Book Review - Driving on the Rim

Thomas McGuane is one of the earliest "serious" novelists that I read back in high school outside of assigned school reading. I was reminded of that when thinking about 15 authors for the list I noted a little while back. Coincidently enough, within a day or so of writing that list, I was in the local Barnes & Noble, and saw McGuane's new novel, Driving on the Rim (306 pages, 2010). You can't fight a coincidence like that, so I bought the book and read it.

The cover flap notes this as the "dark comic journey" of Irving Berlin "Berl" Pickett, MD, a small town Montana doctor. Berl's is the story of an unusual childhood having grown into an equally unusual adulthood. Despite having come from modest beginnings and having gotten himself through medical school to be a practicing physician, Berl is a maladjusted socially inept guy struggling to find his way. I found the book to be both intricately detailed and carefully constructed, although it can probably give the false impression of meandering around. It does wander, but not aimlessly. It seemed to mirror the way in which Berl is buffeted along by the currents of his life, sometimes able to steer himself around the snags, and sometimes not. He is infuriating, endearing, aggravating, perplexing, hopeless and hopeful. I felt for him. And perhaps best of all, despite all that he goes through (and in contrast to much of what I have read recently), there is a happy ending...

As is typical of McGuane's works, Berl is surrounded by a large cast of supporting characters, many of whom are constructed around typical western archetypes, but convincingly so. These people, even those putting in brief appearances, seemed very real to me.

A very good book. 4 stars out of 5 and recommended.

"I seemed to be a bachelor. For years I wondered whenever the phone rang late at night if it might be Debbie. It never was. I realized now that it never would be. There were quite a few things like that." [p. 240]

"She might have been too smart for me at that stage of my life. Now that I was somewhat shriven by circumstances and Jinx had begun to accept me as an unadulterated friend - someone to go birding with or share a ride to racquetball - I saw more in her. My mistakes seemed to accumulate like channel markers behind a boat. But at least I had a friend; I was sure of that." [p. 244]

"I'm quite aware of how abject I must have seemed, but one look at Jocelyn would clear that up for anyone. She was a such gorgeous woman, and the fact that she administered her beauty with coolness and perhaps calculation didn't seem to detract from it. I don't think anyone has quite understood the merciless power of women at their apogee. We are reduced to worship - and I do mean reduced. I wasn't sure brains and character added much at all." [p. 275]

Books read this year: 25 [totalling 5,752 pages]
Published in 2010: 16 [including this]
New authors: 15
Classics: still 3