New Releases by Thomas McGuane

From the award-winning “master of the short story” (The New York Times Book Review)—nine shattering, hilarious tales of men on the outskirts of America, habituating the motels, hot dog stands, and dive bars time forgot, grappling with a world that is swiftly changing and dreaming of a return to the wooded shores of their youths In these nine peerless stories, a family boating trip veers into emotional disaster while very narrowly avoiding the physical; A would-be cheater hands over his car—his prized possession—for a shot with a pretty girl; A furniture magnate and his filmmaker daughter visit his impoverished hometown; A doctor’s long-ago affair returns with a bitter pill. Crackling with wry humor, shot through with both wisdom and pain, these are stories of grifters and dreamers, of the lovelorn and the lawless, stories of the ongoing dissonance between the lives we want and the lives this world will allow.

Quand le ciel se déchire est la somme de toute une vie de réflexions, de sentiments, d'expériences, et se doit d'être savouré. Ceci étant dit, si vous vous retrouvez à dévorer ces nouvelles en un temps record, je vous encourage à le faire. Vous pourrez toujours les relire plus tard ; ce que vous ferez probablement. The New York Times Book Review Merveilleux, essentiel, irrésistible et souvent étonnant. [...] Toutes les nouvelles de McGuane sont empreintes d'humour. En résulte une succession d'histoires exquises. The Los Angeles Times Une prose aussi ciselée et impressionnante que les montagnes Rocheuses. [...] L'éclat et l'humour de l'écriture de Thomas McGuane ne manquent jamais de ravir. The Wall Street Journal Aujourd'hui, il n'y a plus aucun doute : McGuane est un très grand. Christophe Mercier, Le Figaro McGuane [est] l'un des portraitistes les plus fins de l'Amérique profonde. André Clavel, Le Temps Pas de sérénité, pas d'équilibre, mais des embardées imprévisibles, soutenues par un rythme qui les accompagne à merveille. [...] Bref, McGuane, spirituel et généreux, nous entraîne dans sa jubilation. Lilian Kerjean, La Quinzaine littéraire

From the acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade: Set in the seedy corners of Key West, the remote shore towns of the Bahamas, and the unforgiving landscape of Big Sky Country, a “uniformly brilliant” collection (The New York Times Book Review) of familial dysfunction, emotional failure, and American loneliness that celebrates the human ability to persist through life''s absurdities For more than four decades, Thomas McGuane has been heralded as an unrivaled master of the short story. Now the arc of that achievement appears in one definitive volume—forty-five stories, including two new and six previously uncollected pieces. These are stories of people on the fringes of society, whose twisted pasts meddle with their chances for companionship, moving from the hilarious to the tragic and back again. “A master of the short story... Cloudbursts is clearly the product of a life''s worth of thought and feeling and experience; it ought to be savored.” —The New York Times Book Review

A man sails into the Gulf from Key West in the magisterial, penultimate story from Gallatin Canyon by the acclaimed award-winning author who has been called the “Flannery O’Connor of the New West.” • A Vintage Shorts “Short Story Month” Selection “Errol Healy was going sailing to evade custody in one of the several institutions recommended for his care.” Haunted by memories of his best friend’s death and the witch, Miss Florence Ewing, Errol sets forth from Key West alone aboard the Czarina. Alcohol-drenched and steeped in excruciating loneliness, Errol faces the harshest conditions of climate in the Gulf. An Ebook Short

« Thomas McGuane a un sens inimitable de la satire. Il combine à merveille l’ordinaire et l’extravagant. Et lorsque les deux se mélangent, le résultat peut être détonant. [...] Mc Guane nous offre ici une série de paysages imaginaires aussi mystérieux que séduisants. » The New York Times « McGuane est aussi spirituel et généreux qu’il l’a toujours été. Ce recueil de nouvelles, certainement le meilleur de tous ses livres à ce jour, confirme de façon radieuse et tonitruante son statut de maître de la littérature américaine contemporaine. » Publishers Weekly « Les tensions évoquées dans ces nouvelles sont aussi vieilles que l’humanité, mais la limpidité de l’écriture de McGuane et son acuité psychologique leur donne une nouvelle vie. » Kirkus

Set in Big Sky Country, a triumphant collection of stories written with a comic genius in the vein of Twain and Gogol—from from the acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade and Cloudbursts, “one of America''s best short-story writers of the last 50 years" (The Boston Globe) These stories attest to the generous compass of Thomas McGuane''s fellow feeling, as well as to his unique way with words. In this collection, filled with grace and humor, the ties of family make for uncomfortable binds: A devoted son is horrified to discover his mother''s antics before she slipped into dementia, and a father''s outdoor skills are no match for a change in the weather. But complications arise equally in the absence of blood, as when lifelong friends on a fishing trip finally confront their deep dislike for each other. Or when a gifted traveling cattle breeder succumbs to the lure of a stranger''s offer of easy money. McGuane is as witty and large-hearted as we have ever known him, and Crow Fair is a jubilant, thunderous confirmation of his status as a modern master.

A collection of thirteen stories of great range, verve, and humor from the highly acclaimed author of Cloudbursts and Ninety-two in the Shade Thomas McGuane''s first short story collection is "a cornucopia of McGuane''s grace, humor, gusto, and smarts" (Philadelphia Inquirer), and McGuane is a writer who “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). Includes the stories: • The Millionaire • A Man in Louisiana • Like a Leaf • Dogs • A Skirmish • Two Hours to Kill • The Rescue • Sportsmen • Little Extras • Partners • The Road Atlas • Flight • To Skin a Cat

An anthology of the best motorcycle literature from top authors including Hunter S. Thompson, Thomas McGuane, Robert Pirsig, Roald Dahl, Alberto Granado, and T. E. Lawrence Sons of Thunder is a high-octane anthology that brings together the best in motorcycle writing. This unique collection includes seminal pieces from Hunter S. Thompson and Robert Pirsig. Melissa Holbrook Pierson and Thomas McGuane offer probing reflections on the relationship between rider and machine. Roald Dahl waxes poetic on the second-hand Ariel 500cc he bought as a sixteen-year-old. There are classic dispatches from the road including T. E. Lawrence''s travels on his Brough Superior, Alberto Granado''s storied rides with Che Guevara, and Theresa Wallach''s overland journey with Florence Blenkiron from London to Cape Town. This anthology also offers hidden gems, such as Mike Carter''s midlife meditation "Uneasy Rider" and Jim Perrin''s "Travels with a Harley." Facing more than just the elements of the road, these riders simultaneously take physical and emotional journeys, surrendering to the mental release a bike brings. Danger lurks around every bend, but above all is the rider''s desire for speed, the constant craving to go faster and further than one has ever gone before. At times literary and lyrical, at others tactile and thrilling, Sons of Thunder takes to the road with an all-star roster of writers who delve into the pleasures and perils of motorcycles and celebrate the emotional bond between rider and machine.

This brilliant story of one man’s struggle to change his life, from the acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade and Cloudbursts, is “full of wry wit and graceful depictions of family relations, first love and the stark beauty of the Montana prairie” (Wall Street Journal). Joe Starling, a man teetering on the edge of spectacular failures—as an artist, rancher, lover, and human being—is also a man of noble ambitions. His struggle to right himself is mesmerizing, hilarious, and profoundly moving. "No American novelist provides greater pleasure—sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, page by page—than this Montana icon." —Chicago Sun-Times

A ruefully funny novel of embattled manhood, set in Big Sky Country—by the highly acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade and Cloudbursts, with writing “so dazzlingly acute and seemingly effortless that it infuses Nothing but Blue Skies with exuberance and wit."—Chicago Tribune This high-spirited and fiercely lyrical novel chronicles the fall and rise of Frank Copenhaver, a man so unhinged by his wife''s departure that he finds himself ruining his business, falling in love with the wrong women, and wandering the lawns of his neighborhood, desperate for the merest glimpse of normalcy. The result is a Montana where cowboys slug it out with speculators, a cattleman''s best friend may be his insurance broker, and love and fishing are the only consolations that last. "Vibrant with the pleasures of ironic language, play and chase, and quick with broken-hearted humor."—Los Angeles Times Book Review

The unforgettable story of a hero who goes from Michigan to Montana on a demented mission of courtship—from the acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade and Cloudbursts, a “writer of the first magnitude.... The preternatural force, grace, and self-control of his prose recall Faulkner" (The New York Times Book Review). As a citizen, Nicholas Payne is not in the least solid. As a boyfriend, he is nothing short of disastrous, and his latest flame, the patrician Ann Fitzgerald, has done a wise thing by dropping him. But Ann isn''t counting on Nicholas''s wild persistence, or on the slapstick lyricism of Thomas McGuane—highlights include a ride on a homicidal bronco and an apprenticeship to the inventor of the world''s first highrise for bats. The result is a tour de force of American Dubious.

Skelton, jeune homme de vingt-cinq ans, s'efforce de dompter le mal - être qui le poursuit. Entre une dépendance aux drogues dont il tâche de se défaire et des séances de pêche sportive à Key West, au fil desquelles il se lie d'amitié avec les excentriques Dance et Carter, on suit son parcours au fil de ses tergiversations psychologiques et de ses déambulations géographiques rythmées par des péripéties rocambolesques.

A funny, rueful, and beautifully rendered portrait of American manhood on the rocks from the highly acclaimed author of Cloudbursts and Ninety-two in the Shade In life Lucien Taylor has made several mistakes, but the two most grievous are as follows: leaving his wife and son to take up with his old flame, Emily; and putting up Emily''s bail when she is arrested for murder. The upshot is that Lucien is left stranded in Montana, with a malodorous hot spring and a squandered sense of purpose. As told by Thomas McGuane, Lucien''s attempt to recoup his losses makes for a book that says volumes about the lives of dogs and falcons, the yearnings of sons for fathers, and the skeptical truce that men and women sometimes reach when they get tired of fighting.

A novel about a former soldier in Big Sky Country whose life is spiraling out of control, from the acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade and Cloudbursts, who is "among the most arresting and fascinating [writers] of his generation" (San Francisco Chronicle). In McGuane''s first novel set in his famed American West, Patrick Fitzpatrick is a former soldier, a fourth-generation cowboy, and a whiskey addict. His grandfather wants to run away to act in movies, his sister wants to burn the house down, and his new stallion is bent on killing him: all of them urgently require attention. But increasingly Patrick himself is spiraling out of control, into that region of romantic misadventure and vanishing possibilities that is Thomas McGuane''s Montana. Nowhere has McGuane mapped that territory more precisely—or with such tenderhearted lunacy—than in Nobody''s Angel, a novel that places him in a genre of his own.

Qu’un piano soit criblé de chevrotine par un enfant embusqué dans un arbre, et c’est l’harmonie du monde qui vole en éclats. Mais que cet enfant, le nez plongé dans les entrailles de l’instrument, l’imagine chargé d’épices et voguant intact sur l’océan, et c’est l’imaginaire qui ordonne le chaos. Sous le double signe d’un désordre échevelé, burlesque et jubilatoire, et du pouvoir de l’imagination – de la littérature-, Thomas McGuane reprend à son compte la tradition picaresque de Don Quichotte en la transposant dans l’espace américain des années 70. Son jeune héros, Nicholas Payne, successivement routard paumé, amoureux transi, cow-boy dérisoire, bâtisseur de chauves-souricières pour le compte d’un inénarrable amputé multiple, nous entraîne dans d’invraisemblables aventures, dont la plus vertigineuse est sans doute celle d’une écriture éblouissante, qui oscille constamment entre ordre et chaos, tradition et parodie, burlesque et poésie.

« On retrouve Thomas McGuane au sommet de son art avec un opus mélancolique et excentrique, Sur les jantes. [...] Avec une rare finesse, il brosse le portrait d''un type attachant qui « ne pige absolument rien au base-ball » et écoute ZZ Top en posant des points de suture. Un Berl Pickett qui aime les chevaux, les chiens d''arrêt et la nature. [...] Un livre simple et profond. » Alexandre Fillon, Le Journal du Dimanche « Berl Pickett reconstruit peu à peu son passé et égrène ses souvenirs, une rafale d''émotions souvent douloureuses qui viennent se cogner en lui « comme des insectes sur un pare-brise ». [...] Attentif aux corps et aux âmes, il en sait long sur les êtres, même s''il a du mal à les comprendre. Parce qu''il est éternellement décalé. [...] Sa confession est un chef-d''œuvre de psychologie et son cabinet médical ressemble à la librairie de Montaigne - un observatoire de l''existence. » André Clavel, Lire « Le livre fait penser à ces riches buffets garnis où il est permis de piocher à volonté. Il y en a pour tous les goûts. Sens de la nature, détails cocasses, morceaux d''émotion, lyrisme et imagination en roue libre, scènes de la vie provinciale: le talent de McGuane est tout-terrain. » Eric Neuhoff, Le Figaro

The unforgettable story of a housepainter turned doctor in Big Sky country who finds himself on a darkly funny journey to salvation in this “irrepressibly comic and optimistic” novel (The New York Times Book Review) from the acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade and Cloudbursts Berl Pickett is living in the small town of Livingston, Montana. The son of Pentecostal rug-shampooers, Pickett has never been the social toast of the town, but when he is accused of negligent homicide in the death of his former lover, he finds himself ostracized by his colleagues and realizes just how small his little village truly is. But fortunately for Berl, the very thing that sets him apart—his inability to follow the pack—proves to be his saving grace. With this inglorious hero, McGuane has created an unforgettable voyager.

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.

Collected interviews with the author of Ninety-two in the Shade, The Sporting Club, and other novels

Histoire d'une famille, ce roman relate avant tout celle de Bill Champion. Caracolant dans un ranch aux airs de conquête de l'Ouest, géographiquement tout proche, mais si éloigné de la ville, de ses valeurs factices et de ses embrouilles financières, le cow-boy d'un autre âge observe en silence les déchirements d'une famille qu'il a toutes les raisons d'aimer clandestinement. C'est sans doute lui le véritable héros de ce récit où le comique de farce le dispute au macabre et à l'élégie d'un monde qui disparaît et qui pourtant renaît... à la cadence de l'herbe.

Charles Lindsay's grandfather taught him to fly-fish when he was nine years old. Ever since, in pursuit of trout and solitude, he has immersed himself in the clear, rushing waters of the American West. Fly rod in hand, he participates in the ancient rituals between predator and prey. At times photographing beneath the surface of the water, Lindsay literally enters the world of the trout. In this close observance of the cosmos within the river, he explores the fundamental relationship of all life to water. The photographs in Upstream illuminate a primitive world of elemental beauty and fractured light--abstract and utterly in motion. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, with wilderness under siege and humanity increasingly removed from nature, Lindsay uses his camera to express the enduring vitality of the natural world. Thomas McGuane, avid fly-fisherman, author, and frequent contributor to "Sports Illustrated" and "Riverwatch," brilliantly explores these themes in his accompanying text.

Un peu plus de dix ans se sont écoulés depuis son dernier roman, Rien que du ciel bleu, et Thomas McGuane nous revient avec un livre fort et généreux A la cadence de l'herbe. Allusion voilée à son processus de maturation, le titre renvoie surtout au lent passage de l'hiver au printemps, à ce Montana prisonnier de la glace et de la neige qui se réveille au rythme de la nature... et des désirs enfouis venant crever la surface des consciences endormies. Ce roman est l'histoire d'une famille, mais celle de Bill Champion avant tout : caracolant dans un ranch digne de la conquête de l'Ouest, tout proche géographiquement mais si éloigné de la ville, de ses valeurs factices et de ses embrouilles financières, le cow-boy d'un autre âge observe en silence les déchirements d'une famille qu'il a toutes les raisons d'aimer clandestinement. C'est lui sans doute le véritable héros d'un roman où le comique de farce le dispute au macabre : élégie consacrée à un monde qui disparaît et qui pourtant renaît... à la cadence de l'herbe.

Set on the majestic stage of Montana cattle country, an unforgettable drama from the acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade and Cloudbursts involving blood, money, sex, vengeance, and a cross-dressing rancher "[McGuane''s] sentences are like no one else’s, crisp and spare, yet somehow baroque [and] perpetually balance the picaresque against the sublime." —The New Yorker Sunny Jim Whitelaw, a descendent of pioneers and owner of a large bottling plant, may have died, but he has no intention of relinquishing control: his will specifies that no one gets a cent unless his daughter Evelyn reconciles with her estranged husband, Paul. But Evelyn is a strong-willed woman, fiercely attached to the land, whose horses transport her to a West she feels is disappearing, while Paul is a suave manipulator, without scruples, intent on living well. The Cadence of Grass is renewed evidence that McGuane is one of the finest writers we have, capable of simultaneously burnishing and demolishing the mythology of the West while doing rope tricks with the English language.

Intempéries semble être un ouvrage consacré à la pêche à la mouche. De la même façon, Moby Dick pourrait être considéré comme un roman traitant de la chasse à la baleine. La vérité est ailleurs. Intempéries est à la fois une autobiographie de l'enfant terrible des lettres américaines, un traité de Zen, un livre sur la vie qui passe, un récit d'aventures, un roman comique, un éloge de la nature et de l'amitié, une leçon de philosophie, beaucoup plus encore. Au fil des rivières, Thomas McGuane nous entraîne dans un voyage mouvementé aux quatre coins du monde avec ce style inimitable, cette complicité et cette profonde humanité qui ont fait son succès. " Thomas McGuane écrit mieux sur la pêche que n'importe quel autre être humain que cette terre ait porté. " Jim Harrison

In a compilation of thirty-three essays, the author reflects on the world of angling as he shares his observations on his quarry, great fishing spots around the world, and fishing equipment.

The most important new literary journal to emerge since Granta, Open City has published some of the best work by major writers and artists such as Mary Gaitskill, Denis Johnson, Jeff Koons, David Foster Wallace, Irvine Welsh, Terry Southern, Patrick McCabe, Sam Lipsyte, and David Berman. Edited by the writers Thomas Beller and Daniel Pinchbeck and originally published by the late Robert Bingham, writing from Open City has been included in many prestigious anthologies, including Best American Short Stories and The Pushcart Prize. Known for launching the careers of today's best new writers, the editors are also committed to printing important unpublished work by writers from past eras, such as Richard Yates, Delmore Schwartz, Jim Thompson, Cyril Connolly, Edvard Munch, and Gregor von Rezzori. With its innovative and daring mix of the old and the new, Open City combines undiscovered writing by classic authors with a fascinating portrait of a literary generation in the making.

Tom McGuane loves horses. Nowhere is that more evident than in his deft and utterly fascinating essays about some of the more remarkable horses and horsemen he has known.In these nine essays, he examines the relationship between horses and humans: what it is about horses that reveals so much about ourselves, what we see in them, why they respond to us, and the symbiosis that can result from such a match. Whether he is writing about cutting horses, learning to rope, or the birth of a foal, McGuane''s passion finds expression in his extraordinary talent. (53/4 X 81/2, 188 pages, illustrations)