Wayfaring: Essays Pleasant and Unpleasant
Long-form book reviews preponderate in Jacobs' new collection, sharing with the nonreviews the character of the essay established, Jacobs says, by the form's virtual inventor, Montaigne. They ramble or, as Jacobs more sensitively puts it, “acknowledge and accept the vagaries of the mind.” Not that they're diffuse; rather, they're pleasantly expansive, now ringing a relevant personal note, here citing an interesting parallel, there pursuing a rewarding tangent. Jacobs disposes them in two parts, one of articles on writing and works of fiction, poetry, and translation, the other of pieces about extraliterary nonfiction. Particular subjects in the first section include the once-thriving practice of keeping commonplace books, the once-current understanding of what invention in literature and philosophy is, Robert Alter's contemporary Bible translations, Samuel Johnson's great English dictionary, and Harry Potter (whom Jacobs loves). Half of the second section focuses on gardening, trees, and the green movement; the other, on church signboards, the nature of friendship, and trends in the Evangelical Christian community, of which Jacobs is one of the most perspicacious and engaging members. --Ray Olson