Ninety-Two in the Shade

This book is a lot of fun--observant, dramatic, very funny at times. It is a meditation on competition, capitalism even, where an upstart with his own peculiar reasons for wanting to enter the fishing-guide trade confronts an established competitor who simply won't tolerate anyone horning in on his trade. Their is mutual admiration-and mutual homicidal thoughts. An elegant dance ensues and escalates into real menace. McGuane writes often about outdoorsy sports like fishing, and his prose on these elements of the story is quite rich.

Sphex says it's simple: this book teaches those with an open, literate mind the difference between plot and story. The plot can be summed up in one line: man is warned not to do something, does it anyway, pays the price. But the story: that is something else altogether, encompassing images of America at its best and worst, the quintessence of its individuals and their follies and visions, leading to a glimpse of some possible, much-longed-for (in McGuane's world, at any rate) meaning to this cacaphonous, chaotic place/idea. McGuane is one of Sphex's all-time faves, and if you don't "get" this book, you certainly won't "get" the proctology sequence from The Bushwhacked Piano, so don't even try. So says Sphex.

This was the first McGuane book I read, some years ago. I was enthralled by his luminous cinematic prose, striking descriptions, juxtapositions, quandaries, and general commentary on human relations in 20th century America. I could not stop reading this book. Have since read several others by McGuane and just picked up The Bushwhacked Piano. If memory serves, McGuane was one of Wallace Stegner's students in the creative writing program at Stanford years ago. Clearly, McGuane learned his lessons well.