A charming, breezy collection of reminiscences about projects that didn’t make it, ideas that never got fully baked, research never written up, either because the subject died or because McPhee, who was born in 1931, lost interest along the way ... Few of the subjects discussed in Tabula Rasa call out for the longform treatment; McPhee’s instincts (and editors) steered him well. But there are still pleasures to be had in these 50 short chapters. Minor league McPhee is still major league writing. It’s not faint praise to say he is still more pleasingly consistent than any other writer working. There is never a dud metaphor, never a cliché ... He still has stories to tell. Maybe they’re just not the ones he had the good sense to let go.
There are plenty of snippets here that will make readers wish McPhee had indeed delved deeper into particular topics ... Tabula Rasa demonstrates just how broad McPhee’s "tabula" has always been.
What Tabula Rasa really is about is John McPhee, now 92, and, along with his last couple of books, it is as close to an autobiography as we will get ... Of course, you do not need to be a Princeton student to learn these life lessons. All you have to do is read his work.
