Cutting a Byronic figure, Pomeroy [in Thomas McGuane's "Panama"] broods over his past and his problematical future, observes with loving disgust the change and decay all around him, and sidesteps the opportunities for solace with instinctive eccentricity….

With his assorted heartaches, his bad teeth, and his affection for boats, firearms, and cocaine, Pomeroy takes after previous McGuane heroes—his immediate predecessor, for example: Thomas Skelton of "Ninety-two in the Shade." He and Skelton share, among other traits, an obsession with the tie between father and son, their angle being filial….

The unanswered question of "Ninety-two in the Shade" emerges in "Panama" as a remote chance for deliverance. Meanwhile, Pomeroy pounds the transcendental beat with the sharp wits and eye for detail that can be expected in a man of McGuane's creating….

A McGuane man has yet to meet his match in a McGuane woman (a kind of Penelopean...