SOURCE: "Midlife Misery in Cow Country," in Christian Science Monitor, October 7, 1992.

In the following review of Nothing But Blue Skies, Knickerbocker praises McGuane's characterizations, stating "The strength of McGuane's characters is the compassion they elicit."

Thomas McGuane writes like a dream … in a nightmarish world.

His characters are deep, real, funny, and intelligent. Their dialogue is sharp and sweet, clever (in the best sense) without being contrived. They move in a landscape of rich detail, in town and out, following a trout stream.

They are also desperate and at times out of control. Not out of McGuane's control but their own, on paths of painful discovery often verging on the self-destructive.

It is a path McGuane himself acknowledges having followed, before he stabilized into writing and ranching in Montana, which is no doubt why he reads so well the current manifestation of men's search for balance between action...