Cadence of Grass
Cadence of Grass
Cadence of Grass
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Description
Description
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.
About the Author
About the Author
THOMAS McGUANE lives on a ranch in McLeod, Montana. He is the author of ten novels, including the National Book Award-nominated Ninety-two in the Shade, three works of nonfiction, and four collections of stories. His work has won numerous awards, including the Rosenthal Award of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and has been anthologized in the Best American Stories, Best American Essays, and Best American Sporting Essays.
Critical Reviews
Critical Reviews
"Darkly fiendish, wildly unsettling, and viciously good." --Men's Journal "A hearty welcome home ... a tale of betrayal, revenge and spousal loathing ... [that] rollicks along on the legs of its comic characters." --Outside "Beautifully turned.... a surprising, affecting mix of bitterness and delicacy." --Entertainment Weekly "McGuane's sentences are like no one else's, crisp and spare, yet somehow baroque, and he perpetually balances the picaresque against the sublime." --The New Yorker "McGuane has struck a perfect balance ... between his large cast of beautifully drawn and memorable characters and the animals they raise and work and love." --Alan Cheuse, Chicago Tribune "A fine, quirky, funny, startling novel ... with witty dialogue and hilarious moments and sudden violence and awful betrayals." --Miami Herald "McGuane is a terrific writer, a great chronicler of the vanishing West." --The Orlando Sentinel "There is a raw exuberance to this hard-edged novel.... McGuane proves that he is still an accomplished cowpuncher with words." --Seattle Post-Intelligencer "McGuane's unflagging invention is consistently engaging.... He is remarkably attuned to the psychological discomfort and indirect jousting underlying routine social interactions, and his language is rich, varied and effortless." --The San Diego Union-Tribune "When McGuane dissects his characters to their squirming core, The Cadence of Grass is downright hilarious." --St. Petersburg Times "The plot ... unfolds with McGuane's characteristic wit and delight in the absurd.... His voice gets truer every time." --The Plain Dealer "One of our most readable and accomplished writers.... Consistently entertaining." --Rocky Mountain News "A complex and dark novel in which detailed rendering of psychological landscapes creates a fascinating portrait of the suffering heart of an old and perhaps dying way of life." --The Globe & Mail, Toronto "There is an earthy and comedic magic about this expansive story within the expanse of the Western plains." --Deseret News "McGuane portrays an American West that is vivid and alive, writing crackling dialogue with an eye for the ridiculous." --The Boston Phoenix
Publishing Information
Publishing Information
Publisher:
Vintage
Pub date:
2003-05-13
Length:
256 pages
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