Books in Brief: On Mountains

On Mountains: Thinking about Terrain, by John Jerome (Harcourt, 262 pp., $8.95). In Truck, John Jerome brought his wit and smooth prose to the reconstruction of a decrepit Dodge pickup. It was both a technical and a philosophical joyride, and it worked. Now, in On Mountains, Jerome attempts to blend more facts with philosophy, this time on the subject of nature’s landscape. It is a noble effort, but not completely successful. Jerome approaches mountains— terrain—from several perspectives: as skier, amateur climber, geologist, explorer, meteorologist. His prose is nimble and clear, but it needs to be: he has thousands of facts and theories to explain. In the end, they overwhelm the metaphysics. One senses that there isn’t that much philosophy to extract from mountains anyway. They are merely there, imposing, beautiful, heavenly creations to understand and marvel at. On Mountains at least helps us do both of those.

PG

About the Author

Paul Gigot

Featured Tags

Manage following

Literature

Nature

On Mountains: Thinking about Terrain, by John Jerome (Harcourt, 262 pp., $8.95). In Truck, John Jerome brought his wit and smooth prose to the reconstruction of a decrepit Dodge pickup. It was both a technical and a philosophical joyride, and it worked. Now, in On Mountains, Jerome attempts to blend more facts with philosophy, this time on the subject of nature’s landscape. It is a noble effort, but not completely successful. Jerome approaches mountains— terrain—from several perspectives: as skier, amateur climber, geologist, explorer, meteorologist. His prose is nimble and clear, but it needs to be: he has thousands of facts and theories to explain. In the end, they overwhelm the metaphysics. One senses that there isn’t that much philosophy to extract from mountains anyway. They are merely there, imposing, beautiful, heavenly creations to understand and marvel at. On Mountains at least helps us do both of those.