ASSEMBLING CALIFORNIA

The last of John McPhee’s four-volume Annals of the Former World provides a layman’s look at plate tectonics. McPhee follows California geologist Eldridge Moores over the maze of faults which makes California America’s most recent geologic puzzle. The book is exciting, if rambling, and demands some familiarity with geography and recent geologic terminology. Runger’s presentation is slow enough to enable the listener to process most of the technical intricacies while at the same time lively enough to make the narrative passages interesting. Some materials, though, with their maps and diagrams, are better left in written format. This might be one. P.E.F. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPT 94]