the wild nature itself.
This book awakens our sense of adventure. It is as exciting to the mind as a white-water rafting itself. History and culture, as well as personal profiles, come together to paint a picture of canoes that you can never find again. This book would make a great gift for any young adult who loves natural adventures.
