McGuane's early novels have often been targets for complaint about the flatness of his characters. Wayne Codd, a peeping torn and addle-pate ranch foreman, is certainly a caricature — but a splendidly funny one. He is also notable as an early, comparatively harmless version of a character type portrayed more chillingly as Nichol Dance in Ninety-Two in the Shade (1973).

C. J. Clovis, on the other hand, has reminded some readers of a cartoon character, complete with detachable body parts and an encyclopedic love for bats. Together with Dr. Proctor, who botches Payne's hemorrhoid surgery, Clovis facilitates the gradual deepening of Payne's helplessness and despair, both in regard to his place in an America gone mad, and in his efforts to maintain a refuge of love in spite of everything.

Payne's girl, Ann Fitzgerald, has come under particular attack for the way in which McGuane limits her to the...