The Majesty That Is McGuane's

A WRITER'S WIT
The most important political office is that of the private citizen. 
​Louis D. Brandeis
Born November 13, 1856

L. Brandeis

New Yorker Fiction

***—Excellent
**   —Above Average 
*      —Average ​​​

Brian Merriam

***November 13, 2017, Thomas McGuane, “Riddle”: On a dark night, what does the architect narrator have in common with a crippled old man named Jack and his urchin buddy, an ER physician named Karen, and a felonious couple who rob the architect of his car? A Thomas McGuane short story, that’s what. A master of the genre, he weaves this rich, nuanced, and detailed narrative in a mere three pages, a distance the lesser writer might utilize for exposition. In the following passage behold McGuane’s magic as he deftly weaves these elements together:

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“It was thus that I observed my car drive away, two little red tail-lights, and this threw me into a strange reflective state, in which my dissolute night at the Wrangler and my ensuing exhaustion, the cowboy and the boy, the two crooks who had just stolen my car, my remote house and its unconquered air of vacancy, all seemed to have equal value—that is, no value” (68).

One must sigh at his majesty. One must just sigh. McGuane’s upcoming book, Cloudbursts: Collected and New Stories, will be out in March 2018.
 
Photograph by Brian Merriam
​NEXT TIME: New Yorker Fiction 2017