THE BUSHWHACKED PIANO

by Thomas McGuane ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1971

Another novel about the road, this time South and Westward, and peripatetic zanies with kit bags full of psychological trouble. Nicholas Payne has left lawr skyewl and great American expectations behind but alas not other dreams of a certain ultimately inaccessible girl (Ann Fitzgerald, whose rich parents hate his little criminal guts) nor the social anti-obligations of freestyle, oddball chic. Thus in scene after scene -- bronc busting ad lib in a rodeo, collaborating with a double amputee in constructing ""bat atriums"" for pest control, having his hemorrhoids gouged away by a doctor high on amphetamines -- he dares the improbable and gets a pie in the face for hubris. There's not much in the way of structure or story, and what there is of it is a pop curio from the early sixties. Too bad, because line for line McGuane writes with a dazzling maniacal savvy and wit, especially about the fat of the heartland and those regions beyond where ""Sacagawea and Gerald McBoingBoing fought for the scraps of U.S.A. history."" A trapeze feat of style much above the level of the material, and well worth attention in its own right.

Pub Date: March 1, 1971

ISBN: 0394726421

Page Count: -

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1971

Categories: FICTION