There is a lot of hassling in this book of family and friends ["Panama"], and it is all written up in a blowsy first-person prose that goes in all directions and winds up being, basically, a kvetch: "I stood on the toilet and looked out at my nation through the ventilator fan." (pp. 34, 36)

As I understand it, Mr. McGuane likes to function as a sort of counter-chamber of commerce for Key West; and I believe he succeeds at that admirably. The sense of place in his novel is hot, sleazy, uncomfortable; and all the characters seem a little addled, and nasty, and dull, especially when they are talking to one another….

From what I have pieced together, the novel is called "Panama" because that is where Chet and his girlfriend Catherine once had a high old time and ended up getting married, in the good old days. At...