SOURCE: "McGuane Mellows," in Washington Post Book World, Vol. XXII, No. 43, October 25, 1992, p. 15.

In the following essay, Streitfield discusses McGuane's current lifestyle on his Montana ranch with his wife and children, contrasting it with his long-time reputation as a drinker and womanizer.

Sometime in the past couple of years, Tom McGuane completed the transition from aging Bad Boy to youngish Grand Old Man. You can chart the transition by looking, first, at the back of his old 1978 novel, Panama: It's a photo of McGuane at the tiller of a boat, long hair askew, hunting for something, looking manic. Then examine the back of his latest, Nothing But Blue Skies. There the 52-year-old author is at rest, head propped on his arm. It's a portrait of a mature rancher in his Sunday best.

Panama was, as it happens, a key book for McGuane, the end of his early period...