Thomas McGuane and the new West

Thomas McGuane, despite his great resume of publications and at least one iconic novel (Even Cowgirls) is not all that well-known or appreciated, perhaps because he's lived in and written about the West (Montana, specifically) and perhaps because he had no single major breakout novel (cf Richard Ford America trilogy) and he's never "joined" any school of writers (postmodernist or otherwise). The New Yorker has published him regularly for many years, though, and his story in the current New Yorker, Wide Spot (I keep forgetting the title), typifies his recent work. He write about the culture class in the "new" West: on one side, the absentee landowners (mostly from LA) who see the West as a vast weekend playground and getaway and the people in the West who have made a lot of money through rising real-estate values; on the other side, the long-time residents, many living in poverty and victims of the contemporary vices, notably drug and alcohol abuse. His narrators, generally, are mediators between these two group, long-time residents with a deep history in the land but also opportunists or just plain fortunate to have caught the crest of the wave. In this story, his narrator is a member of the Montana legislature, doing some early campaign work and fundraising in some of the small towns in his rural/agricultural district. As always, McGuane captures the voice and personality of the narrator as well as the secondary characters: a town official who greets the narrator gruffly and bluntly states his lack of support for the candidacy; an encounter with a man who was the lead singer in a rock band that the narrator performed with back in the day. McGuane is one of the few writers around who still believes short stories should have a plot and a resolution; this one does - and it's a good one - though along the way there are too many unlikely chance encounters (e.g., the fellow bandmate somehow still lives in this small town and the narrator never knew that?) and some behavior on the part of the narrator (trying to hook up w/ ex-bandmate's daughter, a generation - or 2 - younger than he is) - that don't quite sit right. Still, always worth reading McGuane's new work.