Most Popular Books by Thomas McGuane

Collected interviews with the author of Ninety-two in the Shade, The Sporting Club, and other novels

Panama is the harrowing and hilarious story of a washed-up rock star with kamikaze passion in Key West—and is widely considered to be the most autobiographical novel of one of our most important Americal writers, the author of Ninety-two in the Shade and Cloudbursts Chester Pomeroy is a one-time rock star turned casualty of illicit substances. In the hands of Thomas McGuane, Chester''s story is a high-wire act of extravagant emotion and steel-nerved prose. As he haunts Key West, pestering family, threatening a potential in-law with a .38, and attempting to crucify himself on his ex''s door out of sheer lovesickness, Chester emerges as the pure archetype of the McGuane hero.

A ruefully funny novel of embattled manhood, set in Big Sky Country—by the highly acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade and Cloudbursts, with writing “so dazzlingly acute and seemingly effortless that it infuses Nothing but Blue Skies with exuberance and wit."—Chicago Tribune This high-spirited and fiercely lyrical novel chronicles the fall and rise of Frank Copenhaver, a man so unhinged by his wife''s departure that he finds himself ruining his business, falling in love with the wrong women, and wandering the lawns of his neighborhood, desperate for the merest glimpse of normalcy. The result is a Montana where cowboys slug it out with speculators, a cattleman''s best friend may be his insurance broker, and love and fishing are the only consolations that last. "Vibrant with the pleasures of ironic language, play and chase, and quick with broken-hearted humor."—Los Angeles Times Book Review

A funny, rueful, and beautifully rendered portrait of American manhood on the rocks from the highly acclaimed author of Cloudbursts and Ninety-two in the Shade In life Lucien Taylor has made several mistakes, but the two most grievous are as follows: leaving his wife and son to take up with his old flame, Emily; and putting up Emily''s bail when she is arrested for murder. The upshot is that Lucien is left stranded in Montana, with a malodorous hot spring and a squandered sense of purpose. As told by Thomas McGuane, Lucien''s attempt to recoup his losses makes for a book that says volumes about the lives of dogs and falcons, the yearnings of sons for fathers, and the skeptical truce that men and women sometimes reach when they get tired of fighting.

In a compilation of thirty-three essays, the author reflects on the world of angling as he shares his observations on his quarry, great fishing spots around the world, and fishing equipment.

Tiring of the company of junkies and burn-outs, Thomas Skelton goes home to Key West to take up a more wholesome life. But things fester in America''s utter South. And Skelton''s plans to become a skiff guide in the shining blue subtropical waters place him on a collision course with Nichol Dance, who has risen to the crest of the profession by dint of infallible instincts and a reputation for homicide. Out of their deadly rivalry, Thomas McGuane has constructed a novel with the impetus of a thriller and the heartbroken humor that is his distinct contribution to American prose. "Full of surprises and rewards and an exhilaration one feels only rarely." Newsweek on Ninety-Two in the Shade.

From the acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade and Cloudbursts—the stories of Gallatin Canyon are rich in the wit, compassion, and matchless language for which Thomas McGuane is celebrated. Set mostly in famed Big Sky Country, McGuane brings us an "astonishing" (The New York Times Book Review) collection in which place exerts the power of destiny. A boy makes a surprising discovery skating at night on Lake Michigan; an Irish clan in Massachusetts gather around their dying matriarch; a battered survivor of the glory days of Key West washes up on other shores. Several of the stories unfold in Big Sky country: a father tries to buy his adult son’s way out of virginity; a convict turns cowhand on a ranch; a couple makes a fateful drive through a perilous gorge. McGuane''s people are seekers, beguiled by the land''s beauty and myth, compelled by the fantasy of what a locale can offer, forced to reconcile dream and truth.

From the award-winning “master of the short story” (The New York Times Book Review)—nine shattering, hilarious tales of men on the outskirts of America, habituating the motels, hot dog stands, and dive bars time forgot, grappling with a world that is swiftly changing, and dreaming of a return to the wooded shores of their youth In these nine peerless stories, a family boating trip veers into emotional disaster while very narrowly avoiding the physical; a would-be cheater hands over his car—his prized possession—for a shot with a pretty girl; a furniture magnate and his filmmaker daughter visit his impoverished hometown; a doctor’s long-ago affair returns with a bitter pill. Crackling with wry humor, shot through with both wisdom and pain, these are stories of grifters and dreamers, of the lovelorn and the lawless, stories of the ongoing dissonance between the lives we want and the lives this world will allow.

A novel about a former soldier in Big Sky Country whose life is spiraling out of control, from the acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade and Cloudbursts, who is "among the most arresting and fascinating [writers] of his generation" (San Francisco Chronicle). In McGuane''s first novel set in his famed American West, Patrick Fitzpatrick is a former soldier, a fourth-generation cowboy, and a whiskey addict. His grandfather wants to run away to act in movies, his sister wants to burn the house down, and his new stallion is bent on killing him: all of them urgently require attention. But increasingly Patrick himself is spiraling out of control, into that region of romantic misadventure and vanishing possibilities that is Thomas McGuane''s Montana. Nowhere has McGuane mapped that territory more precisely—or with such tenderhearted lunacy—than in Nobody''s Angel, a novel that places him in a genre of his own.

A collection of thirteen stories of great range, verve, and humor from the highly acclaimed author of Cloudbursts and Ninety-two in the Shade Thomas McGuane''s first short story collection is "a cornucopia of McGuane''s grace, humor, gusto, and smarts" (Philadelphia Inquirer), and McGuane is a writer who “makes the page, the paragraph, the sentence itself a record of continuous imaginative activity.... [He is] an important as well as a brilliant novelist" (The New York Times Book Review). Includes the stories: • The Millionaire • A Man in Louisiana • Like a Leaf • Dogs • A Skirmish • Two Hours to Kill • The Rescue • Sportsmen • Little Extras • Partners • The Road Atlas • Flight • To Skin a Cat

"Set in Thomas McGuane''s accustomed Big Sky country, with its mesmeric powers, these stories attest to the generous compass of his fellow feeling, as well as to his unique way with words and the comic genius that has inspired comparison with Twain and Gogol. The ties of family make for uncomfortable binds: A devoted son is horrified to discover his mother''s antics before she slipped into dementia. A father''s outdoor skills are no match for an ominous change in the weather. But complications arise equally in the absence of blood, as when lifelong friends on a fishing trip finally confront their deep dislike for each other. Or when a gifted traveling cattle breeder succumbs to the lure of a stranger''s offer of easy money."--Dust jacket.

The unforgettable story of a housepainter turned doctor in Big Sky country who finds himself on a darkly funny journey to salvation in this “irrepressibly comic and optimistic” novel (The New York Times Book Review) from the acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade and Cloudbursts Berl Pickett is living in the small town of Livingston, Montana. The son of Pentecostal rug-shampooers, Pickett has never been the social toast of the town, but when he is accused of negligent homicide in the death of his former lover, he finds himself ostracized by his colleagues and realizes just how small his little village truly is. But fortunately for Berl, the very thing that sets him apart—his inability to follow the pack—proves to be his saving grace. With this inglorious hero, McGuane has created an unforgettable voyager.

Two young men, members of a hunting and fishing club, are pitted against each other in destructive competition.

The unforgettable story of a hero who goes from Michigan to Montana on a demented mission of courtship—from the acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade and Cloudbursts, a “writer of the first magnitude.... The preternatural force, grace, and self-control of his prose recall Faulkner" (The New York Times Book Review). As a citizen, Nicholas Payne is not in the least solid. As a boyfriend, he is nothing short of disastrous, and his latest flame, the patrician Ann Fitzgerald, has done a wise thing by dropping him. But Ann isn''t counting on Nicholas''s wild persistence, or on the slapstick lyricism of Thomas McGuane—highlights include a ride on a homicidal bronco and an apprenticeship to the inventor of the world''s first highrise for bats. The result is a tour de force of American Dubious.

This brilliant story of one man’s struggle to change his life, from the acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade and Cloudbursts, is “full of wry wit and graceful depictions of family relations, first love and the stark beauty of the Montana prairie” (Wall Street Journal). Joe Starling, a man teetering on the edge of spectacular failures—as an artist, rancher, lover, and human being—is also a man of noble ambitions. His struggle to right himself is mesmerizing, hilarious, and profoundly moving. "No American novelist provides greater pleasure—sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, page by page—than this Montana icon." —Chicago Sun-Times

ONE OF THE WALL STREET JOURNAL''S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR For more than four decades, Thomas McGuane has been heralded as an unrivaled master of the short story. Now the arc of that achievement appears in one definitive volume--forty-five stories, including two new and six previously uncollected pieces. Set in the seedy corners of Key West, the remote shore towns of the Bahamas, and McGuane''s hallmark Big Sky country with its vast and unforgiving landscape, these are stories of people on the fringes of society, whose twisted pasts meddle with their chances for companionship. Moving from the hilarious to the tragic and back again, McGuane writes about familial dysfunction, emotional failure, and American loneliness, celebrating the human ability to persist through life''s absurdities.

Set on the majestic stage of Montana cattle country, an unforgettable drama from the acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade and Cloudbursts involving blood, money, sex, vengeance, and a cross-dressing rancher "[McGuane''s] sentences are like no one else’s, crisp and spare, yet somehow baroque [and] perpetually balance the picaresque against the sublime." —The New Yorker Sunny Jim Whitelaw, a descendent of pioneers and owner of a large bottling plant, may have died, but he has no intention of relinquishing control: his will specifies that no one gets a cent unless his daughter Evelyn reconciles with her estranged husband, Paul. But Evelyn is a strong-willed woman, fiercely attached to the land, whose horses transport her to a West she feels is disappearing, while Paul is a suave manipulator, without scruples, intent on living well. The Cadence of Grass is renewed evidence that McGuane is one of the finest writers we have, capable of simultaneously burnishing and demolishing the mythology of the West while doing rope tricks with the English language.

A man sails into the Gulf from Key West in the magisterial, penultimate story from Gallatin Canyon by the acclaimed award-winning author who has been called the “Flannery O’Connor of the New West.” • A Vintage Shorts “Short Story Month” Selection “Errol Healy was going sailing to evade custody in one of the several institutions recommended for his care.” Haunted by memories of his best friend’s death and the witch, Miss Florence Ewing, Errol sets forth from Key West alone aboard the Czarina. Alcohol-drenched and steeped in excruciating loneliness, Errol faces the harshest conditions of climate in the Gulf. An Ebook Short