The unforgettable story of a hero who goes from Michigan to Montana on a demented mission of courtship--from the acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade and Cloudbursts, a "writer of the first magnitude.... The preternatural force, grace, and self-control of his prose recall Faulkner (The New York Times Book Review).

As a citizen, Nicholas Payne is not in the least solid. As a boyfriend, he is nothing short of disastrous, and his latest flame, the patrician Ann Fitzgerald, has done a wise thing by dropping him. But Ann isn't counting on Nicholas's wild persistence, or on the slapstick lyricism of Thomas McGuane--highlights include a ride on a homicidal bronco and an apprenticeship to the inventor of the world's first highrise for bats. The result is a tour de force of American Dubious.