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The Cadence Of Grass
This is the story of the Whitelaws, a family whose values are as far flung as the territory they helped settle, and whose most recent generations have pioneered the landscape of dysfunction. The patriarch, Sunny Jim, exerts his perverse control even posthumously, by means of a last will and testament that binds the family fortune to a marriage that ought, by general consent, to be rent asunder. The charms of this particular son-in-law, lately released from prison, are potent if short-lived; Evelyn Whitelaw, his estranged wife, is quite literally bedevilled by them. And as her mother and sister court this twisted inheritance, her own yearnings point toward a way of life once habitual on the western plains but now embodied only by Bill Champion, the family's ranch foreman and Evelyn's one true compass. The Cadence of Grass is at once an elegy and a masterpiece of savage comedy from one of the most compelling novelists writing today.
238 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
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312 people want to read
About the author
Thomas McGuane
75 books461 followersThomas Francis McGuane III is an American writer. His work includes ten novels, short fiction and screenplays, as well as three collections of essays devoted to his life in the outdoors. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, National Cutting Horse Association Members Hall of Fame and the Fly-Fishing Hall of Fame.
McGuane's early novels were noted for a comic appreciation for the irrational core of many human endeavors, multiple takes on the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s. His later writing reflected an increasing devotion to family relationships and relationships with the natural world in the changing American West, primarily Montana, where he has made his home since 1968, and where his last five novels and many of his essays are set. He has three children, Annie, Maggie and Thomas.
McGuane's early novels were noted for a comic appreciation for the irrational core of many human endeavors, multiple takes on the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s. His later writing reflected an increasing devotion to family relationships and relationships with the natural world in the changing American West, primarily Montana, where he has made his home since 1968, and where his last five novels and many of his essays are set. He has three children, Annie, Maggie and Thomas.
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August 26, 2008For anyone with a solid familiarity with Thomas McGuane's work, this is a fascinating novel.
Here you have a novel with a female protagonist, written by a man who has often been written off as a male chauvinist pig, whose female characters have always been a major bone of contention with critics. You have a novelist who has continually been accused of rewriting autobiography, writing a novel that clearly has little to do with his own life. And you have the recognizable "McGuane protagonist" -- a man with a tendency to take things too far -- this time cast as anything but sympathetic.
It's almost as if The Cadence of Grass is a conscious attempt on McGuane's part to repudiate his critics. To say, in essence, no, you half-wits, this is what I've been trying to say.
Regarding the one-dimensional women of his early novels, McGuane has pointed to a masculine culture that regards women as unfathomable mysteries; how are his male protagonists to view them as fully realized human beings in this context? Despite the reputation he earned in the 1970s, McGuane is not, in fact, a "male chauvinist pig novelist," and in the (nonetheless tomboyish) character of Evelyn he seems determined to shake off that criticism once and for all.
Having repeatedly spoken in interviews about the struggle to write people who are not in any way like himself, McGuane has stepped far outside himself here. He has broken with his conventional close third-person, protagonist-centered viewpoint, using an omniscient narrator for the first time since 92 in the Shade. The result, for a reader familiar with his work, is to force one not only to consider this novel but to reconsider the whole. Have I been making assumptions about his characters, one asks, that have been getting in my way as I read?
McGuane's language is less electrifying here than in his early work, but on the other hand he has achieved his oft-stated goal of not allowing the words to get in the way of what he's trying to say. And there is no doubt that he remains a superb writer; the scenes in this novel that deal with horsemanship are surely examples of his finest prose.
Without a doubt, The Cadence of Grass marks the high point in McGuane's development as a novelist. It may not be his finest novel, but it is certainly his most mature. This is not the best introduction to McGuane for a new reader (go, instead, with 92 in the Shade or Nothing but Blue Skies), but for anyone who has read him extensively, it is possibly his most interesting novel.
Here you have a novel with a female protagonist, written by a man who has often been written off as a male chauvinist pig, whose female characters have always been a major bone of contention with critics. You have a novelist who has continually been accused of rewriting autobiography, writing a novel that clearly has little to do with his own life. And you have the recognizable "McGuane protagonist" -- a man with a tendency to take things too far -- this time cast as anything but sympathetic.
It's almost as if The Cadence of Grass is a conscious attempt on McGuane's part to repudiate his critics. To say, in essence, no, you half-wits, this is what I've been trying to say.
Regarding the one-dimensional women of his early novels, McGuane has pointed to a masculine culture that regards women as unfathomable mysteries; how are his male protagonists to view them as fully realized human beings in this context? Despite the reputation he earned in the 1970s, McGuane is not, in fact, a "male chauvinist pig novelist," and in the (nonetheless tomboyish) character of Evelyn he seems determined to shake off that criticism once and for all.
Having repeatedly spoken in interviews about the struggle to write people who are not in any way like himself, McGuane has stepped far outside himself here. He has broken with his conventional close third-person, protagonist-centered viewpoint, using an omniscient narrator for the first time since 92 in the Shade. The result, for a reader familiar with his work, is to force one not only to consider this novel but to reconsider the whole. Have I been making assumptions about his characters, one asks, that have been getting in my way as I read?
McGuane's language is less electrifying here than in his early work, but on the other hand he has achieved his oft-stated goal of not allowing the words to get in the way of what he's trying to say. And there is no doubt that he remains a superb writer; the scenes in this novel that deal with horsemanship are surely examples of his finest prose.
Without a doubt, The Cadence of Grass marks the high point in McGuane's development as a novelist. It may not be his finest novel, but it is certainly his most mature. This is not the best introduction to McGuane for a new reader (go, instead, with 92 in the Shade or Nothing but Blue Skies), but for anyone who has read him extensively, it is possibly his most interesting novel.
August 2, 2013
Ack, fantastic. The only issue here is that it wasn't longer. McGuane moves along at breakneck speed, flitting from scene to scene where there was plenty of room to linger. Sure, things get a bit madcap here and there, but he pulls it off—this thing is laugh-out-loud hilarious at times. Also heartbreaking. Really excited to read more McGuane. There were a few passages where a main character hung out with her horses for a bit too long, and I wasn't sure really what was gained there, but otherwise, a total joy to read. Just wish this 240 pager were like 350 or so. Fantastic characters, great writing but no BS, no lengthy descriptions of the landscape yet it's still supremely present, a nice shade of Jim Harrison, with whom the author is good buds. Loved this book. The end(ing)?!
January 19, 2015
This novel was published in 2002, 10 years after McGuane's previous novel (he published two nonfiction books in the interim), and the break seemed to be at least partly spent on reconstructing his style--as a result, "The Cadence of Grass" is significant for a few reasons. The two most important:
1. It's the beginning (or at least the full realization) of "late McGuane"
2. It's the only McGuane novel with a female protagonist
The two points are related, but let's look at them separately.
1. McGuane's early novels ("Ninety-Two in the Shade," "The Bushwhacked Piano") are marked by their zaniness (seriously, "Panama," his fourth novel, has a cocaine mirror on the cover). His stories are more picaresque and shaggy dog-ish; often, what you're left taking away from these books is the total loneliness at their core. And that's not to disparage them; McGuane is the best writer of loneliness I've ever read. But his later books, starting with this one, "The Cadence of Grass," take on a new weight. They substitute a percentage of the zaniness for something more profound. McGuane has pretty much perfected this mixture by "The Cadence of Grass," it's a formula he'll continue to employ in his subsequent books, reaching perfection in 2015's "Crow Fair," in my opinion his best book.
Here, in "The Cadence of Grass," McGuane's late style takes the form of a huge cast, instead of the single machismo protagonist we get in early McGuane. In this book, we get close third on ten or so characters, but you can call six of them "main characters" (Evelyn, Natalie, Paul, Stuart, Mrs. Whitlaw, Bill). And while there are goofy/zany bits, their payoff isn't just a dead end, it isn't just a punchline that justifies their existence--they all feel tied to the progression of the story. For example, when Paul wakes up without a kidney, it's not just a shaggy dog bit--it fatefully ties Paul to the person whom he unwittingly gave the kidney to. Another example: when Evelyn wakes up in the strange Norwegian house after being stuck in the snowstorm, which culminates in her volunteering to cremate the grandfather's frozen corpse, it leads not just to the body being burned, it leads to a memory of her dead father, and Evelyn standing out in the snow having just lit the match, this knockout paragraph of desolation:
2. While there are a number of main characters in "The Cadence of Grass," it's clearly Evelyn's story. It even seems as if McGuane wrote this book partly in response to the criticism that had followed him throughout his career, that he/his books were chauvinist, his characters were just strutting, preening macho men and his women were the bystanders who just stood by while they wreaked their chaos. McGuane totally subverts this claim in "The Cadence of Grass"--the novel starts with a lot of close third on Paul, a pretty near approximation of a traditional McGuane protagonist (he sleeps with everyone, he's blustery, he's a screw-up). But pretty quickly, it's apparent Paul is the antagonist in this story and his estranged wife, Evelyn, is the protagonist. Evelyn is sharp, is realistically flawed in all the ways you want a main character to be, and is one of McGuane's best characters.
The ending of this book, which puts Bill in a showdown with Paul, not only puts the nail in the coffin on the one-dimensional machismo character, but is one of the most memorable endings in anything I've ever read. McGuane's stakes are just on a higher level than most of the rest of literature--characters can die, do die, and often for nothing more than their morals or their word (see "Ninety-Two in the Shade"). When McGuane switches from close third to first person in the last five pages, he hits a rarefied storytelling plane that perhaps only a few other writers per generation are capable of reaching.
1. It's the beginning (or at least the full realization) of "late McGuane"
2. It's the only McGuane novel with a female protagonist
The two points are related, but let's look at them separately.
1. McGuane's early novels ("Ninety-Two in the Shade," "The Bushwhacked Piano") are marked by their zaniness (seriously, "Panama," his fourth novel, has a cocaine mirror on the cover). His stories are more picaresque and shaggy dog-ish; often, what you're left taking away from these books is the total loneliness at their core. And that's not to disparage them; McGuane is the best writer of loneliness I've ever read. But his later books, starting with this one, "The Cadence of Grass," take on a new weight. They substitute a percentage of the zaniness for something more profound. McGuane has pretty much perfected this mixture by "The Cadence of Grass," it's a formula he'll continue to employ in his subsequent books, reaching perfection in 2015's "Crow Fair," in my opinion his best book.
Here, in "The Cadence of Grass," McGuane's late style takes the form of a huge cast, instead of the single machismo protagonist we get in early McGuane. In this book, we get close third on ten or so characters, but you can call six of them "main characters" (Evelyn, Natalie, Paul, Stuart, Mrs. Whitlaw, Bill). And while there are goofy/zany bits, their payoff isn't just a dead end, it isn't just a punchline that justifies their existence--they all feel tied to the progression of the story. For example, when Paul wakes up without a kidney, it's not just a shaggy dog bit--it fatefully ties Paul to the person whom he unwittingly gave the kidney to. Another example: when Evelyn wakes up in the strange Norwegian house after being stuck in the snowstorm, which culminates in her volunteering to cremate the grandfather's frozen corpse, it leads not just to the body being burned, it leads to a memory of her dead father, and Evelyn standing out in the snow having just lit the match, this knockout paragraph of desolation:
After a while, she gathered herself and saw, in one lighted window, Esther, cradling a steel bowl, whisking a meringue with terrific energy; in another, Torvald was watching television with his fingers in his ears. On the second floor, a window was flung open almost at the level of the flames, and psychedelic music filled the air; Donald leaned out, his hands on the sill, and shouted, "Captain Beefheart! I love Captain Beefheart!"
2. While there are a number of main characters in "The Cadence of Grass," it's clearly Evelyn's story. It even seems as if McGuane wrote this book partly in response to the criticism that had followed him throughout his career, that he/his books were chauvinist, his characters were just strutting, preening macho men and his women were the bystanders who just stood by while they wreaked their chaos. McGuane totally subverts this claim in "The Cadence of Grass"--the novel starts with a lot of close third on Paul, a pretty near approximation of a traditional McGuane protagonist (he sleeps with everyone, he's blustery, he's a screw-up). But pretty quickly, it's apparent Paul is the antagonist in this story and his estranged wife, Evelyn, is the protagonist. Evelyn is sharp, is realistically flawed in all the ways you want a main character to be, and is one of McGuane's best characters.
The ending of this book, which puts Bill in a showdown with Paul, not only puts the nail in the coffin on the one-dimensional machismo character, but is one of the most memorable endings in anything I've ever read. McGuane's stakes are just on a higher level than most of the rest of literature--characters can die, do die, and often for nothing more than their morals or their word (see "Ninety-Two in the Shade"). When McGuane switches from close third to first person in the last five pages, he hits a rarefied storytelling plane that perhaps only a few other writers per generation are capable of reaching.
November 27, 2020
I last read Thomas McGuane when he and I were both young. THE SPORTING CLUB wowed me back then and I thought of him as the Steve McQueen of novelists: sexy, arrogant, iconoclastic. But at least one of us has changed since then. Reading THE CADENCE OF GRASS is about as entertaining as watching grass grow. It's true, McGuane has writing chops. Occasional passages glimmer. But the performance seems self-conscious. As he describes sailing and ranching in this novel, it is clear he has done both and has the lingo down. But it is not clear why he has to subject the reader to every last bit of their jargon in long descriptive passages. I did love the character of Bill Champion, the old rancher who, well, champions the rancher's way of life, which has nothing to do with money and everything to do with the glory, despite drudgery, of a life lived in harmony with animals and nature. Evelyn Whitelaw, heralded as McGuane's first female protagonist, is less impactful, as are the rest of the novel's characters. I kept waiting for this novel to end. And now that it's over, my recommendation is to stick to the early Thomas McGuane. I'd assume my early enthusiasm for him was just infatuation which has cooled over time; but the critics have also panned his more recent efforts.
August 17, 2014
If this book were made into a movie I would envision it as a combination of the TV shows "Dallas" and "Soap." It's about a rich dysfunctional family in Montana with the friction between the nouveaux riche and the cowboy/settler culture. I think if McGuane were to do an update of this family he would have written them into a reality show like Duck Dynasty or the Kardashians. It's witty, humorous, and with deep profound musing on the paths you take in life. This book reminded me a lot of the satirical masterpieces Evelyn Waugh wrote about the English upper class. McGuane even has a character named Evelyn-a woman. The ending is very dark though.
February 26, 2008
The weirdest Western you'll ever read.
June 20, 2013
Too many diversions, and technically there were many parts that I simply had to reread to understand and follow which character was even talking.
March 25, 2020
Tom McGuane is one of my favorite writers. I've loved his recent novels and short story collections and especially admire when he writes of his beloved Montana. I've been aware that McGuane's writing reflects his life, that as his life evolved from his early alcohol and drug fueled craziness and womanizing his writing also matured with characters of more depth and nuance. So I was curious to read this novel written in 2002 which is considered to be a transition into his recent writing style.
I was disappointed.
The plot was dumb. This summary contains some plot spoilers. It begins with Jim Whitelaw's funeral. There we meet his widow, his two grown daughters, Evelyn and Natalie, and Evelyn's estranged husband Paul who is on parole for a vehicular homicide that was actually committed by the deceased. We also meet Natalie's husband Stuart who faithfully works at Whitelaw's bottling company and Bill Champion, an old rancher who was Whitelaw's longtime business partner. The will is read and everyone learns that the estate is encumbered until Evelyn and Paul reconcile, in the meantime, Paul, not Stuart, will run the company. Champion will continue running the ranch. During the course of the novel we learn that Paul was having affairs with his parole officer as well as his sister in law Natalie. Bill Champion turns out to be the biological father of Evelyn and Natalie, he was married to their mother, she decided to leave him for Whitehall because she didn't want to be poor anymore but they agreed that Evelyn would spend a lot of time on the ranch with Champion. As Paul runs the company into the ground, flashbacks reveal the circumstances of why and how Paul took the rap for the vehicular homicide and a scene in Las Vegas where Paul is drugged and wakes up in a bathtub of ice after someone took one of his kidneys. As the novel progresses we learn that Natalie is a shoplifter, that the widow and Champion are "together" and that Paul's parole officer commits suicide after Paul reveals their affair in a court hearing that was scheduled as part of the parole officer's attempt to blackmail Paul into continuing the affair.
Some critics argue that McGuane's portrayal of Evelyn reflects a turn from his earlier misogynistic writing. However, Evelyn reconciles with Paul so the family can sell the business for money and despite growing up working on the ranch with Champion, she never figures out he is her dad even though everyone in their community had to have known about the real family history and any family history of her childhood would have included him as a father.
The novel was simply disappointing
I was disappointed.
The plot was dumb. This summary contains some plot spoilers. It begins with Jim Whitelaw's funeral. There we meet his widow, his two grown daughters, Evelyn and Natalie, and Evelyn's estranged husband Paul who is on parole for a vehicular homicide that was actually committed by the deceased. We also meet Natalie's husband Stuart who faithfully works at Whitelaw's bottling company and Bill Champion, an old rancher who was Whitelaw's longtime business partner. The will is read and everyone learns that the estate is encumbered until Evelyn and Paul reconcile, in the meantime, Paul, not Stuart, will run the company. Champion will continue running the ranch. During the course of the novel we learn that Paul was having affairs with his parole officer as well as his sister in law Natalie. Bill Champion turns out to be the biological father of Evelyn and Natalie, he was married to their mother, she decided to leave him for Whitehall because she didn't want to be poor anymore but they agreed that Evelyn would spend a lot of time on the ranch with Champion. As Paul runs the company into the ground, flashbacks reveal the circumstances of why and how Paul took the rap for the vehicular homicide and a scene in Las Vegas where Paul is drugged and wakes up in a bathtub of ice after someone took one of his kidneys. As the novel progresses we learn that Natalie is a shoplifter, that the widow and Champion are "together" and that Paul's parole officer commits suicide after Paul reveals their affair in a court hearing that was scheduled as part of the parole officer's attempt to blackmail Paul into continuing the affair.
Some critics argue that McGuane's portrayal of Evelyn reflects a turn from his earlier misogynistic writing. However, Evelyn reconciles with Paul so the family can sell the business for money and despite growing up working on the ranch with Champion, she never figures out he is her dad even though everyone in their community had to have known about the real family history and any family history of her childhood would have included him as a father.
The novel was simply disappointing
November 2, 2021
This was the first book of McGuane's that I have read. Perhaps I should have started with one of the more recognized titles. The plot was bent around the a bottling factory owned by a strange and mean man, and the terms of his will in which the factory was bequeathed to members of his family only if they would take certain actions that mostly went against their will. It stretched the imagination that some of the action could take place.
At one point the character Evelyn goes to a bar with one purpose in mind. She meets up with a weirdo who denies her desires, and it sends her off into part of the book that probably should have ended up in the editor's scrap bin. It's a departure from the rest of the story that doesn't make sense, and at that point, I was hoping for a good end to the book, and that the end might come soon.
A number of things are revealed during the story about Evelyn, her sister, their mother, and the man Evelyn married, who is a fairly interesting character. But honestly, I was close to putting this book down on several occasions, so it's tough to recommend.
The week after I finished the book, McGuane's story "Not Here You Don't," was published in the New Yorker. That is a clever short story that I enjoyed. It had a number of observations about love, marriage, and family that travelled some of the same territory as The Cadence Of Grass. It was better constructed and simpler, so it made it easier to understand how McGuane has gained a reputation as a fine writer.
At one point the character Evelyn goes to a bar with one purpose in mind. She meets up with a weirdo who denies her desires, and it sends her off into part of the book that probably should have ended up in the editor's scrap bin. It's a departure from the rest of the story that doesn't make sense, and at that point, I was hoping for a good end to the book, and that the end might come soon.
A number of things are revealed during the story about Evelyn, her sister, their mother, and the man Evelyn married, who is a fairly interesting character. But honestly, I was close to putting this book down on several occasions, so it's tough to recommend.
The week after I finished the book, McGuane's story "Not Here You Don't," was published in the New Yorker. That is a clever short story that I enjoyed. It had a number of observations about love, marriage, and family that travelled some of the same territory as The Cadence Of Grass. It was better constructed and simpler, so it made it easier to understand how McGuane has gained a reputation as a fine writer.
November 23, 2020
This is the first Thomas McGuane book I've read - one of those writers I've heard a lot about, but have never delved into his writings until now. The story, set in a changing Montana (the modern world impeding upon the traditional cattle ranchers) is a family drama. The pater familias of the Whitelaw family dies and leaves a quirky condition in his will - for his family to sell his bottling plant his daughter must reconcile with her estranged husband. Family dysfunction ensues.
The story was interesting but random and seemingly disjointed events and characters pop in and out and are at times distracting. The cross-dressing rancher for example - I assume he's meant to represent the "changing" west, but he's never fully developed and doesn't stay around long enough for the reader to get to know. And the ending completely baffled me -I'll leave it at that.
Having read other's thoughts on this book, I won't give up on McGuane as his writing is as compelling as I expected and we're all entitled to a misstep now and again.
The story was interesting but random and seemingly disjointed events and characters pop in and out and are at times distracting. The cross-dressing rancher for example - I assume he's meant to represent the "changing" west, but he's never fully developed and doesn't stay around long enough for the reader to get to know. And the ending completely baffled me -I'll leave it at that.
Having read other's thoughts on this book, I won't give up on McGuane as his writing is as compelling as I expected and we're all entitled to a misstep now and again.
August 18, 2024
Sometimes reviews make me wonder if I'm even remotely intelligent. They praise the structure of an author's sentences, the characters so real, the very 'literary-ness' of the book, and I'm bored. I would have given up if it weren't such a short book, and if I wasn't holding out hope it would click for me. We have a wealthy Montana businessman who has died, and his will only allows the family to sell the business if his elder daughter reunites with her estranged husband (is that even legal?) She has good reasons for being apart from him, but her mother and younger sister are both hoping to cash out and therefore pressuring her to do it for the family. Husband Paul is a womanizing scoundrel (including with her own sister), as was her father, but he at least was a canny, if predatory businessman. Paul is running the business into the ground, so if she doesn't make her mind up quickly, there will be nothing left to inherit. The characters seemed cartoonishly selfish, with one waking up in an ice filled bathtub minus a kidney- has that ever really happened?
October 6, 2020
Three stars for the language and descriptions, which were so good, so genius, that they almost make up for the pretentious flights into showing off his knowledge and vocabulary of ranching and boating.
I could understand telling this story if there was any pay off at all. But there is none. I was so disgusted, I didn't read the last few pages of the author showing off his knowledge again, this time about military battle.
I would love for someone to explain to me why this is a great book. I feel I'm missing something, but I'm not willing to spend any more time thinking about it.
I could understand telling this story if there was any pay off at all. But there is none. I was so disgusted, I didn't read the last few pages of the author showing off his knowledge again, this time about military battle.
I would love for someone to explain to me why this is a great book. I feel I'm missing something, but I'm not willing to spend any more time thinking about it.
July 12, 2021
I came across a brilliant short stories by Thomas McGuane in The New Yorker and looked forward to a longer novel. I was disappointed by "The Cadence of Grass" if only the author could have taken me treader with him from scene to scene. I didn't come to terms with the story structure or the characters as we went through changes in time and scene.
The writing is beautiful sentence to sentence but I didn't follow the story page to page.
The writing is beautiful sentence to sentence but I didn't follow the story page to page.
February 24, 2022
A friend of mine highly recommended Thomas McGuane, and I picked this one from his collection to read. Being unfamiliar with McGuane's work, I didn't know what to expect. But a modern western drama, with complex characters, dark comedy, and a deep sadness at its core was not it. Great book, and I'll have to pick up more of his works
November 19, 2021
I thought the book was written with very uneven plot lines. Portions of the book were soaringly written with memorable character involvement. More often than not, other sections were woefully inadequate and inactive. The best section was the snowstorm Evelyn became lost in and the very strange family that she woke up to.
November 7, 2017
Good story. The ending was dark and rather odd. Crazy set of characters. However, the cross dressing cowboy was a bit of a stretch and didn't lend much to an otherwise exceptional story about a batshit crazy family. McGuane writes beautifully of horses and horsemanship.
September 28, 2020
This novel feels like a marriage of McGuane's early pyrotechnics and later pastoral tendencies. Sparks really fly when they need to, yet you're also given the opportunity to luxuriate in Montana's scenic grandeur.
Glad I read it.
Glad I read it.
September 13, 2020
mcguane cant write a bad book
storyline was a bit erratic
language was classic mcguane ... such a legend
storyline was a bit erratic
language was classic mcguane ... such a legend
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 4, 2021
3.5 Entertaining story about a dysfunctional, privileged Montana family. Very funny at times, and has a cast of imperfect but likeable characters (except for Paul, who is not likeable at all). Some of the scenes seemed kind of random and the ending just didn't sit well with me.
June 29, 2021
Very on brand with his short stories. This is a book that is better read in one or two sittings, not drawn out because there's a certain cadence to the dialogue.
March 19, 2024
both wickedly funny and elegiac.
July 9, 2025
A fine work of Montana Americana, about a family and their struggles.
January 9, 2011
Una scrittura rodata da anni di mestiere ma ancora affilata, un romanzo che trova nei particolari, nelle descrizioni e soprattutto nei personaggi una forza inaudita, una tridimensionalità più unica che rara. Thomas McGuane, classe ‘39, è un narratore di razza . Il canto dell’erba (Alet, pp. 224 - € 16) - tradotto armonicamente da Simona Sollai - con poche, rapide pennellate mette in scena le vicende della famiglia Whitelaw, una piccola dinastia di imprenditori del Montana su cui grava lo spirito del fu patriarca Sunny Jim che anche dall’oltretomba detta legge grazie a un testamento blindato, che lega indissolubilmente il suo patrimonio alla figura losca e meschina dell’ex genero Paul Crusoe, costringendo così l’intera famiglia a venire a patti con lui. Sullo sfondo, a fare da controcanto, il West con tanto di cowboy e natura incontaminata: un mito polveroso, divorato proprio da personaggi come Paul, ma che in qualche modo entra sempre in scena per sparigliare le carte dei protagonisti, come quando Evelyn si perde nella neve in seguito a una “notte brava” con indosso un vestito da sera degno di un cocktail party a Manhattan o cerca consiglio e rifugio nel ranch dove è cresciuta sotto l’ala prorettrice, e un po’ burbera, del vecchio Bill, che da sempre veglia sui Whitelaw: unica vera figura paterna che McGuane lega proprio al “concetto” di West. Un concetto che l’autore conosce in prima persona vivendo in un ranch a sua volta. In un’intervista rilasciata a Robert Birnbaum di Identitytheory, parlando del titolo del suo libro, lo scrittore del Michigan sottolinea con forza come le vicende umane, anche quelle più abiette, debbano fare i conti con qualcosa di più grande e impassibile come il canto dell’erba: “[…] Sei certo che alla terra non importa un bel nulla se tu resti o te ne vai… E poi, ti prende questa impressione di essere in balia della natura. E la cosa inizia a piacerti. Ti piace la sensazione di vivere all’interno di un ciclo che è più importante di te; e che ha una specie di qualità ritmica, eterna che è rassicurante. È un po’ a questo che si riferisce il titolo.”
La stessa sensazione che provano i protagonsti del libro alle prese con la trama e che prova il lettore che si immerge in questo libro. All’inizio ci si trova in balia della narrazione di McGuane, per poi entrare nel meccanismo delle sue parole, il cui ritmo, tra ironia e dramma, inizia a piacere, a diventare familiare. “Il canto dell’erba” entra in circolo lento ma inesorabile. Un classico romanzo americano d’altri tempi, come non se ne vedevano dai tempi di Updike e Faulkner; senza effetti speciali, senza epica o manifesto spessore politico-sociale, eppure dotato di una potenza evocativa straordinaria, quasi metafisica, nascosta nei dettagli e per questo subliminalmente efficace.
La stessa sensazione che provano i protagonsti del libro alle prese con la trama e che prova il lettore che si immerge in questo libro. All’inizio ci si trova in balia della narrazione di McGuane, per poi entrare nel meccanismo delle sue parole, il cui ritmo, tra ironia e dramma, inizia a piacere, a diventare familiare. “Il canto dell’erba” entra in circolo lento ma inesorabile. Un classico romanzo americano d’altri tempi, come non se ne vedevano dai tempi di Updike e Faulkner; senza effetti speciali, senza epica o manifesto spessore politico-sociale, eppure dotato di una potenza evocativa straordinaria, quasi metafisica, nascosta nei dettagli e per questo subliminalmente efficace.
January 14, 2011
Una scrittura rodata da anni di mestiere ma ancora affilata, un romanzo che trova nei particolari, nelle descrizioni e soprattutto nei personaggi una forza inaudita, una tridimensionalità più unica che rara. Thomas McGuane, classe ‘39, è un narratore di razza . Il canto dell’erba (Alet, pp. 224 - € 16) - tradotto armonicamente da Simona Sollai - con poche, rapide pennellate mette in scena le vicende della famiglia Whitelaw, una piccola dinastia di imprenditori del Montana su cui grava lo spirito del fu patriarca Sunny Jim che anche dall’oltretomba detta legge grazie a un testamento blindato, che lega indissolubilmente il suo patrimonio alla figura losca e meschina dell’ex genero Paul Crusoe, costringendo così l’intera famiglia a venire a patti con lui. Sullo sfondo, a fare da controcanto, il West con tanto di cowboy e natura incontaminata: un mito polveroso, divorato proprio da personaggi come Paul, ma che in qualche modo entra sempre in scena per sparigliare le carte dei protagonisti, come quando Evelyn si perde nella neve in seguito a una “notte brava” con indosso un vestito da sera degno di un cocktail party a Manhattan o cerca consiglio e rifugio nel ranch dove è cresciuta sotto l’ala prorettrice, e un po’ burbera, del vecchio Bill, che da sempre veglia sui Whitelaw: unica vera figura paterna che McGuane lega proprio al “concetto” di West. Un concetto che l’autore conosce in prima persona vivendo in un ranch a sua volta. In un’intervista rilasciata a Robert Birnbaum di Identitytheory, parlando del titolo del suo libro, lo scrittore del Michigan sottolinea con forza come le vicende umane, anche quelle più abiette, debbano fare i conti con qualcosa di più grande e impassibile come il canto dell’erba: “[…] Sei certo che alla terra non importa un bel nulla se tu resti o te ne vai… E poi, ti prende questa impressione di essere in balia della natura. E la cosa inizia a piacerti. Ti piace la sensazione di vivere all’interno di un ciclo che è più importante di te; e che ha una specie di qualità ritmica, eterna che è rassicurante. È un po’ a questo che si riferisce il titolo.”
La stessa sensazione che provano i protagonsti del libro alle prese con la trama e che prova il lettore che si immerge in questo libro. All’inizio ci si trova in balia della narrazione di McGuane, per poi entrare nel meccanismo delle sue parole, il cui ritmo, tra ironia e dramma, inizia a piacere, a diventare familiare. “Il canto dell’erba” entra in circolo lento ma inesorabile. Un classico romanzo americano d’altri tempi, come non se ne vedevano dai tempi di Updike e Faulkner; senza effetti speciali, senza epica o manifesto spessore politico-sociale, eppure dotato di una potenza evocativa straordinaria, quasi metafisica, nascosta nei dettagli e per questo subliminalmente efficace.
La stessa sensazione che provano i protagonsti del libro alle prese con la trama e che prova il lettore che si immerge in questo libro. All’inizio ci si trova in balia della narrazione di McGuane, per poi entrare nel meccanismo delle sue parole, il cui ritmo, tra ironia e dramma, inizia a piacere, a diventare familiare. “Il canto dell’erba” entra in circolo lento ma inesorabile. Un classico romanzo americano d’altri tempi, come non se ne vedevano dai tempi di Updike e Faulkner; senza effetti speciali, senza epica o manifesto spessore politico-sociale, eppure dotato di una potenza evocativa straordinaria, quasi metafisica, nascosta nei dettagli e per questo subliminalmente efficace.
November 16, 2010
He was known in life as the man who never smiled and in death he manages to control his family with his dubious legacy. He leaves his widow a comfortable income but insists that his ex-convict son-in-law, Paul, manage the bottling plant. As if this isn’t bad enough, Paul and Sunny’s daughter, Evelyn, must reconcile.
This novel twists and turns through the hills of Montana as it meanders through the dysfunctional Whitelaw family. The story follows the lives of Jim’s wife, daughters, their husbands and Bill Champion in the months that follow his death.
The novel conveys serious messages about the passage of time and lost values.I enjoyed the offbeat characters. They do do the unexpected and I loved that in a world where so much is lost in the name of doing the right thing.
I have not read any of McGuane’s previous novels, several of which are considered modern classics. I will now.
This novel twists and turns through the hills of Montana as it meanders through the dysfunctional Whitelaw family. The story follows the lives of Jim’s wife, daughters, their husbands and Bill Champion in the months that follow his death.
The novel conveys serious messages about the passage of time and lost values.I enjoyed the offbeat characters. They do do the unexpected and I loved that in a world where so much is lost in the name of doing the right thing.
I have not read any of McGuane’s previous novels, several of which are considered modern classics. I will now.
November 6, 2015
This is my only McGuane book and I am thinking that is a good thing. A most negative review complained that he had not grown up as a writer with this novel - many years out from his last. But I know nothing about that. He is new to me and I loved most of it. This family stands as an example of my own father's succinct appraisal of humanity :" People are crazy." McGuane's crazy is funny and I laughed but the humor gets tricky and the story loses some points. It is at its best when MaGuane talks ranching and Montana - showing this country's big Western heart that, I suspect, the humor is supposed to make skip a beat. Two characters rise a bit above the fray - a woman who grew up loving horses and an aging cowboy who knows what's what. I'll take them and the big night sky and remember it as a paean to the West whether MaGuane likes it or not.
November 29, 2011
My first read of McGuane. Liked it a lot. Interesting cast of characters, good story, enjoyable writing style, with hard Montana ranch life as a backdrop.
Sounds like a lukewarm review. Why did I give it four stars? I loved the words, the humorously flawed but still (mostly) sympathetic characters, the crazy dysfunctional family and family business, and the incredibly detailed passages about horses and cows real close up. And a story with twists and turns that surprise sometimes. Oh, and a male author writing story whose central character is a strong female.
Maybe If this hadn't been the first book of McGuane's that I read, I might have given him 3 stars for first rate, but this is the honeymoon of discovering a new writer so 4 it is.
Sounds like a lukewarm review. Why did I give it four stars? I loved the words, the humorously flawed but still (mostly) sympathetic characters, the crazy dysfunctional family and family business, and the incredibly detailed passages about horses and cows real close up. And a story with twists and turns that surprise sometimes. Oh, and a male author writing story whose central character is a strong female.
Maybe If this hadn't been the first book of McGuane's that I read, I might have given him 3 stars for first rate, but this is the honeymoon of discovering a new writer so 4 it is.
March 30, 2007
Hmm, quite a good read, but bits of it I just skipped over. The ending is quite weird, almost mystical. I felt the author could have made more of the characters. The story jumps around for no apparent reason, making the narrative feel uncomfortably jerky. Apparently, it isn't his best book. I bought it ages ago after reading a review. Interestingly, a couple of other books I read on the recommendation of the same magazine were not that great either. I think I have learnt my lesson now.
September 24, 2008
I didn't care for this one. I'd have to describe the writing style as angular. It's more a man's book, I think, than a woman's. The sentence structure is often awkward as are the changes in scene. The writing shines occasionally when describing the weather and landscape, for which the author clearly has great affection. I found the characters to be shallowly drawn. The dialog didn't ring true to my ear, and was at times incomprehensible. Great title, though.
January 15, 2009
Thanks to my uncle's recommendation, I've now found another envy-inspiring writer with Thomas McGuane. This is no easy read, though--the family is more despicable than The Corrections' Lamberts, the humor is as black as tar, and much of the violence comes as a sudden shock. But man can McGuane write--he's a master of economy, wit, and detail, and I'm in awe of how he can create a fully realized cast of characters in just a page or two.
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