The slyly ironic, superbly crafted and often hysterical 17 short stories that comprise Crow Fair prove Thomas McGuane is America’s preeminent chronicler of “Big Sky” country and the “new American West.” Born in Michigan before moving to Montana, McGuane weaves complex yarns that reflect his love of nature, incredulousness at human hubris and brilliant mastery with language. The septuagenarian’s greatest skill is manifested by his brash honesty and sharp wit, creating colorfully conflicted characters lost and alone, sadly self-absorbed or edging toward dementia. And while his tales grow darker as this collection progresses, McGuane still finds meaning and light while his characters perilously cartwheel on the brink of their own demises.
McGuane often uses first-person narrative in his short stories, as in “Weight Watcher,” about a son’s attempt to make sense of his overweight, overbearing father exiled from his own home, and “The House On Sand Creek,” which chronicles the problems between a Californian, his Croatian wife and a distasteful, fraudulent neighbor who “had not been a cowboy for at least forty-five of his sixty-two years.”
One of Crow Fair’s best stories, “A Long View to the West,” features a lonely old cowpoke trapped in a nursing home as his mind fades into the sunset, while his son endures the same old tall tales by conjuring comic, sarcastic retorts in his head. Time and again McGuane depicts familial dysfunction with an enduring and gentle humanity and humor. No easy task.
These refreshing short stories reveal the author as a modern-day Mark Twain. Reading them feels like going fly-fishing at dusk with an old friend, as McGuane casts his line aloft hooking hungry trout in mid-air — skillfully, smartly, magically. Grade: A+
This article appears in May 27 – Jun 2, 2015.