Louise cried, “I wish I could feel something!” And when I reached to comfort her she shoved me away. I had no choice but to climb back up to the roadway.
After that, I could encounter Louise only by telephone. I told her he had a record as long as your arm. “It’s not enough!” she said. I called later to say that he was of German and Italian extraction. That proved equally unsatisfactory, and when I called to inform her that he hailed from Wisconsin she just hung up on me, this time for good.
Thomas McGuane
Gallatin Canyon
Thomas McGuane lives on a ranch in McLeod, Montana. He is the author of nine novels, three works of nonfiction, and one previous collection of stories.
Also by Thomas McGuane
The Cadence of Grass
The Longest Silence: A Life in Fishing
Some Horses
Nothing but Blue Skies
Keep the Change
To Skin a Cat
Something to Be Desired
Nobody’s Angel
An Outside Chance
Panama
Ninety-two in the Shade
The Bushwhacked Piano
The Sporting Club
FIRST VINTAGE CONTEMPORARIES EDITION, JUNE 2007
Copyright © 2006 by Thomas McGuane
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
“Cowboy,” “Gallatin Canyon,” “Ice,” “Old Friends,” and “Vicious Circle” previously appeared in The New Yorker.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the Knopf edition as follows:
McGuane, Thomas.
Gallatin Canyon / Thomas McGuane.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Contents: Vicious circle—Cowboy—Ice—Old friends—North coast—The zombie—
Miracle boy—Aliens—The refugee—Gallatin Canyon.
1. West (U.S.)—Social life and customs—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3563.A3114G35 2006
813’.54—dc22
2005044680
www.vintagebooks.com
www.randomhouse.com
eISBN: 978-0-307-42599-7
v3.0