A review by almartin
Assembling California by John McPhee

5.0

earthquakes + gold + Plate Tectonics Is True. takes more than a minute to get to those big topics - McPhee decides to open with geologists hunting for ophiolite samples in the high sierras and end with san francisco being decimated by the 1906 earthquake. it does work - this is a good read! - but as volume #4 of the john mcphee north american geology project, it does sometimes feel like he's showing off a bit, slinging the geology terminology around with extra abandon and taking you on shaggy dog journeys with professors of geology because YOU'LL EAT THESE VEGETABLES, YOUNG MAN! on the other hand, john mcphee literally wrote the book on narrative nonfiction structure, so what do I know/where do I get off lobbing stones?

(possibly worth mentioning that kathryn schulz got the same assignment for the new yorker 25 years later and wrote an all time banger? minus one star for being the second-best new yorker longform treatment of faults and plate tectonics in the western US? I don't know)