Thomas McGuane

Irving Berlin Pickett, known as Berl, is a doctor in Montana. He grew up with parents that veered from overly religious to overly drunk, “crazier than pet coons.” A self-described oversexed “obsequious ninny” and “natural born, but not stupid, oaf,” Berl’s early sex education came through his aunt. Once he becomes a general practitioner, Berl grows and evolves into “an odd combination of competence and imbecility.”

McGuane imbues Berl with a deep sense of flawed humanity. show more Like many of us, he’s baffled by life and tries to make sense of it the best he can. There’s a calm complexity about him.

Death, and the meaning of life, occupy a good amount of Berl’s thoughts. McGuane devotes just the right amount of time to him tending to the death of good friend. Berl, and McGuane’s writing, lack all pretension. This is a fine book. show less

A short story collection of slightly off-kilter slices of life, many in Montana. A man going through a bit of a troubled spell steals and collects people's dogs in town. A man whose wife dies hooks up with a "little homewrecker." A couple deals with their teenage daughter's pregnancy. The title story is the sordid tale of Bobby Decatur, a rich young man whose ambition is to be a pimp in San Francisco. It turns out badly for Bobby and his girlfriend, who he turns into his first prostitute.

The show more people are odd, the sex is odd - prison yard sex, sex with a CPR dummy, an obsession with prostitution. The stories are simultaneously disturbing and amusing. show less

Ran across this old Tom McGuane book, SOMETHING TO BE DESIRED (1985), at a library sale this spring and brought it home for old time's sake. First read his stuff back in the early 70s and adopted two of his books for a college class I was teaching, Modern Michigan Authors - THE BUSHWHACKED PIANO and NINETY-TWO IN THE SHADE. I enjoyed both of those books, and I think most of the students did too. I read a couple more McGuane books, but couldn't keep up with his prodigious output. Those two show more were about the outrageous hijinks of young men. This one features a mostly likeable middle aged anti-hero, Lucien Taylor, who has left his wife and young son, and his job as a USAI officer in the tropics, to pursue Emily, an old high school flame back in Montana who has shot and killed her abusive husband. Lucien puts up her bail, and she absconds to the south Pacific, leaving him in possession of her failing ranch, which, fortunately, has a sulphur spring with healing properties. He parlays this into a profitable tourist destination. A wealthy guest dies. His wife and son return to the picture. And soon so does Emily. It's complicated, and also pretty funny, as McGuane's trademark dry wit is much in evidence. It's hard to explain, so I'll drop a couple samples here. For example, the morning after a night of sexual carousing -

"Lying in bed, with late morning light on him, he thought the veins in his hands were too prominent, and his scalp itched. His previously clever mouth was a cup of variegated scum; and his poor old dick was a grim souvenir of infamy and inconsideration ... He staggered across the hall into the bathroom and sat down. His bowel movement was so shocking it sent his dog scurrying for cover as a blast of discolored water arced from his ass to the crockery."

That's classic McGuane. Here's a more tender moment, as Lucien observes his sleeping son -

"It seemed to Lucien that children took up great space when they were awake and then became so small when they fell asleep. James looked completely different because he did not wear his thick glasses. The odd way in which he hovered within his own clothes was replaced by a carelessness that relieved Lucien as he looked at the boy."

And so on and so on. It felt good to read some McGuane again. He, along with Jim Harrison and Dan Gerber, formed a triumvirate of young literary lions at MSU back in the late fifties. I still see his short stories occasionally in The New Yorker. Write on, Tom. I'm forty years late, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will recommend it highly.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER show less

There's so much more going on with this novel than at first appears. The story arc is skeletal, even anecdotal, at first, but each subsequent vignette reveals a deeper understanding of the complexity of the protagonist -- a small-town Montana doctor who would be reluctant to allow such personal revelation. The reader almost has to wrestle the undercurrents from the first-person narrator. His neglectful parenting by a mother obsessed with fundamentalist Christianity and a father obsessed with show more his war experiences exposes Berl to a series of challenges and opportunities, especially as he is raised by alternate parents. The mistakes he makes in the current story could easily -- too easily -- be pinned on his parents and flaws of his upbringing, but Berl all too willingly shoulders the burden of blame for every mis-step, including certain events the reader quickly absolves him for. (This reader, anyway). The bonus for me in this novel was the frequent and lovely description of Montana. For the short visit to a bar in Checkerboard alone, it was well worth reading. I'm definitely now a McGuane fan. His fly fishing book, The Longest Silence is magical, and now I can't wait to discover more of his fiction. show less