Panama

By Thomas McGuane

Panama is the harrowing and hilarious story of a washed-up rock star with kamikaze passion in Key West—and is widely considered to be the most autobiographical novel of one of our most important Americal writers, the author of Ninety-two in the Shade and Cloudbursts

Chester Pomeroy is a one-time rock star turned casualty of illicit substances. In the hands of Thomas McGuane, Chester's story is a high-wire act of extravagant emotion and steel-nerved prose. As he haunts Key West, pestering family, threatening a potential in-law with a .38, and attempting to crucify himself on his ex's door out of sheer lovesickness, Chester emerges as the pure archetype of the McGuane hero.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Jul 3, 2019
• ISBN: 9781984899453

Thomas McGuane

Thomas McGuane is the author of several highly acclaimed novels, including The Bushwacked Piano, which won the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Award of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters; Ninety-two in the Shade, which was nominated for the National Book Award; Panama; Nobody's Angel; Something to Be Desired; Keep the Change; and Nothing But Blue Skies. He has also written To Skin a Cat, a collection of short stories; and An Outside Chance, a collection of essays on sports. His books have been published in ten languages. He was born in Michigan and educated at Michigan State University, earned a Master of Fine Arts degree at the Yale School of Drama and was a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford. An ardent conservationist, he is a director of American Rivers and of the Craighead Wildlife-Wildlands Institute. He lives with his family in McLeod, Montana.

Reviews for Panama

[blanderson-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Funny, vibrant, yet repetitive---a funny experiment in voice and perception, with a hangdog narrative based around a down-and-out rocker's drug-addled thoughts.

[hagelstein_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Chet Pomeroy, former bombastic rock star, current disturbed and sometimes manic resident of Key West, self-described “angler on the sea of God’s mysteries” is dealing with failure, substance issues, his aunt/stepmother’s impending marriage to a gold-digger, police harassment, memory problems, and trying to regain the love of Catherine, who he apparently married some time back in Panama. Also, his father - “everything I say about my father is disputed by everyone” is apparently alive and trying to contact Chet, although Chet firmly believes he’s dead, but Jesses James is alive. Chet is recognized early on as an unreliable but basically truthful narrator. “I am considered a tribute to evil living.” But he’s likeable in a highly intelligent, highly flawed manner. McGuane’s language is lyrical, poetic at times, very clever, and humorous. He bends sentences in beautifully disturbing ways.