Book Review: John McPhee delivers a lovely ‘reminiscence montage' in ’Tabula Rasa'

What do you do when your writing career lasts seven decades but you haven’t said everything you once thought about saying? If you’re John McPhee, you crack open your notebooks and give fans a taste of the stories you never wrote. That’s the premise behind “Tabula Rasa,” which the 92-year-old McPhee wryly indicates is “Volume 1.” There are plenty of snippets here that will make readers wish McPhee had indeed delved deeper into particular topics. Some of the best writing in this collection could be considered memoir, says Associated Press critic Rob Merrill.