Progymnasmata

This review was also posted in the Book Review Forum.

Navels. Valencia. Blood. Indian River. If your mouth is watering right now for some of that sweet juice, then you know what I'm talkin' about. That's right. Oranges: the Pulitzer prize winning book by John McPhee. As the title suggests the book is a natural history of the cultivated orange.

It's a wonderful book. As with all of McPhee's work the prose is sharp, witty, and direct.

Being a natural history, Oranges addresses the orange's place in the English Lexicon, culture (the "Golden Apples of the Hesperides" are thought to be, in fact, oranges), agriculture, economics, and the table.

Typical of McPhee's non-fiction, the object (oranges in this case) plays the role of protagonist in a lively historical narrative littered with odd twists of fate and non-nonsensical facts.

Like this. . . .

A citrus fruit is, botanically, a berry.

And this. . .

If an orange has five seeds or less, it is called seedless.

And this quick story: citrus trees have such a slight differences in genetic make up that, in trying to grow Persian Limes from seed (instead of the traditional grafting) the US Horticultural station in Floria planted 250 Persian Lime seeds.

Up from those seeds came sweet orange trees, bitter orange trees, grapefruit trees, lemon trees, tangerines, limequats, citrons and two Persian Lime trees.

McPhee also observes that Renaissance painters created Biblical scenes prominently featuring orange trees and orange blooms owing to the belief that oranges were the "cedars of Lebanon". In fact the orange was not domesticated or brought to the Palestine until much, much later.

The book also features plenty of real, human characters both contemporary and historical: the inventor of concentrate, roadside fruit salesmen and women, Florida orange barons, and the narrator himself are all compelling people who come and go within the pages of this book.

Well, if you like these crisp observations, clear language, and a book that characterizes the mundane (an orange) as the protagonist in a grand journey. Then peel open the cover of Oranges and enjoy. The read is sweet!

9/10 navels