海角大神

Thomas McGuane lives on a Montana ranch. He is a fly fisherman and has written a book, "The Longest Silence," about same. He is a member of the Hall of Fame of the National Cutting Horse Association in Texas. (For those readers lacking both hat and cattle: Cutting is a rodeo event wherein riders are judged on their prowess at separating one animal from a herd.) He counts among his wives (not concurrent) the actress Margot Kidder and Jimmy Buffett鈥檚 sister Laurie. In the 1970s, when McGuane partied with the likes of Buffett, Peter Fonda, and Sam Peckinpah, he was nicknamed Captain Berserko. Today, at 75, he looks like a cross between the World鈥檚 Greatest Grandpa and the Marlboro Man.

To McGuane鈥檚 admirers, all of this may be about as interesting or as germane to literary exegesis as Hemingway鈥檚 fondness for bullfights and rum. But despite McGuane鈥檚 induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, he is not quite a household name. For readers new to his work, his back-story is liable either to raise inappropriate expectations or, worse, to be just plain off-putting. Those hoping that Crow Fair, McGuane鈥檚 new short story collection, contains life-on-the-range tales in the spirit of Louis L鈥橝mour or Larry McMurtry will be disappointed. Those concerned that it does are advised that its western setting is the backdrop to funny, antic, and affecting stories of growing up, of romantic and family life, and of finding or failing to find one鈥檚 place in the world.

That is not to say that the stories in "Crow Fair" are western only in setting. A number of them treat particularly western subject matter. The protagonist of 鈥淢otherlode,鈥� one of the finest and wildest stories in this wild bunch, artificially inseminates ranchers鈥� cattle for a living, 鈥渄etecting and synchronizing estrus, handling frozen semen, [and] keeping breeding records.鈥� In 鈥淧rairie Girl,鈥� McGuane follows a resourceful prostitute鈥檚 progress from a 鈥渃ow town鈥� brothel called the Butt Hut to a new life and identity. 鈥淩iver Camp鈥� shows a guided fishing trip going horribly, hilariously wrong. Szabo, in 鈥淭he Good Samaritan,鈥� operates a 鈥減roperty鈥� 鈥� he prefers not to call it a ranch 鈥� producing 鈥渞acehorse-quality alfalfa hay for a handful of grateful buyers.鈥� The book鈥檚 title story, 鈥淐row Fair,鈥� turns on events at a Native American fair held annually near Billings, Montana.

Yet McGuane is anything but a regional writer, as he possesses a range and psychological insight that could be applied to characters anywhere, in any circumstances. 鈥淗ubcaps鈥� and 鈥�Weight Watchers鈥� are two stories that make this particularly clear. 鈥淗ubcaps鈥� is a deft and subtle rendering of the way a boy is transformed by his parents鈥� marital dissolution. A scene in which the boy, Owen, hunts for arrowheads with the father of some local children, quietly demonstrates the way life sometimes forces us to seek connection outside the family circle: 鈥淢y boys don鈥檛 care鈥� about arrowheads, the man says, 鈥渂ut maybe you鈥檇 like to come along.鈥� This is no Hallmark Channel movie, however, and the story鈥檚 ending darkly suggests the inadequacy of such connections, if not of connection itself.

鈥淲eight Watchers,鈥� despite being as funny as 鈥淗ubcaps鈥� is troubling, is similarly strong on the strange ways in which we are shaped by family relationships. The narrator must take in his father, a loud, profane, blustering Vietnam veteran 鈥� think Walter Sobchak of "The Big Lebowski" 鈥� who has been kicked out of his home until he can get his weight under control. In the course of some rather strained father-son interactions, it comes to light that Dad is also an inveterate philanderer; the narrator鈥檚 parents, he informs us, have 鈥渂een claiming to be contemplating divorce for half of my lifetime.... I have found myself stuck in the odd trope of opposing the idea just to please them.鈥� Here the father justifies a lap dance:

鈥淚鈥檓 aware that the world has changed in my lifetime and I鈥檓 interested in those changes. I went to this occasion as聽 ... as ... almost as an investigator.鈥�

鈥淵ou might want to withhold the results of your research from Mom.鈥�

鈥淗ow dare you raise your voice to me!鈥�

鈥淛ump you and jump you again. Checkers isn鈥檛 fun if you don鈥檛 pay attention.鈥�

Humor aside,聽 鈥淲eight Watchers鈥� is not especially sanguine about the effects of being raised by such a man, and it shows us a narrator in depressing denial about those effects. He knows he鈥檒l 鈥渘ever marry鈥� and that he is 鈥渦nable to imagine letting anyone new stay in [his] house for more than a night 鈥� and preferably not a whole night.鈥� The story鈥檚 final line is an understated indictment of bad parenting that would do Philip 鈥淭his Be the Verse鈥� Larkin proud.

Difficult relationships are at the heart of "Crow Fair," but a few of the stories are about utterly, spectacularly failed ones. The aforementioned 鈥淩iver Camp,鈥� which is along with 鈥淢otherlode鈥� the book鈥檚 most straightforwardly entertaining and high-tension tale, pits two brothers-in-law with a barely suppressed enmity against an unhinged river guide and the perils of nature. One of the men 鈥渨as thinking of how life and nature were just alike鈥� at just the moment when life and nature are conspiring to swallow him whole. Nature 鈥� that is, weather 鈥� is also a bonus antagonist in 鈥淐anyon Ferry,鈥� wherein a father鈥檚 reckless attempt to show off for his son deep-sixes their precarious relationship. 鈥淭he Casserole鈥� is a very short but memorable story about a cringe-making kiss-off.

McGuane has a marked fondness for misfits, going back to the hero of his sidesplitting, picaresque second novel, "The Bushwhacked Piano," in 1971. His knack for making them both plausible and sympathetic is rivaled only by, say, Charles Portis and Sam Lipsyte. 鈥淢otherlode,鈥� an antic and brilliant piece of crime writing, features a villain of the 鈥渂orn loser鈥� variety and a hero who is, unfortunately, not much luckier. The furious, alienated, socially maladroit astronomer of 鈥淪tars鈥� is as potent a Madwoman in the Attic figure as anyone has written. And the baroquely self-pitying alcoholic narrator of 鈥淕randma and Me鈥� is a diabolical joy to read.

One of McGuane鈥檚 great gifts is the ability to elicit laughter in dark moments or to jolt the reader of an ostensibly comic tale with a knife twist of pathos or tragedy. 鈥淥n a Dirt Road鈥� seems to be about the misery of meeting terrible new neighbors but is really, like many of these stories, about infidelity. 鈥淪haman鈥� reads at first like a riff on New Age nonsense 鈥� 鈥淚t had taken seven years for the two Rudys to track each other down and become the united Rudy now standing before Juanita and touching a button of her blouse for emphasis鈥� 鈥� before taking an unexpectedly troubling turn.

Then again, the reader of "Crow Fair" learns before long that the only thing he can expect is to be surprised 鈥� by McGuane鈥檚 deadpan wit, his hyperactive imagination, and his deep appreciation for the human comedy. His characters, always locking horns with life, recall the grotesques of another superficially 鈥渞egional鈥� author, Flannery O鈥機onnor. As with her fiction, McGuane鈥檚 serves not merely to make us gape or laugh at man鈥檚 essential weirdness but also to recognize a bit of it in ourselves. The wildest frontiers are always, it turns out, disturbingly close at hand.