Ninety-two in the Shade [Paperback]

Tiring of the company of junkies and burn-outs, Thomas Skelton goes home to Key West to take up a more wholesome life. But things fester in America's utter South. And Skelton's plans to become a skiff guide in the shining blue subtropical waters place him on a collision course with Nichol Dance, who has risen to the crest of the profession by dint of infallible instincts and a reputation for homicide. Out of their deadly rivalry, Thomas McGuane has constructed a novel with the impetus of a thriller and the heartbroken humor that is his distinct contribution to American prose. Full of surprises and rewards and an exhilaration one feels only rarely.... I offer a gentle exhortation -- please read this book. -Newsday

Thomas McGuane makes the page, the paragraph, the sentence itself a record of continuous imaginative activity.... He is an important as well as a brilliant novelist. --The New York Times Book Review

McGuane's sense of place, his harsh and delicate exactness of detail are at their keenest. --Newsweek

Few writers have explored our national malaise as persistently -- or as elegantly -- as Thomas McGuane, a writer whose command of the language has helped define our American loneliness. --Philadelphia Inquirer

Thomas McGuane lives in McLeod, Montana. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the author of ten novels, three works of nonfiction, and three collections of stories.

US