Uncommon Carriers by John McPheeMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book is too short for it to have taken me over a month to read it. Why so long? Well, despite enjoying McPhee's writing overall, I found the book slightly boring. I was interested in most of the topics and late in the book I realized the problem here was he’s provided way too much information, too many details. So, maybe I wasn't quite that interested, maybe.
The first chapter, A Fleet of One, I enjoyed the most. It’s about a trucker, an owner-operator who specializes in hazardous liquid materials. He's been on the road for decades. The last chapter returned to the same trucker, although I wouldn't say it added much of anything new; and happily, was quite short compared to the other chapters. McPhee rode with him again, three years later and perhaps just had to add that into the book.
The next chapter, or essay, as it were, is called The Ships of Port Revel and is a training course for ship captains and ship pilots. They come from all over the world to train there for a week. It was somewhat interesting, and the shortest of all the essays.
The third essay, Tight-Assed River, started out okay, but went on way too long. It’s double the length of the essay before it and had many details that literally put me to sleep. Here the book really lagged for me, too much information. Oh, it’s about a barge carrying freight along the Illinois River.
The middle essay called, Five Days on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, was somewhat different than the others. Thus far, the collection is about work, mainly shipping in different formats (carriers). This one instead has the author and his son-in-law retracing the journey that Henry David Thoreau and his brother took many years before, which was recounted in HDT’s first book with a very similar name. While I mainly enjoyed this essay, the comparison from then and now (being 2003), it doesn’t fit with the theme the other essays.
The next essay didn’t fit well either, called Out in the Sort. It’s about a company that ships fresh lobster all around the world, the largest lobster company. Then it morphs into what UPS, United Parcel Service, can do for you. One could say a meandering essay, and perhaps covers shipping via airplane.
Then we have Coal Train, which is about what it says, about shipping coal via train. This essay is the longest and by far could have been cut in half. It went on for too many pages, with too many details, that maybe a train buff, train spotter, what-have you would enjoy, or not.
Then the last I’ve already mentioned. This book has not put me off of McPhee’s writing, but it may be a while before I jump into another collection of his essays.
Crofter and the Laird (5 stars) - May.2019
Irons in the Fire (4 stars) - May.2021
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