McMaster, Arthur

McMaster blurs the boundaries between the covert and the obvious, the concrete and the imagined, the historically true and the personally remembered in Need to Know. I am especially charmed and convinced by the portion of this memoir devoted to poetry, which McMaster has pursued most insistently late in life. In doing so, he proves that we are never too old to partake in the mystery, beauty, and permanence of poetry in our impermanent lives, whether in Sidney Wade's creative writing classroom at the University of Florida or a covert Special Ops situation room.