About this title: James Quinn comes to the Centennial Club badly in need of a rest. His old friend and rival, Vernon Stanton, welcomes him and immediately challenges him to a duel, from which point the violence escalates. This is the first novel of the author of "The Bushwhacked", "92 in the Shade" and "Panama".
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Perfect Bound Paper
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Date Published: 1970
ISBN-13:9780345018748ISBN:0345018745
Description: Good + to Very Good- Mass Market Paperback. 16mo-over 5¾"-6¾" tall. Moderate wear, X inked on front wrap. (Store Display-Gen Fic) read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Penguin Books, New York, 1979
Description: GOOD. USED "Mass Paperback, Good, Thomas McGuane Stamped Small Inside Back Cover; Soiled Light Cover; Yellowing Very Light Edge of Pages; Sticker/Residue Very Light Spine; , and young men fiction upper michigan hunting peninsula fishing clubs. " read more
"Non-genre fiction that doesn't teach something significant of the human condition is the equivalent of a soap opera. For me, and I know many disagree, McGuane comes off that way. I thought The Cadence of Grass was o.k., and this and ninety two in the shade (neither of which I even bothered to finish) were dull."
"(updates) A tasty story. The author's first novel, published in 1968. This is an odd, dark comic story. The locale shifts from the Detroit office where the protagonist Quinn is struggling to save the family auto parts-making business, to the decadent old hunting lodge in wooded northern Michigan where he and a friend-rival from childhood (Stanton) continue a sick and obsessive battle of testosterone wits and wills. The writing, thus far, has a certain flair. McGuane has a talent for description. There's a baroque, eccentric quality to the whole thing so far; waiting to see if he can pull this together in way that becomes compelling and pacy, so far it's a bit jagged. I may be off base, but it reminds me tad of the style of Terry Southern, even though my experience with him so far is very limited.
Wow, this Stanton is one of the most mean-spirited boors I've ever encountered in literature. A bully extraordinaire. Man, is he hateful, not in an outright angry way but in the kind of cocksure unhesitatingly witty way that is disarming and, to some, irresistibly charming. Naturally, it gets him women and at least one devoted, lifelong friend: Quinn. Their relationship is based on oneupsmanship: a kind of focal point of what the gentleman's sport club is really all about. The privileged members' resentment of the lowly groundskeeper, Olson, and his hunting prowess is spot-on and funny. The mere presence of a prole who is a better survivalist uncomfortably reminds the elites of their inferiority, is an affront to their manhood and sense of class superiority -- even though he is the best man for the job. He is a threat to the ego.
This is a book that tries hard not to be likeable, but I am fascinated by this story and these characters.
There, evidently, was a 1971 movie version, which Pauline Kael blasted.
UPDATE: Third of the way in and as much as I'm fascinated by Stanton and the personal thrills that drive him to manipulate others, I'm still a little baffled by some of his games and McGuane's presentation of them. This book's quirkiness makes it a bit harder to engage than I'd like, but there's a unique authorial sensibility here that I admire and I will keep going.
Near HALFWAY: Took a break and resumed this. I've been trying to figure out the word that best describes McGuane's style and tone in this book and perhaps "staccato" fits the effect of it. It's not avant garde or experimental or even complicated, perhaps skewed and baroque and unpredictable, and it kind of causes you to stop a bit and bump around. It's not smooth but jagged, and yet, as I say, it's not obscurantist. I'm still pondering the psychology that draws Quinn to the manipulating bully Stanton, and because Quinn seems to be a willing accomplice to Stanton's nonsense, it is Quinn, rather than Stanton, who seems the more reprehensible as the book goes on.
WELL INTO SECOND HALF: I detect some "Confederacy of Dunces"-type quirky humor in it now; even some Evelyn Waugh-style dry humor as it examines the manners of the gentleman's club. (Somebody says "Evenin'." and the other replies, "What's evenin' about it?")
The replacement groundskeeper, Earl Olive, whose expertise is dealing in fishing bait, is a wonderful character. I love the section about the cookout. Stanton tries to explain his rationale for shaking up the club, trying to waken the pampered elites from their sleepwalking through life. There's some stuff to think about here, even if it's just an excuse for his insatiable hunger for control. I would have liked more description about Lu and about what Quinn thinks about making love to her, what her allure is, and so on. Anyway...
NEAR END: In the home stretch on this and I have to say, this is a book with balls on; McGuane knows the operating principles of things. His mock history of the lodge, with all its convenient exclusions of the power plays and the robbery of the lower classes is just one sharp example. Olive, the violent rebel, is a product of this mercilessly exclusionary system. I think I'm going to revise up this rating -- because McGuane has a unique voice and the story is clever and potent, even if overwritten at times.
Final thoughts: Although a short novel, it took quite awhile to read this. But there's assurance in how it's written, and the trip is a memorable one. Weird, but worthy."
"A mish-mash of quirky characters, absurdism and conflict ride the spine of McGuane's large vocabulary and talented writing. Folks who spend time kicking weeds in Northern Michigan will be especially pleased. A quick and satisfying read."
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