leads to aimless behavior and antics that are both bizarre and self-destructive. Patrick gives up, but Lucien and Joe find something that gives them a degree of satisfaction.

McGuane rarely comments on his characters’ actions; bizarre behavior is simply presented as it happens. Vernor Stanton in The Sporting Club foments discord wherever he is; he is also, to a degree, self-destructive. Stealing a dignitaries’ bus from a bridge-opening ceremony may seem to be no more than a juvenile prank, but it is also a comment on the pomposity of appointed officials and the ceremonies that surround them. When Thomas Skelton’s father in Ninety-two in the Shade retreats to his bed for months, he is not a typical hypochondriac; he is actually sick of the world that allows his own father to become successful through political exploitation.

McGuane’s humor resembles that of William Faulkner in “Spotted Horses,” both in its physical nature and in the fact that it is used to ridicule. In The Sporting Club, Earl Olive’s dynamiting of the main lodge, the flagpole, and the lifeguard chair sends a group of old men dashing in one direction in pursuit of the perpetrator, only to hear another blast to their rear. Wayne Codd’s ineptness in spying on Ann Fitzgerald in The Bushwhacked Piano becomes slapstick when he falls off the roof with his pants down trying to photograph her in bed with Nicholas Payne. In Something to Be Desired, Lucien Taylor’s efforts to dispose of the body of a customer who dies at his spa are hilarious to everyone but him and his employees, who become frustrated as one glitch after another prevents them from solving the problem.

The Sporting Club

First published: 1969

Type of work: Novel

Vernor Stanton and James Quinn expose the sordid origins and ancestors of an exclusive hunting and fishing club in northern Michigan.

McGuane used the woods of northern Michigan as the setting for his first novel, The Sporting Club. The Centennial Club, founded by distant ancestors of its present members, has been the retreat for highly paid Detroit executives and their families. Hunting and fishing are the accepted manly activities, while the women and children swim and lie in the sun. Into this setting come two characters who eventually destroy the club. James Quinn, who has rescued his father’s business from the brink of bankruptcy, appears to be the ideal club member. He longs for the solitude of the woods and the established and honorable rituals of sport. He approaches fishing with care, expertise, and reverence, trying to cleanse himself of the stain of business and the attendant cutthroat competition. Returning to the club after an absence of several years is Vernor Stanton, a friend of Quinn from their adolescent days. Stanton is extremely wealthy and has cast himself apart from those who perform any of the normal tasks of upper-class American life. He wants to “make the world tense” and “foment discord.”

Stanton’s return is motivated by his desire to destroy the club and to convince the members that they are not the distinguished descendants of grand ancestors who founded the club on lofty ideals. To effect this goal, he must enlist the help of Quinn, who joined him in many a prank in the past. Quinn resists at first, mainly because he sees himself as a responsible businessman—too old, mature, and content to want to disrupt tradition. Stanton’s challenges, the force of his personality, and the decadence of the present club members, though, change Quinn from a reluctant spectator into Stanton’s accomplice. Stanton can be viewed as a knight in shining armor whose task is to rid the world of evil. Regardless of the reason the Centennial Club was founded, it increased its holdings by driving the surrounding families off their lands, often illegally, through bribes to political figures. Memberships are passed down from father to eldest son in biblical fashion, and most of the present owners act as though they are the rightful heirs of the club’s glorious past.

Stanton’s plan begins when he gets rid of Jack Olson, the club’s manager, who has kept a perfect balance between wildlife, food supply, and hunting and fishing needs within the club’s boundaries. When Olson leaves, he hires his replacement, Earl Olive, a man he met in a roadhouse bar. Olive enters with his people—bums, bikers, and floozies—who immediately clash with the club members. In retaliation for getting his nose broken in a duel with Stanton, Olive dynamites the dam, reducing the lake to swamp, and destroys the main building, the lifeguard stand, and the flagpole. Led by the militaristic Fortescu, the prominent club members decide to bring Olive to justice themselves.

A time capsule that is opened in honor of the club’s centennial produces a photograph that reveals the decadence of the club’s founders, at which point the present members reenact the sexual circus shown in the photograph. When outside authorities finally arrive to restore some semblance of order, Quinn is the only one sane enough to explain what happened. As an acknowledgment of its total destruction, the Centennial Club is put up for sale. Stanton immediately buys it, deeds Quinn’s house to him, and uses the club for his own retreat.

In many ways The Sporting Club reflects the decadence of society in the same way that William Golding’s Lord of the Flies (1954) does. Once they decide to solve the Olive problem themselves and shut out any outside help, the club members become irrational, authoritarian, and cruel. By the end, the club members and Olive’s people are indistinguishable in their squalor and misuse of authority.

Ninety-two in the Shade

First published: 1973

Type of work: Novel

Determined to be a fishing guide, Thomas Skelton pursues his dream in the face of a death threat from a violent, established guide.

McGuane’s third novel, Ninety-two in the Shade, is set in steamy Key West in the world of sportfishing. On the surface, the plot deals with a turf battle between two fishing guides, old-timer Nichol Dance and newcomer Thomas Skelton. The real focus of the novel, though, is a common McGuane theme: the unrest of the protagonist (Skelton) and his search for something that will allow him to remain sane and escape the decadence of American civilization.

Thomas Skelton has quit college as a marine biology major and wants to become a fishing guide at his home of Key West. His despair at what he sees around him, however, has led to drug use, crazy behavior, and the process of discovering a career by elimination. Sportfishing seems to be the only occupation that will keep him sane. The only problem with his decision is that Nichol Dance, one of the guides west of Key Marathon, feels threatened enough to warn Skelton not to guide in Dance’s territory. The conflict revolves around these two men: Dance feels that he must establish “credence”; Skelton feels that his only hope for sanity is to guide.

A series of events leads to a direct confrontation between Dance and Skelton. While in prison for attacking Ray the dockmaster, Dance sends his clients, the Rudleighs from Connecticut, to Skelton. During their excursion, Dance (released from prison because Ray did not die) “kidnaps” the Rudleighs from Skelton’s skiff as both a practical joke and a warning. In retaliation, Skelton burns Dance’s boat, his only possession of any value; Dance tells Skelton he will kill him if he guides west of Marathon.

Key West and guiding are the ends of the road for both men. Skelton knows that Dance is capable of carrying out his threat, but he orders his boat and continues his plan to guide because there is nothing else for him to do. Dance knows that killing Skelton will, at the least, put him in prison for life, but the alternatives (if Skelton guides) are suicide or loss of credence. Skelton’s girlfriend, father, and grandfather all ineffectually try to dissuade him from his plan.

As in all McGuane’s novels, there are problems between fathers and sons. In Ninety-two in the Shade, three generations of Skelton males are at odds with one another. Although Goldsboro Skelton finances his grandson’s boat, Thomas is disgusted by his grandfather’s lust for power and autocratic manner. Skelton’s father feels the same way about Goldsboro and the world that Thomas does, and his method of coping is basically the same. He has also looked for a career by the process of elimination, finally withdrawing to a mosquito-net-covered bed where he watches television and plays works of Jean Sibelius and Hank Williams on his violin.

Skelton’s behavior may seem aimless, nonproductive, and even harmful. The method behind his madness, however, is an effort to remain sane by not focusing on the deterioration around him. Skelton has come to Key West to find peace, but he must deal with trendy suburbanites, the Rudleighs, who force the guides to break the rules for sportfishing. He sees a former guide now working as a salad chef at Howard Johnson’s because the bank foreclosed on his boat. One of the best fishing lanes is in the flight pattern for a military landing field, and the shattering roar of low-flying aircraft dominates everything at frequent intervals. As part of its efforts to promote tourism, the Chamber of Commerce holds a pie-eating contest in which the contestants gorge themselves to the point of vomiting, the winner to receive a day’s guiding from Dance. Skelton can handle these intrusions into his world only by becoming completely involved with guiding.

Other signs of decadence are less obvious but insidious. Skelton’s grandfather has become “successful” by exploiting the gaps that exist between deals for power and profit. His father is judged a crackpot and a failure for refusing to compete in a country he believes to be decadent. Within this setting, Skelton and Dance try to stay sane by doing the only thing left for them to do: work as fishing guides and protect their space.

Something to Be Desired

First published: 1984

Type of work: Novel

Bored with life and lured by the possibility of wild sex and adventure, Lucien Taylor embarks on a voyage of self-discovery.

Something to Be Desired, McGuane’s sixth novel, stands apart from his other novels in that the protagonist, Lucien Taylor, actually reaches a level of contentment and happiness—after abandoning his wife and young son. The “something to be desired,” though, turns out to be exactly what he gave up, a life of domestic contentment with his wife, Suzanne, and his young son, James. The discovery process is filled with debauchery and aimless behavior, accompanied by a gradual increase in common sense and maturity and a huge increase in personal wealth.

Lucien’s inability to tolerate contentment can be traced to his father, who ran off to Peru with a friend, Art Clancey. A high point in Lucien’s life occurred when his father “kidnapped” him from school to camp in the mountains above Deadrock, Montana. Although the trip was a failure in one sense (they spent two days without food or shelter wandering in search of their campsite), Lucien was thrilled to be doing something with his father. When he discovered that his wife had loved Art Clancey (now dead), the elder Taylor had walked out of the house for good, leaving Lucien and his mother dependent on alimony, child support, and handouts from relatives.

During a successful career with the United States Intelligence Agency in Latin America, Lucien returns to Montana without his wife and son to find a more romantic life. He is abandoning what is generally understood as the good life: a beautiful woman who loves him, a son who desperately needs a father, and a good career that gives him the leisure to explore the culture of Latin America. Lucien is drawn to Montana by Emily, the lusty “dark” woman who would not marry him, when he hears that she has murdered her husband. He feels that she can supply his life with the passion, kinky sex, and romance that are missing. After Lucien posts her bail, Emily deeds him the ranch as collateral, which he then owns when she skips the country before her trial. With Emily gone, Lucien engages in aimless behavior and frequent but unsatisfying sex; he becomes the local joke in Deadrock.

The landscape and the physical ranch work keep Lucien from going completely crazy. He seems to recognize the value of the land and his good fortune in living on it. The rituals of mending fences, using horses for work, hunting and fishing begin to provide a small stabilizing force for Lucien.

At his lowest point, physically sick and contemplating suicide, Lucien decides to redeem himself and “set the world on fire.” With a huge bank loan, he transforms the natural hot springs on the ranch into a health spa, complete with an airfield and exotic menus. The spa is wildly successful, attracting people whose behavior is as bizarre as Lucien’s. Being surrounded by wealthy, dissipated, aimless, and eccentric clients allows him to see his own behavior from an objective perspective and to be more content with his own normality.

Lucien uses his success as a means of convincing Suzanne and James to visit, and it is during this visit that he discovers a fathering instinct, a desire to give James what his own father never gave him. Lucien grows up, casts off his self-destructive behavior, and can even reject Emily when she returns. He does not completely win back Suzanne and James by the novel’s end, but the possibility is there for a total reconciliation if they can decide to trust him again.

Keep the Change

First published: 1989

Type of work: Novel

Joe Starling tries to recover the family ranch in Montana after becoming disgusted with his aimless life in Florida as an illustrator of operation manuals.

Keep the Change is set primarily in Montana after a brief interlude in Key West and a dizzying dash across the United States. The plot concerns Joe Starling’s attempt to reclaim his family’s ranch after being unsuccessful as a painter in Florida. Starling is a typical McGuane protagonist, caught between his past and future, a man whose good intentions are often thwarted by his bad habits.

Losing the inspiration to paint and working as an illustrator of operation manuals causes Joe to feel disgusted with his rather comfortable life in Florida, where he lives with a ravishing Cuban beauty, Astrid. To escape, he borrows Astrid’s car, a small pink convertible, for a trip to the grocery store and ends up in Montana. His destination is his family’s ranch, left to him by his father and managed by his Aunt Lureen and her brother, Joe’s Uncle Smitty. The property has been leased for years to a neighbor who wants to add it to his own spread. The ranch itself is in financial jeopardy, mainly because Smitty has been siphoning off the lease money for his own use and supposedly brokering seafood shipments from Texas. When Joe returns, he rejuvenates the ranch, rebuilding the springs and fence, buying calves, and eventually selling them at a substantial profit. This profit, however, the money necessary to keep the ranch afloat, is absorbed by Smitty’s seafood scam and his general ability to run through a lot of money in a hurry.

The father-son conflict in Keep the Change is typical of McGuane’s work. Joe loved and admired his father, a distant and ruthless businessman who essentially sold out, even though he tried to instill in Joe a love of the land and a desire to keep the ranch in the family. When Joe returns to Montana to reclaim the ranch, he has to face the fact that his father was not liked by those who did business with him, and for those people the sins of the father are passed on to the son. The only real father figure Joe has had is Otis Rosewell, the foreman who supervised Joe when he was working for the neighboring rancher as a boy.

Joe courts his childhood sweetheart, Ellen Overstreet, as another way of trying to recapture the idyllic days of his past. On his return, he finds her married to his formal rival and sworn enemy, Billy Kelton, a hardworking but land-poor man who basically slaves for Ellen’s father. Joe’s relationship with Ellen is complicated by her present separation from Billy and the announcement that the father of Clara, her child, is really Joe and not Billy. The possibility of renewing an affair with Ellen leads to antic behavior, especially when she and Billy begin solving their marital problems, and Joe learns that Billy actually is Clara’s father. Joe’s antics are mild and short-lived for a McGuane protagonist, reflecting his ability to come to grips with his life.

In spite of the loss of the ranch, Joe seems to have wrested some meaning from his spiritual malaise. The novel ends, as does Something to Be Desired, on an unresolved but slightly upbeat note. This more mellow conclusion is a reflection of McGuane’s changing style; it is less flashy and exudes a degree of warmth that is lacking in his earlier novels. He has not abandoned the dry wit, terse dialogue, and powerful descriptions of nature, but in Keep the Change they are integrated into the story and do not stand out as displays of verbal virtuosity.