When it comes to which details to include, and how and in what order to fashion them into a story, no one does it better than John McPhee. But when it comes up in Los Angeles Against the Mountains, McPhee s story has paved the way I won t ruin the story trying to explain how so that I d put off sex until I d learned why these waxy substances . . . make unburned chaparral soil somewhat resistant to water so that entire mountain-sides slide into town carrying homes and families with them. Among McPhee s talents is his knack for aptly concise description. McPhee does and give us a fuller understanding of how and why this situation developed. Only perceptive readers might later reflect that disguised within this story is material that is usually written in different form, and known as philosophy and science.
Few writers can write that way.
More should try. Which is an easy task. Although writers like John McPhee and Melissa Fay Greene are artful in their telling, they stick to the truth. Which perhaps is the only rule that must be followed in this genre. All else is fair game.