Thomas McGuane: A wooded shore
Knopf
Advance copy via Netgalley; Uncorrected eBook file
Publication date October 13, 2025
ISBN 978-0385350235

I was provided an early uncorrected e-proof of the text. I encountered no writing errors.

Six stories appeared earlier in The Paris Review or The New Yorker.

My previous exposure to the author’s work includes story collections (Crow Fair; Cloudbursts), entries in Best of … collections, and stories appearing in The Paris Review. In each of these older offerings, the author excelled in providing a consistently enjoyable reading experience. Sentences in every McGuane story offer an abundance of satisfying nuance. I was quite excited to receive an ARC for A Wooded Shore.
The new collection is quite short, offering stories usually centered in Montana. The title story, based on the East Coast, is much longer and would have made a fascinating short novel. In this title story, content covers events in a family’s life span and exposes both humorous and calamitous elements.

The stories set in Montana remind me of YouTube videos that travel through small towns, highlighting people’s lives through data drawn from census reports. The difference in McGuane’s stories is that he brings these data into brilliant life, illustrating the actions and thoughts of his interesting characters.

The shorter stories in this collection were just as much fun to read as the longer ones. McGuane is a gifted writer, one who captures the human experience in compassionate detail, and guides readers to deeper truths as they navigate his writing.

Highly recommended!
*****

I really enjoyed getting to read this, it had that element that I wanting and enjoyed in this type of genre. Each story worked well in this collection and had that feel that I was looking for and enjoyed getting into each story. Thomas McGuane has a strong writing style and was glad I got to read these.