Crow Fair
Stories
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4.5 • 16 Ratings
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"Me and Ray thought you ought to see what dementia looks like," a woman named Morsel tells Dave, who has just driven Ray across the prairie to visit Morsel and her peculiar father. It's one of many funny, sad, and awful, awfully human moments from McGuane's (Gallatin Canyon) latest story collection featuring aging cowboys, middle-aged men resistant to growing up, and the women who plague and perplex them. "Motherlode" traces the road trip to Morsel's house from a not-so-chance encounter at a smalltown hotel to a scheme for selling drugs in Montana's northern oil fields. McGuane's Montana retains wistful and ironic echoes of the Old West. The title story recounts how two brothers handle their dying mother's revelation of her long-ago love affair at the Crow Fair powwow/Wild West Show. With imagery as sparse and striking as the landscape, houses figure prominently. "Weight Watchers" shows a man who builds homes only for other people. The repossessed "House on Sand Creek" becomes home to a real estate lawyer, his Eastern European wife, her infant son, and Bob the babysitter. At the "Fishing Camp," two longtime friends find their wilderness guide cannot stand being in the wilderness with men who keep arguing about the past. Among female characters, "Prairie Girl" shines as she makes her way from prostitute to bank president. A boy steals hubcaps; a shaman begs charity; a girl hikes toward the howling of wolves: McGuane's stories highlight the detachment of young from old, husband from wife, neighbor from neighbor, the dying from life itself.
