Gallatin Canyon - (Vintage Contemporaries) by Thomas McGuane (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

From the acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade and Cloudbursts--the stories of Gallatin Canyon are rich in the wit, compassion, and matchless language for which Thomas McGuane is celebrated. Set mostly in famed Big Sky Country, McGuane brings us an "astonishing" (The New York Times Book Review) collection in which place exerts the power of destiny.

A boy makes a surprising discovery skating at night on Lake Michigan; an Irish clan in Massachusetts gather around their dying matriarch; a battered survivor of the glory days of Key West washes up on other shores. Several of the stories unfold in Big Sky country: a father tries to buy his adult son's way out of virginity; a convict turns cowhand on a ranch; a couple makes a fateful drive through a perilous gorge. McGuane's people are seekers, beguiled by the land's beauty and myth, compelled by the fantasy of what a locale can offer, forced to reconcile dream and truth.

Review Quotes

"Tremendous.... [McGuane] evokes characters so vivid and universally pained that they'll keep you up at night." --The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Astonishing.... [McGuane] knows something about writing, real writing--which is to say, words as access to the soul.... McGuane has driven so hard into the heart of a received wisdom concerning American manhood ... that he has broken through to the other side." --The New York Times Book Review

"McGuane is a master.... To see the world through the eyes of his characters ... is to feel unsettled, precarious, and yet certain ... of one thing: change.... [He] turns each story into a kind of pressure cooker." --Los Angeles Times

About the Author

THOMAS McGUANE lives on a ranch in McLeod, Montana. He is the author of ten novels, including the National Book Award-nominated Ninety-two in the Shade, three works of nonfiction, and four collections of stories. His work has won numerous awards, including the Rosenthal Award of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and has been anthologized in the Best American Stories, Best American Essays, and Best American Sporting Essays.