Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/68594
I OnL ocation By Chris Dorsey f you've ever fancied yourself a writer, Tom McGuane ought to be your hero. His first novel, The Sporting Club, was published straight out of college and a beat later he was getting rave reviews from the likes of Saul Bellow and William Faulkner. Soon, this wayward Michigander was living large in Hollywood where he directed Peter Fonda in the screen adaptation of his third novel, Ninety-Two in the Shade. Seven novels and 37 years later McGuane, once known as Captain Berserko (rivaling Hunter Thompson as their era's unhinged literary madman) has found his life's sea legs while Lover of life, sweet solitude and a good woman, the voice of an outdoor generation – these are roles Tom McGuane has always fulfilled with style and grace. "Garden variety, small-stream trout fishing is at the core of who I am as a fisherman," he says with a hint of irony, knowing his old self would have scoffed at such a mild pursuit. "I love to cast for them in these thermally-challenged prairie streams. They all have something in common – which is that nobody else has much interest in them. I get that pure feeling – reconnecting with my origins as a fisherman. "In my sustaining – and even expanding – his substantial literary legacy. Transporting himself across generations from the original enfant terrible of '70s literature to his current, tamer embodiment of the eminent novelist, McGuane's still writing the book on how to live like a great writer. Nowadays, he's happily secluded on his Montana ranch, nestled in love with his wife, Laurie, and surrounded by their family, friends and diverse pets. And he's still writing – most recently in the New Yorker which published his short story, "A Prairie A uthor Tom McGuane on the set for the Orion presentation, Buccaneers & Bones. His first love, however, is fly fishing for trout in small streams. Girl," one of several planned for a forthcoming collection. else knows or cares about. I can't find the solitude I seek in all the usual spots because everybody else is already there." lifetime, the population of the U.S. has doubled. So if I want to fish the way I grew up fishing, I have to sneak around and discover some secret places no one Like so many of his protagonists, McGuane seeks his center with a rod and reel in hand. And, after years of rabidly pursuing Earth's biggest, wildest fish, today he's more likely to be plying Montana's lost local waters in search of peace, quiet and the addictive tight line. Sometimes, though, McGuane allows himself to share a fishing hole or two with good friends and, once a year, camera crews. It happens on the set of Buccaneers & Bones – an Orion Entertainment production airing on Outdoor Channel where McGuane takes to the waters of the Bahamas with fellow cultural luminaries Tom Brokaw, Michael Keaton and Yvon Chouinard, along with fishing icons SPOR TIN G CL ASSICS 181