The Patch

The Patch is the seventh collection of essays by the nonfiction master, all published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. It is divided into two parts. Part 1, ΓÇ£The Sporting Scene,ΓÇ¥ consists of pieces on fishing, football, golf, and lacrosseΓÇöfrom fly casting for chain pickerel in fall in New Hampshire to walking the linksland of St. Andrews at an Open Championship. Part 2, called ΓÇ£An Album Quilt,ΓÇ¥ is a montage of fragments of varying length from pieces done across the years that have never appeared in book formΓÇöoccasional pieces, memorial pieces, reflections, reminiscences, and short items in various magazines including The New Yorker. They range from a visit to the Hershey chocolate factory to encounters with Oscar Hammerstein, Joan Baez, and Mount Denali. Emphatically, the authorΓÇÖs purpose was not merely to preserve things but to choose passages that might entertain contemporary readers. Starting with 250,000 words, he gradually threw out 75 percent of them, and randomly assembled the remaining fragments into ΓÇ£an album quilt.ΓÇ¥ Among other things, The Patch is a covert memoir.