Horses, Canoes and Gift Fish: the Writings of Patrick McManus

Pat McManus at Eastern Washington University By Eastern Washington University [CC BY 2.0]

Well, Patrick McManus’ books aren’t great in the sense of being an essential foundation in the literature of Western culture, but they are hilarious and, well, maybe they are great books.  Most are compiled of stories from his newspaper columns.

The Tales

McManus exemplifies the wild child – a kid that managed to get into every kind of trouble imaginable and, surprisingly, lived to tell about it.  His characters range from Strange, his aptly named dog, to the woodsman Rancid Crabtree that liked to offer up little life lessons, to his older sister “The Troll” to his best friend Crazy Eddie Muldoon. Not to mention Retch Sweeney,  Al Finley, and his rich friend Fenton Quagmire.

The stories tell the tale of various situations McManus, maybe, experienced as an outdoorsy kid growing up in the forests of northern Idaho.  Situations like the deer on a bicycle, the homemade airplane on the barn roof, levitating Lester, collecting road kill and many more.  Did I mention they are all hilarious?

The Books

As far as I can tell there are 14 books in this series with a story per chapter.  Here they are:

• A Fine and Pleasant Misery (1978)
• They Shoot Canoes, Don’t They? (1981)
• Never Sniff A Gift Fish (1983)
• The Grasshopper Trap (1985)
• Rubber Legs and White Tail-Hairs (1987)
• The Night the Bear Ate Goombaw (1989)
• Real Ponies Don’t Go Oink! (1991)
• The Good Samaritan Strikes Again (1992)
• How I Got This Way (1994)
• Never Cry “Arp!” and Other Great Adventures  (1996)
• Into the Twilight, Endlessly Grousing (1997)
• The Bear in the Attic (2002)
• Kerplunk!: Stories (2007)
• The Horse in My Garage and Other Stories (2012)

McManus was born and raised in Sandpoint, Idaho (known in his books as Blight, Idaho) the setting of most of his adventures.  I lived for a time just down the road from Sandpoint in Libby, Montana where a couple people I knew actually showed up in McManus’ books.  So, yes the stories are true – as best as McManus can tell them.

The Plays

To build on his distinguished career writing books, McManus decided to write plays (five so far) – starring himself, portrayed by actor Tim Behrens.  There are several  video clips to watch from  his plays on YouTube, if you’d like to get a better idea of his stories.  The complete plays are available on DVD, should you have your DVD player with you in the wilderness:

• A Fine and Pleasant Misery
• Poor Again . . .Dagnabbit!
• McManus in Love
• Scrambled McManus
• Pot Luck

The Bottom Line

Get one of these books for your next camping trip – pick any of them, you can’t go wrong.

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