Ninety-two in the Shade (Vintage Contemporaries)

Rating:
Summary: A good one to bring along on a trip to the Keys........
Review: I haven't read a whole lot else of Mcguane's material ,but having spent a some time in the region described, I feel that he has captured a sense of the harsh allure of the "back country" of the Florida Bay mangroves, as well as the rugged eccentricity of the old-time Key West "Conchs" and resident/refugees from other parts of the country. I'm not sure that I ever really grasped why it so important to the protagonist to become a bone-fishing guide that he would risk death at the hands of a comptetitor, but he seemed to be controlled by Destiny in a manner reminiscent of a hero of a classical Greek tragedy. I'd call it a good beach book, but anybody who has been to the Keys knows that the beach activity is a bit limited. Find yourself a nice courtyard patio or take a trip to Bahia Honda, cover yourself with sunscreen, and go to it.

Rating:
Summary: A good one to bring along on a trip to the Keys........
Review: I haven't read a whole lot else of Mcguane's material ,but having spent a some time in the region described, I feel that he has captured a sense of the harsh allure of the "back country" of the Florida Bay mangroves, as well as the rugged eccentricity of the old-time Key West "Conchs" and resident/refugees from other parts of the country. I'm not sure that I ever really grasped why it so important to the protagonist to become a bone-fishing guide that he would risk death at the hands of a comptetitor, but he seemed to be controlled by Destiny in a manner reminiscent of a hero of a classical Greek tragedy. I'd call it a good beach book, but anybody who has been to the Keys knows that the beach activity is a bit limited. Find yourself a nice courtyard patio or take a trip to Bahia Honda, cover yourself with sunscreen, and go to it.

Rating:
Summary: McGuane storyline drags reader in
Review: I was dragged deeply into the chaotic mindset of the protagonist Thomas Skelton in the book, identifying strongly with the youthful desire for fulfilling a career dream, no matter how offbeat. I found the story to be much more strongly constructed than the previous novel of McGuane's I've read, Panama. While I liked Panama for its dream sequences and derailing of any sort of generic plotlines, I was surprised to find myself clinging to the Dance/Skelton/Carter main storyline and thrown off by the sub-plots. Kind of an opposite reaction with this second novel of his. (I am looking forward to my third McGuane novel, Keep the Change.) I found the segements with Skelton's grandfather particularly confusing. Not an easy read, but very rewarding.

Rating:
Summary: McGuane storyline drags reader in
Review: I was dragged deeply into the chaotic mindset of the protagonist Thomas Skelton in the book, identifying strongly with the youthful desire for fulfilling a career dream, no matter how offbeat. I found the story to be much more strongly constructed than the previous novel of McGuane's I've read, Panama. While I liked Panama for its dream sequences and derailing of any sort of generic plotlines, I was surprised to find myself clinging to the Dance/Skelton/Carter main storyline and thrown off by the sub-plots. Kind of an opposite reaction with this second novel of his. (I am looking forward to my third McGuane novel, Keep the Change.) I found the segements with Skelton's grandfather particularly confusing. Not an easy read, but very rewarding.

Rating:
Summary: Best spokesman of his generation
Review: Not only does 92 in the Shade sum up an entire generation, but it gives serious fiction readers the opportunity to read the language of a genius. Tom McGuane once told me in an interview that he made more money investing in real estate than in his career as a novelist. That sad statement amplified itself several years later when I was seeking a literary agent for my own pursuits. The first one I approached told me she had never heard of Tom McGuane after I explained that he was one of the few American novelists I really admired.(I didn't hire her.) 92 does an excellent job of illustrating the troubled fishing guide's state of mind, the lifestyle of the denizens of Key West, and the pathetic state of the country at the time. His brilliant prose provided me with an engrossingly twisted story. The style is distinctively McGuane who is a master of language and tough guy dialogue. He lives in a world all of his own. Many people don't understand his cynicism and negative take on every day happenings. All of which makes his work better that most others. I reread at least part of 92 each time I go to Key West, still, despite its commercialization, one of the greatest zany hang-outs in the history of the world.

Rating:
Summary: A surreal adventure with manly overtones
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Postmodern rifs
Review: 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.