Ninety-two in the Shade Review

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(More customer reviews)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.

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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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