A learned and lyrical journey down the ceaseless stream of history, through its foaming rapids and across its placid pools....
An engrossing account of a journey down a Mesoamerican river system that figures prominently in the mythology and history of the region.
Shaw (whose prior occupations include river guide and editor of Adirondack Life) perceives the transcendental significance of rivers and travel upon them. “To the Olmec,” he writes, “both canoe travel and spirit travel led to communication with one’s ancestors and the transformation of the flesh into spirit and back again.” In a work that is part travelogue, part metaphysics, Shaw moves gracefully from descriptions of landscape and riverscape to ruminations on the ancient civilizations through whose ruins he glides. “[A]ll of Mesoamerica is a historical echo chamber,” he says, with reverberations “too loud to miss.” Shaw had traveled to this border area between Guatemala and Mexico before, and in 1996 he executed the rough passage whose details occupy much of his lovely text. He recognized that he would not be the first to descend the Usumacinta and its tributaries, but he wanted to find “the heart of the country.” Intercut with narratives of his sometimes harrowing experiences on the river (and in it: several times he capsized, once with nearly fatal result) are accounts both of the onshore history and of the current political situation that ranges from chaotic to criminal to lethal. All along the route he encounters armed persons—some in official capacities, some not (a few soldiers at one “dinky army base” are tossing a Frisbee). He sees evidence of poaching and other natural destruction and hears tales of ruthless bandits down-river; when the stories become too compelling to ignore, he abandons his trip. There are times of wonder, too, as he realizes that “we live atop others’ ruins, programmed for extinction.” Among the most thrilling moments are those in the rapids as he and his companions test their considerable skills.
A learned and lyrical journey down the ceaseless stream of history, through its foaming rapids and across its placid pools. (endpaper map, line drawings, photos)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-393-04837-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extraordinary true tale of torment, retribution, and loyalty that's irresistibly readable in spite of its intrusively melodramatic prose. Starting out with calculated, movie-ready anecdotes about his boyhood gang, Carcaterra's memoir takes a hairpin turn into horror and then changes tack once more to relate grippingly what must be one of the most outrageous confidence schemes ever perpetrated. Growing up in New York's Hell's Kitchen in the 1960s, former New York Daily News reporter Carcaterra (A Safe Place, 1993) had three close friends with whom he played stickball, bedeviled nuns, and ran errands for the neighborhood Mob boss. All this is recalled through a dripping mist of nostalgia; the streetcorner banter is as stilted and coy as a late Bowery Boys film. But a third of the way in, the story suddenly takes off: In 1967 the four friends seriously injured a man when they more or less unintentionally rolled a hot-dog cart down the steps of a subway entrance. The boys, aged 11 to 14, were packed off to an upstate New York reformatory so brutal it makes Sing Sing sound like Sunnybrook Farm. The guards continually raped and beat them, at one point tossing all of them into solitary confinement, where rats gnawed at their wounds and the menu consisted of oatmeal soaked in urine. Two of Carcaterra's friends were dehumanized by their year upstate, eventually becoming prominent gangsters. In 1980, they happened upon the former guard who had been their principal torturer and shot him dead. The book's stunning denouement concerns the successful plot devised by the author and his third friend, now a Manhattan assistant DA, to free the two killers and to exact revenge against the remaining ex-guards who had scarred their lives so irrevocably. Carcaterra has run a moral and emotional gauntlet, and the resulting book, despite its flaws, is disturbing and hard to forget. (Film rights to Propaganda; author tour)
Pub Date: July 10, 1995
ISBN: 0-345-39606-5
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A superb book about doing his job by a master of his craft.
The renowned writer offers advice on information-gathering and nonfiction composition.
The book consists of eight instructive and charming essays about creating narratives, all of them originally composed for the New Yorker, where McPhee (Silk Parachute, 2010, etc.) has been a contributor since the mid-1960s. Reading them consecutively in one volume constitutes a master class in writing, as the author clearly demonstrates why he has taught so successfully part-time for decades at Princeton University. In one of the essays, McPhee focuses on the personalities and skills of editors and publishers for whom he has worked, and his descriptions of those men and women are insightful and delightful. The main personality throughout the collection, though, is McPhee himself. He is frequently self-deprecating, occasionally openly proud of his accomplishments, and never boring. In his magazine articles and the books resulting from them, McPhee rarely injects himself except superficially. Within these essays, he offers a departure by revealing quite a bit about his journalism, his teaching life, and daughters, two of whom write professionally. Throughout the collection, there emerge passages of sly, subtle humor, a quality often absent in McPhee’s lengthy magazine pieces. Since some subjects are so weighty—especially those dealing with geology—the writing can seem dry. There is no dry prose here, however. Almost every sentence sparkles, with wordplay evident throughout. Another bonus is the detailed explanation of how McPhee decided to tackle certain topics and then how he chose to structure the resulting pieces. Readers already familiar with the author’s masterpieces—e.g., Levels of the Game, Encounters with the Archdruid, Looking for a Ship, Uncommon Carriers, Oranges, and Coming into the Country—will feel especially fulfilled by McPhee’s discussions of the specifics from his many books.
A superb book about doing his job by a master of his craft.Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-374-14274-2
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 8, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
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