Panama

While recently searching for a copy of Thomas McGuane's second novel, The Bushwhacked Piano, a book that I originally read not too long after it came out in 1971, I came across a statement which indicated that McGuane considered Panama as sort of his high-water mark as a writer - so I decided to order a copy of that instead. McGuane went on to publish several more novels and story collections - as well as some very successful Hollywood screenplays including The Missouri Breaks, Rancho Deluxe, Tom Horn - as well as the screen version of his own novel Ninety-two in the Shade.McGuane, in fact, became very Hollywood during the 1970's and for two years during that decade he was married to actress Margot Kidder. But McGuane must have also had a strong connection with Key West during the 1970's because those are the streets that his protagonist, Chester Hunnicutt Pomeroy - a.k.a. "Chet" roams and wanders during the action in the novel Panama, which McGuane published in 1978.(Spoiler alert: Panama is a novel about Key West, Florida, and has almost nothing at all to do with the country of Panama other than a few veiled mentions which paint it as a place of refuge - where people can go to live in safety and a climate of sanity.)I have seen Key West through multiple perspectives: as a married man visiting the island with his young family, as a single man looking for a bit of adventure, and as a harried cruise ship tourist rushing ashore for a quick couple of beers and a few tee-shirts. I assumed that with those varied views of the small yet highly commercial island, I probably had a fairly complete overview of the place.But that was before I encountered burned out rockstar Chet Pomeroy and let him take me on an extended tour of Key West, a trip that allowed me to see a technicolor view of the characters and haunts of the island through the filter of Chet's psychosis. Chet, who during his heyday as a rocker, had managed to offend much of the civilized world, had moved back to his hometown in the mid-seventies where he began some process (known only to himself, apparently) of sorting himself out - and where he also "voted for Carter." He managed to spend most of his waking hours looking to score drugs, get laid, or scare the bejeezus out of staid tourists from the Midwest.Chet is relentlessly pursuing Catherine, the love of his life who shares his fondness for drugs and sex, and he is avoiding his father, a millionaire who is visiting the island, due to Chet's firm hallucination that his father died years ago in a Boston subway fire. Chet also believes that the Missouri bank-robber, Jesse James, is still alive and speaks with him.Key West is a carnival at just about any time of the year, but when Thomas McGuane and his alter-ego Chet Pomeroy are leading the parade, it's a full-blown Mardi Gras celebration, complete with side attractions like grave-robbers, sex in odd places, villainous cops, dogs with no names, and plenty of blood and vomit.Panama let me experience Key West in ways I never intended. It's a most interesting read.

Thomas McGuane is one of those writers that is overlooked. His books are really fun to read. If you haven't discovered him, get busy. P.S. He's Jimmy Buffett's brother-in-law. I met him back in the early 70's and he's a great guy. You will enjoy his books. He's also a great screen writer. He wrote Tom Horn, the last movie Steve McQueen starred in. However having said all that, I had a hard time with this book, Panama. It just didn't live up to my expectations.

Interesting short read but it takes a while to figure out just what's going on. Set in Key West in the late 70's, much of the book is confused, but then again so is the main character. The story line is very thin, but McGuane's masterful prose makes it worth reading and there are several gems. If you require a strong story line, this book isn't for you. If you like creative writing, give it a read.

Concerning, as it does, the Key-West existence of one Chester Hunnicutt Pomeroy, a disgraced rock-and-roller trying to come to terms with a life comprising, in varying amounts and to ever-shifting degrees, drugs, booze, sex, hallucination, humiliation, illusion, delusion, disappointment, fantasy, outrage, audacity, self-destruction, a perilously tenuous connection to reality, and an even flimsier comprehension of love.McGuane writes like a man possessed by everything except imaginative limits. I couldn't put this book down.

For my money it's his best novel. All of the style and locale that earned him national awards in 92 in the Shade are refined here to a very high degree. Chet, the protagonist, is someone we've all met or should like to meet. He's made such a mess of his life that others don't see why he should even continue trying. Panama is a masterpiece that had the bad luck to drop into a wave that closed out. As our hero finds out, salvation can be tricky and may only come when you hit rock bottom.

I've just discovered McGuane and have read three of his books since Panama; Love his succinct, but right on, dialogue and the skewered way he has of describing the most mundane things. Very engaging writer.

I've enjoyed McGuane's short stories in The New Yorker, but his novels fall short for me as they are simply too much of the same thing over and over again... My impression is that he's a bit of a Thomas Pynchon wannabe, but has miles to go before approaching Pynchon's genius...

A bit confusing,it had it's moments, the thing that made me like it is couldn't put it down till the ending.

excellent, as he usually is.