Something to Be Desired

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 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 show more 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

Lucien Taylor, of Montana, as a boy artist “drew what he thought he was seeing” and “dreamed of consequentiality, and of romantic unrest.” As an adult he still sees things in his own way. He also achieves his two goals, in his own way.

A child of divorce and parental hardship himself, Lucien of course makes a mess of his own marriage and fatherhood. He has a woman problem. Or many of them He’s the recipient of one of the best one-night-stand departing lines ever: “You sickening fuck,’ she said. ‘I feel like a sewer.’”

Along the way he reunites with his first love – now apparently a murderer of husbands – and finds respectability as a resort owner and employer.

McGuane’s writing is luminous and sensuous, but show more honestly so, with no pretense. To read this book, as with all of his, is to glide on a current of perfectly placed words. show less

No one writes about males self destructive behavior and then their attempts at redemption better than this author. The fact that he does it with a wonderful eye for detail and a healthy dose of humor is a bonus.

Lucien Taylor, a State Department diplomat working in the Caribbean, leaves his wife and returns home to Montana to bail out a former lover, who is accused of murder. Unfortunately for Lucien, she's guilty as sin. He ends up with her ranch, which he converts into a successful, lucrative resort. Lucien has everything, except the one thing he most wants: to be reunited with his wife and son.

Something to be Desired restores the humour that was missing from Panama and Nobody's Angel, but this is not the McGuane of 92 in the Shade. The over-the-top violence of his early novels is gone, and the humour is less manic.

Some readers will be put off by Lucien's character. Except in his most recent novel (The Cadence of Grass), McGuane's protagonist show more is always a child of privilege, at odds with his world, who seems to lack any sense of direction. His good intentions are overshadowed by his missteps. Lucien is self-absorbed and blames his misfortunes on his penis, which seems to have a life of its own.

For those who accept the protagonist, however, this novel is both funny and rueful. Well worth reading. show less