Set in Key West--the nation's extreme limit--this is the story of a man seeking refuge from a world of drug addiction by becoming a skiff guide for tourists--even though a tough competitor threatens to kill him.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Full of surprises and rewards and an exhilaration one feels only rarely.... I offer a gentle exhortation -- please read this book." -- Newsday
Tiring of the company of junkies and burn-outs, Thomas Skelton goes home to Key West to take up a more wholesome life. But things fester in America's utter South. And Skelton's plans to become a skiff guide in the shining blue subtropical waters place him on a collision course with Nichol Dance, who has risen to the crest of the profession by dint of infallible instincts and a reputation for homicide. Out of their deadly rivalry, Thomas McGuane has constructed a novel with the impetus of a thriller and the heartbroken humor that is his distinct contribution to American prose.
"Thomas McGuane makes the page, the paragraph, the sentence itself a record of continuous imaginative activity.... He is an important as well as a brilliant novelist."
-- The New York Times Book Review
"McGuane's sense of place, his harsh and delicate exactness of detail are at their keenest."
-- Newsweek
"Few writers have explored our national malaise as persistently -- or as elegantly -- as Thomas McGuane, a writer whose command of the language has helped define our American loneliness." -- Philadelphia Inquirer
Tiring of the company of junkies and burn-outs, Thomas Skelton goes home to Key West to take up a more wholesome life. But things fester in America's utter South. And Skelton's plans to become a skiff guide in the shining blue subtropical waters place him on a collision course with Nichol Dance, who has risen to the crest of the profession by dint of infallible instincts and a reputation for homicide. Out of their deadly rivalry, Thomas McGuane has constructed a novel with the impetus of a thriller and the heartbroken humor that is his distinct contribution to American prose.
"Thomas McGuane makes the page, the paragraph, the sentence itself a record of continuous imaginative activity.... He is an important as well as a brilliant novelist."
-- The New York Times Book Review
"McGuane's sense of place, his harsh and delicate exactness of detail are at their keenest."
-- Newsweek
"Few writers have explored our national malaise as persistently -- or as elegantly -- as Thomas McGuane, a writer whose command of the language has helped define our American loneliness." -- Philadelphia Inquirer
About the Author
Thomas McGuane lives in Sweet Grass County, Montana. He is the author of eight previous novels and a collection of stories, as well as two collections of essays.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
When I'm reading a McGuane novel, I have to remind myself that we are dealing here with a writer on another plane altogether. Someone so immersed in his art that to expect 'normalcy' in terms of language, plot, characterization -- the things we've become comfortable reading and reacting to -- is like expecting Picasso to do paint-by-number. It's just not how McGuane operates. And it works for me just fine. Take, for example, 92 in the Shade: A journey of personal discovery framed within a classic Hollywood-Western plot that just so happens to take place in a small community of Key West fishermen. It is the tragic story of Thomas Skelton, a biologist-turned-fishing guide who finds himself increasingly unable to cope with the deliquescence of his version of America: A landscape, Skelton laments that is gradually becoming nothing more than "Hotcakesland" -- a vague but effective reference to Big Business, greed, and mass-marketeering at the expense of the individual. (In his case, literally.) The story is populated by a wealth of eccentric characters who represent a cross-section of Americana. McGuane throws in just about every Type in the encyclopedia of the American Myth--cowboys and outlaws, sex-starved cheerleaders and cut-throat entrepreneurs to name but a few. This may sound hokey, but as depicted by McGuane the eccentrics are smoothly knit into the narrative, lending it a heightened sense of farce while, as with all stereotypes, maintaining a tiny kernel of truth. Written in McGuane's unique virtuoso style where technique and voice are numero uno, the plot of "92" fits - surprise! -- into well-defined story arcs. It's as if the normally disjointed rhythm of a McGuane story was forced to follow the same type of inevitable death march that Skelton is drawn into by his down-on-his luck alter-ego, Nichol Dance. In typical McGuane style, his protagonist is challenged to take his own unique path to salvation with a variety of outlandish and often hilarious wolves nipping at his heels. The high-noon-showdown ending is delicately built, although its conclusion remains (appropriately) anticlimactic. With all that's going on here, you never lose track of Skelton's personal struggle to 'do what he ought.' While his laments on the state of 'the Republic,' may seem dated or even annoying to 90s-boom-time readers, Skelton himself remains a likeable enough guy. We want him to win out, and in that sense McGuane remains conventionally grounded. With all the political and social overtones here, this is basically a story of personal rather than national morals. "Live free or die" is, in the end, a personal standard. This all works well enough in "92," but what really raises the novel above and beyond its dimestore plot and Freeman politics is McGuane's humorous and intellectual narrative style. There's a smile on every page and a surprise in every paragraph. Someone once said McGuane invented his own literary genre. I don't know if that's true. I summarize it this way: He wraps the sublime in the ridiculous and delivers it in a witty, smart package. When it works, it works very, very well.
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
By John Stodder
Format:Paperback
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.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
While this novel portrays exotic behavior and Key West fish guiding (talk about redundancy), murder, crime, it is not really a comic novel, a crime novel or even that elusive genre - the "Keys Novel." Maybe it can be classified as an "Old Hippie" novel; certainly there is a touch of that, but there is also a touch of the "Old Florida" novel with eccentric, elderly relatives with cash and the political fix. The tale progresses in a halucinatory mix of events. Simply stated young conch wants to get into the guide business, faces dual problems of not enough room for more guides and cost of boat, from which conflict flows. There are some nice scenes of excess in passion and alcohol. There is also the desperate, ends of the earth, behavior of island inhabitants: in this case people do what they say they will do, which can be a very bad thing. What plot there is can best be described as ecclectic. Read it and remember the eighties.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Story line disappointing
Thomas McGuane has a masterful use of language in his writing. Unfortunately, that doesn't translate automatically into an ability to tell a story. Read more
Published 17 days ago by James r. Hawes
4.0 out of 5 stars
McGuane has chilled since writing this novel.
A much favored uncle suggested I read this novel. As his opinion is tempered by a long-lasting relationship, his being a professional "wordsmith" and spent his early years in... Read more
Published 3 months ago by YoyoMitch
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Captain's Best
Back in the 1970s, Thomas McGuane was known to his friends as Captain Berzerko, at least that's what I've heard. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Sara Norris
1.0 out of 5 stars
Stay away from this book
This book was a huge disappointment. I was looking for something with adventure and about fishing and it delivered neither. Reading it was a waste of good time. Stay away.
Published on February 2, 2011 by Dave C.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not My Cup of Tea
Tom McGuane's Ninety-two in the Shade explores the sense of failure and rootlessness in 1970s America. Read more
Published on December 27, 2010 by stoic
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not believable
I had high hopes for this book as I am in love with Key West and fishing. I was hoping for something along the lines of "The Old Man and the Sea". Read more
Published on December 9, 2010 by Robert T. Ahlin
3.0 out of 5 stars
LSD Inspired?
Tom Mcguane may be friend and neighbor to Tom Brokaw now, but he must have been on LSD to write this book back in the early 70's. Interesting, but just too FAR OUT MAN.
Published on June 9, 2010 by J. Willis
1.0 out of 5 stars
Dense and Absurd
1.5 stars. If you like novels that are verbose and nonsensical, you might like this one. I was looking for a meaningful, interesting, and suspenseful story about an outsider... Read more
Published on April 18, 2008 by D. Morgan
3.0 out of 5 stars
Almost scorching, sometimes
I've always had somewhat mixed feelings about McGuane. He's obviously a talented stylist with a sharp moral eye who's capable of creating rich, nuanced characters. Read more
Published on January 29, 2008 by Robert
3.0 out of 5 stars
Florida Native's point of view.
I was intrigued by this novel because some of my counter parts in the fishing world love it. Being born and raised in Florida, having spent a great deal of my childhood down in the... Read more
Published on October 4, 2007 by James A. Forrest
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