Thomas McGuane

As a citizen, Nicholas Payne is not in the least solid. As a boyfriend, he is nothing short of disastrous and his latest flame, the patrician Ann Fitzgerald, has done the wise thing by dropping him. But she has reckoned without Nicholas's extraordinary persistence.

The result is a ruefully funny novel of embattled manhood, set in the country that McGuane has made his own: a Montana where cowboys slug it out with speculators, a cattleman's best friend may be his insurance broker, and love and fishing are the only consolations that last.

Set in Key West--the nation's extreme limit--this is the story of a man seeking refuge from a world of drug addiction by becoming a skiff guide for tourists--even though a tough competitor threat