An extensive collection of stories, most familiar, a few new ones; all worth reading. Having this many in one place reinforces the power, skill and grace of McGuane’s writing.

His characters, and they are characters in both senses, often seemingly act against their own interest, often profoundly against their own interest, usually in service of not taking any shit. They lose love and opportunities, often in a harrowing and heart-breaking manner.

McGuane can characterize someone in a sentence: “The Mayor came to the table with the vibrant merry hustle with which he drew all attention to himself.”

“The Refugee” and “Papaya” are two linked stories, one familiar, the other new and welcome. Both feature Errol Healy. In the first he’s a citrus grove foreman with a drinking problem who sails to Key West to be saved by a “good witch” but ends up on a much longer voyage. The second continues his story (his name is pronounced air-roll in the Bahamas) and stretches it out further.

McGuane delves into ambiguous morality and gray areas of behavior. A worthy collection. ( )

Believe it or not, even having been a McGuane fan for decades, I don't think I had ever read more than a couple of his short stories in magazines. This book collects most of his published stories, and the writing is consistently good and will be familiar to any McGuane reader. Of course, some are not as strong as others, and anyone reading this book in one shot like I did might get a bit numb from repeated themes. Nonetheless, this is a great collection and might win McGuane more readers and attention from literary critics, most of whom abandoned him following the publication of "Panama", which was such a departure from his somewhat kooky first three novels.

Most of McGuane's stories take place in Montana, where he lives. Although you might think that his characters might be the typical suspects, i.e. ranchers and small town dwellers in picaresque tales full of Big Sky wonders, in fact they represent a wide range of professions. But there is something indefinable about their "Westernness" and how it informs their reactions to the sorts of problems you might face in life. There's plenty of damaged people here; sometimes it's because of bad parenting, unfortunate incidents, poor choices; but often it's just their own fault, missing the warning signs. And that can result in disastrous outcomes for the protagonists.

The story "Tango" was later expanded upon in the novel "Driving on the Rim". "The Casserole" is brief but effective. One of my favorites is "A Man in Louisiana", where a guy learns a lesson when being sent to go buy a dog. "Motherlode" is a grim tale of what can happen to you if you go along with things you don't or won't understand. In "Crow Fair", two brothers find out something about their mother that one of them didn't want to know, and how that affects their relationship. "Zombie" might be considered an homage to Flannery O'Connor; yep, that grim. But not all the stories are like that. McGuane has always had a knack for dialogue, and his women characters are believable, which I find rare in contemporary American fiction written by men. Why is that, I wonder?

This book is best taken in small doses. That way the stories will stay with you for a while. But be warned: contemplating their messages might make you a bit uneasy. ( )