The unforgettable story of a housepainter turned doctor in Big Sky country who finds himself on a darkly funny journey to salvation in this “irrepressibly comic and optimistic” novel ( The New York Times Book Review ) from the acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade and Cloudbursts Berl Pickett is living in the small town of Livingston, Montana. The son of Pentecostal rug-shampooers, Pickett has never been the social toast of the town, but when he is accused of negligent homicide in the death of his former lover, he finds himself ostracized by his colleagues and realizes just how small his little village truly is. But fortunately for Berl, the very thing that sets him apart—his inability to follow the pack—proves to be his saving grace. With this inglorious hero, McGuane has created an unforgettable voyager. A Washington Post Best Novel of the Year "No American novelist provides greater pleasure—sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, page by page-than this Montana icon." —C hicago Sun-Times "Excellent.... Expertly quilting together the sacred and the profane, the comic and the tragic.... Driving on the Rim should be read aloud and savored." — The Boston Globe "Irrepressibly comic and optimistic, even when it verges on the tragic, [Driving on the Rim] is full of oddballs and free spirits." — The New York Times Book Review "Triumphant.... McGuane's funniest novel, absurdist in an inimitably American way.... One of this country's greatest comic novelists, right up there with Mark Twain." — Men's Journal "Cunningly, masterfully complex.... It's not easy to shift from rambling comedy to darker musings on guilt, mortality and the prospect of guiding oneself through a meaningless universe. But McGuane does it brilliantly." — Richmond Times-Dispatch "Driving on the Rim contains coincidence, danger, dark humor—with fishing and booze as anodynes.... [McGuane] retains his capacity to surprise, to craft a sentence that slices, to create out on the old frontier a fresh iteration of an old story. And to show with mountain clarity the intricate tuition required to educate the heart." — The Plain Dealer "Berl Pickett ... is a splendid addition to the gallery of semi-cracked eccentrics who populate the literature of the American West.... [McGuane] uncork[s] sentences full of cowboy poetry and beguiling rhythms." — The Washington Post Book World "McGuane has long been forming unforgettable people out of the dust and dirt of the country he knows best-characters that just get fuller and richer and less predictable." "No American novelist provides greater pleasure-sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, page by page-than this Montana icon." — Chicago Sun-Times "Excellent.... Expertly quilting together the sacred and the profane, the comic and the tragic ... Driving on the Rim should be read aloud and savored." — The Boston Globe "Irrepressibly comic and optimistic, even when it verges on the tragic, [Driving on the Rim] is full of oddballs and free spirits." — The New York Times Book Review "Triumphant.... McGuane's funniest novel, absurdist in an inimitably American way.... One of this country's greatest comic novelists, right up there with Mark Twain." — Men's Journal "Cunningly, masterfully complex.... It's not easy to shift from rambling comedy to darker musings on guilt, mortality and the prospect of guiding oneself through a meaningless universe. But McGuane does it brilliantly." — Richmond Times-Dispatch "Driving on the Rim contains coincidence, danger, dark humor-with fishing and booze as anodynes.... [McGuane] retains his capacity to surprise, to craft a sentence that slices, to create out on the old frontier a fresh iteration of an old story. And to show with mountain clarity the intricate tuition required to educate the heart." — The Plain Dealer "Berl Pickett ... is a splendid addition to the gallery of semi-cracked eccentrics who populate the literature of the American West.... [McGuane] uncork[s] sentences full of cowboy poetry and beguiling rhythms." —The Washington Post Book World "McGuane has long been forming unforgettable people out of the dust and dirt of the country he knows best-characters that just get fuller and richer and less predictable." — Los Angeles Times "Thomas McGuane has delivered one of the finest books of his career." — New West "[McGuane] is at his very best when writing about the Montana landscape and fishing; that's where he becomes a poet in the grand tradition of Roderick Haig-Brown and Norman Maclean.... A mixture of picaresque narrative and a deep love for the environment." — The Seattle Times "Literary canonization might be imminent.... McGuane's novels are comic, complex and infused with ... depth." —S t. Petersburg Times "There are riches here, especially sentence by crackling sentence, and McGuane is as good as ever on the redeeming aspects of a troubled country." — The New York Times