Thomas McGuane is Writing the Most Vital Literature of the Trump Era

During Donald Trump's presidency and beyond, literary fiction responded to political chaos in distinct ways. Readers initially turned to journalistic and historical explainers in Trump's first term, then to classic novels during the pandemic. Later, they sought escapist genre books and comfort reads in Trump's second term. Writers attempted to capture the era's absurdity with exaggerated styles, such as the Rabelaisian excess in Tony Tulathimutte’s Rejection and Mark Doten’s Trump Sky Alpha. Others focused on class struggles, like Andrew Martin and Halle Butler’s portrayals of the underemployed. A third group used allegory, drawing from history or the supernatural, as seen in Zadie Smith’s The Fraud or George Saunders’s Vigil. Most of this work reflects a left-leaning perspective, addressing issues from the viewpoint of its audience.

Thomas McGuane, an octogenarian writer, stands out for his compassionate yet unsentimental portrayal of rural America, particularly in his short fiction collection A Wooded Shore. While many writers focus on coastal urban perspectives, McGuane’s stories are set in rural Montana and Florida, exploring small-town dynamics where grudges and time move slowly. His work contrasts with the political hyperbole of the left by offering plainspoken wit and nuanced character studies. Despite his accolades, including a National Book Award finalist nomination for Ninety-Two in the Shade in 1973, McGuane remains underrated. His style is described as masterful, with the New York Times calling him a 'master of the short story' in 2018.

McGuane has been writing for over 50 years, primarily about horses and fishing, though his work also includes novels, short stories, and nonfiction. His career includes screenwriting in 1970s Hollywood, where he sold scripts and socialized with figures like Peter Fonda and Margot Kidder. He has been married three times, including to Kidder and the sister of Jimmy Buffett. McGuane shifted to short fiction relatively late in his career, finding it a challenging yet rewarding form. He has compared writing a story to 'trying to start a fire in the rain,' highlighting the difficulty of crafting concise, impactful narratives. His recent collection Cloudbursts was praised for its mastery of the short story format.

McGuane’s fiction is deeply rooted in rural settings, often depicting small towns where time moves slowly and grudges linger. His characters are frequently white men clinging to self-conceptions despite lacking self-awareness, a recurring theme in his stories. For example, in A Wooded Shore, a story titled Take Half, Leave Half reflects McGuane’s use of karmic symmetry, where characters face consequences for past actions. His stories avoid the exaggerated tropes of works like Taylor Sheridan’s films, instead offering a grounded, wry perspective on rural life. This setting is often exoticized by urban readers, but McGuane’s work grounds it in realism and subtle humor.

McGuane’s writing is characterized by its brevity, wit, and syntactic precision. His sentences often weave multiple ideas together, as seen in the opening line of the novella A Wooded Shore, where he describes a character living on a Trump-branded yacht. The alliterative and consonant-rich phrasing creates a rhythmic, almost musical quality, while the imagery contrasts luxury with decay. Trump is mentioned only once in the novella, serving as an adjective rather than a noun, symbolizing the pervasive influence of his era. McGuane’s characters often confront moments of reckoning, where self-belief clashes with reality, reflecting broader themes of denial and intractability.

Two standout stories in A Wooded Shore are Thataway and Slant Six. Thataway follows siblings Mildred and Constance Parrott in a windblown prairie town, where Mildred’s sudden death forces Constance to confront her own life and the past. Meanwhile, their brother Cooper, a former Western actor, is drawn back into his family’s dysfunction. The story explores themes of nostalgia, family dysfunction, and the arbitrariness of identity. In Slant Six, a couple returns from a party where the husband made unwanted advances, leading to a quiet moment of self-reflection. Both stories highlight McGuane’s ability to capture complex emotions in brief, impactful narratives.