When instructed to construct a contour map from polystyrene tiles, I sank into clueless gloom. What, I wondered, was the point, when the arid emotional landscape of François Mauriac’s Knot of Vipers ...
My wife and I were hiking in the Yosemite backcountry recently when I looked up from the trail to a sight that stopped me in my tracks. A wooded slope a couple of miles ahead of us was on fire, ...