Customer Reviews

Gallatin Canyon: Stories

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This is the best book McGuane has written in twenty years. The storylines wind through untrod mental terrain even though the landscapes may seem familiar. The writing is elevated to a point that the reader immediately understands that a master craftsman is at work, and not just a storyteller. The closest comparison that comes to mind is Cormac McCarthy, both in style and context (stories about outdoor men hooked on the view yet stranded without love.) And yet, that is not quite fair either because the flavour is distinctly McGuane, rich in verbal wit, and many perceptive insights into the characters he created.
For a long time, I thought all of McGuane's novels could have been called "Something To Be Desired": books about characters who understand that fulfillment is responsibility that comes from desire. This gave his earlier works a kind of Bellow quality. In some respects McGuane never really moved away from this, but his work fell down at times when he tried to vary from what he did best. This new collection of stories, however, hits the nail on the head. The stories are saturated with humour and wisdom-a teenager becomes the family's "miracle boy" when he allegedly revives his grandmother from impending death, a college friend in trouble with the law shows up in Montana looking for help that doesn't quite come, a spiteful daughter ruins her father's failing chances of companionship in his later years, a sailor visits a soothsayer hoping to make sense of a tragedy years before, and so on. McGuane's writing has become more suited to a shorter focus- "Some Horses","The Longest Silence" and perhaps he should stick with it. The result here is highly palatable, a tribute almost to the locales of his earlier stuff without being a photo album. McGuane has this time paid it forward.

Whether you appreciate McGuane's nonfiction stories such as "Some Horses" or "The Longest Silence" or prefer his vivid storytelling found in his fiction classics like "Ninety Two in the Shade" or "The Bushwhacked Piano" - you'll find "Gallatin Canyon" a captivating and entertaining read. McGuane's reflections on the American West, provide insight into this often misunderstood culture and landscape and challenge the reader to explore the human relation to their environment and circumstance. The selected stories of Gallatin Canyon, provide a myriad of views on modern western culture, and are worth every penny paid. Highly recommended.

Thomas McGuane (The Cadence of Grass, The Longest Silence) is recognized as one of America's preeminent literary figures. "A writer of the first magnitude" said the New York Times Review of Books. The reason for this praise is evident in Galatin Canyon, his first collection of stories in some time.

The ten tales included in this volume all showcase McGuane's impeccable prose, his dazzling use of imagery, and his insight into the human condition.

With "Ice" a boy who delivers newspapers for what is probably the Detroit News discovers who he can be one evening as he skates alone on frozen
Lake Ontario. He has suffered from a number of fears but on this particular night we read his thoughts: "I believed that if I let coming darkness turn me back, would never be any good and the fog of cowardice would forever envelop me."

The title story introduces an unnamed businessman and his girlfriend, Louise. He is hoping to close a deal on a small car dealership he owns. She is a comely woman whom he wants to marry, while at the same time he fears losing her. In order to close the sale the pair must go to Idaho. Further, it's going to be a bit tricky as he's received a better offer for the dealership and , according to his attorney, he can only sell for the best offer if the original buyer, Rigby, backs out. Therefore, his plan is to antagonize Rigby, anger him so that he does welch on the agreement.

They're driving by way of the Gallatin Canyon, although he doesn't wish to do so, saying the route is too narrow and there are too many trucks. Their journey reveals their relationship.

Pure McGuane - pure reading pleasure.

Highly recommended.

- Gail Cooke

This is the third collection of stories by author Thomas McGuane and his most recent publication. These ten stories, written in his clear, easy style, look at human beings in trouble, usually trying to regain their humanity, but there is the occasional sarcastic one thrown in., as in the story "North Coast," where two drug dealers are apparently refreshing themselves by climbing the mountains.

Another, "Cowboy," deals with an ex-con who is accepted by an old couple as their ranch hand, and works there peaceably and lawfully until the couple dies, and he finds that the human herd has closed ranks against him. More hopeful are stories like "The Refuge," where the main character sets sail across the Caribbean to try and find a witch-woman who will absolve him of his wasted and unhappy life.

The book also contains one unforgettable (to me) narrative picture of a boy who, out to prove something to himself, skates out onto Lake Eire at night, only to find himself alone in a vast darkness and lost out of sight of land. That story is called "Ice," and the vivid word picture alone is worth the price of the book.

Human beings are not always at their best in McGuane's works, but some of them do try to redeem themselves and learn what it is to be human. McGuane is known primarily as a novelist. He began his career with "The Sporting Club," and continued it through nine novels and a couple of essay collections, along with some short stories.

Because so many of his works take place in the West, McGuane is thought of as a Westerner. He is, in part, since he lives on his ranch in MacLeod, Montana; but he got his start in Wyandotte, Michigan, where he was born, and received a blue-blooded education from Michigan State, Yale and Stanford universities.

Armchair Interview says: This collection maintains his well-deserved reputation.

Certain stories work better than others, this is true, but the best of them will leave you reeling ("Ice," "The Refugee," and "Gallatin Canyon," which upset me deeply). Having lived in Gallatin Canyon, I picked up this collection partly to visit the country I left 27 years ago. I felt a frisson of recognition as he described Four Corners and the treacherous road that passes the ranger station where my family lived. Is it all still there? Yes, apparently it is. But don't assume that this is a "regional" collection--it isn't. Stories take place in Florida, Michigan, Washington State, not just Bozeman and environs. I am impressed by this writer's ability to evoke both the internal landscape and the external landscape with equal skill. Highly recommended.

I picked up "Gallatin Canyon' many times and had difficulty keeping it picked up long enough to read completely through its ten short stories. It seemed that there was an earthy substance to what the author had to tell, yet he weighted the stories down with, what for me, were dream like, bland, soul-searching characters for which I was unable to care much about. When I finally finished the book and reflected on what I had read, I found I could summarize the entire short story panoply into; depressed people are unhappy, drunks make bad decisions, character flaws can put people off, etc. Not much new there.
I got a sense of the author's bleeding through his prose for you to see just what a competent and sensitive person he is for whatever endeavor he is telling us about. Occasionally, some parts of his stories were disjointed and lumpy. Some few times the author's attribution was puzzling and I had to reread back several pages or paragraphs to reacquaint or identify a moulding character he left lying out on the writing table too long. I also had some minor problems with the lay of McGuane's syntax. It was all proper and grammatically correct, but seemed to be imbedded with too many concatenating, stacking of conjunctions and prepositions. In "The Refugee", as an avid sailor who has sailed in many parts of the world, I was vested in wanting to have the pleasure of reading about a subject I have loved and know well. Let me assure you McGuane writes with authority about the ocean, boats, man-overboard situations, and sailing; in fact so well that the short story "The Refugee" could serve as an encyclopedia of nautical terms. I just wonder if the reader who was not conversant with nautical nomenclature would give up on the tale. That would be a mistake.
Not withstanding the above observations, McGuane is a discerning, sharp-eyed chronicler of humankind's war with itself. His style took a little getting use to for me, but in the end it was worth the effort. I'll buy more of his books.

This 2006 short story collection is one of McGuane's best, allegedly. I haven't read any of the others, but my first encounter with McGuane's stories was positive. Clear, entertaining, and enlightening, his stories show the side of Montana that city folk like myself didn't know existed. Through the eyes of a local author, we get to read about characters that are unique to that region of the country, yet painted with the brushes of universality.

-- Reviewed by Jonathan Stephens

The alienation of the modern male is McGuane's meat and potatoes: the loser as hero. This collection reflects McGuane's tremendous prowess as a chronicler of the ludicrous pathos of modern existence. His writing focus is about a lean "power-to-weight ratio", as he has described in one of his interviews. Yet, that ratio seemed absent in several of the stories: "Miracle Boy" and "The Refugee" are just too long; the narrative tension starts going slack. Also,"The Zombie", "Ice", and "Old Friends" just don't have that much spark going, although McGuane's lightning wit and narrative pyrotechnics are still engaging and keep the reading alive.

The three stories that really cook are the title story, "Vicious Circle" (vintage McGuane), and "Cowboy". All three are full of great scenes and clueless characters. The well done story "Cowboy" is crafted in first person narrative, usually a hard one to pull off; McGuane shows he's a master of that writing stance. "Gallatin Canyon" is cut for the New Yorker crowd, and it's a sophisticated little plot that elicited several chuckles.

Having read everything McGuane has written the last 38 years, I have to say that the imbalance of this collection left me feeling somewhat ambivalent. He is a top flight writer, a "writer's writer". He can work a story like few others these days. Yet, his non-fiction, like Paul Theroux's, sometimes outshines his fictional works.

Even if you're not into fishing, hunting, and horses, the grace of Tom McGuane's writing keeps you dialed in.

Extracts: A Field Guide for Iconoclasts

The Cloud Reckoner

Mcguane's stories are a wonderful example of the craft. Perfect and engaging little gems you think about for weeks after you read them. Mcguane also has a strong sense of place and a strong masculine voice - elements that seem rare in serious literature today. To me he feels like reading early 20th century writers like Hemingway or Steinbeck. Bravo!

Tom McGuane writes wonderful stories about the American West that capture the feeling of living there. These are a compendium of terrific tales for those who love this form of writing. My two favorite stories in this book, "The Zombie" and "Gallatin Canyon," have about the best endings as you will find anywhere.