True Nature: The Lives of Peter Matthiessen

(lrb.co.uk)

10 points | by Thevet 5 days ago ago

4 comments

  • ggm 4 minutes ago

    "Feather-footed through the plashy fen passes the questing vole"," is Evelyn Waugh's take on the gentleman naturalist in "Scoop" (1938) a role which Peter Matthiessen seems to have taken to heart.

    It's a job. Somebody has to note the first cookoo of spring.

  • irishcoffee an hour ago

    Eventually this... whatever it is, almost gets somewhere.

    TL;DR: the CIA recruited people in the 1950s.

    • pkkim 38 minutes ago

      London Review of Books articles aren't allowed to discuss the book being reviewed for the first five paragraphs. It's an obscure British law or something.

      • irishcoffee 15 minutes ago

        Apparently it isn’t a rule as much as an implied norm. I didn’t know this, thank you for educating me. Explains a lot about the article.

        I’ve always been fascinated with how governments operate their clandestine operations. This particular article felt more like an expositional adventure than informative.