Plot:
Szabo, an office worker and ranch owener, breaks his leg when he is climbing his tractor. The hay is close to ready for bailing. So he hires a man named Barney. He works hard and is kind to Szabo’s mother, who has a painting of Chalie Russell. Szabo’s son, David, is imprisoned for injecting drugs. Szabo visits the prison only to find that Barney has met him and has given him advice for his outside world life. When Szabo returns home, he finds that Barney has stolen the painting to the disappointment of his mother. When Melinda, Szabo’s secretary, “asks after David, Szabo tells her that he would soon be coming home.”
Barney pretends to be a hard worker, but steals a Russel painting in the end. So he is Not a good Samaritan. But he visits David, insures the paiting, and above all gives Szabo a chance to reflect himself. He unites Szabo and David. So he is a good Samaritan.
McGuane's writing is noted for its mastery of language (particularly the early novels), a comic appreciation for the irrational core of many human endeavors, multiple takes on the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s, and an increasing devotion to family relationships and relationships with the natural world in the changing American West, primarily Montana. (Wikipedia)
Szabo, an office worker and ranch owener, breaks his leg when he is climbing his tractor. The hay is close to ready for bailing. So he hires a man named Barney. He works hard and is kind to Szabo’s mother, who has a painting of Chalie Russell. Szabo’s son, David, is imprisoned for injecting drugs. Szabo visits the prison only to find that Barney has met him and has given him advice for his outside world life. When Szabo returns home, he finds that Barney has stolen the painting to the disappointment of his mother. When Melinda, Szabo’s secretary, “asks after David, Szabo tells her that he would soon be coming home.”
Impression:
(1) Very interesting and humorous. I identified myself with Szabo.
(2)Excellent character descriptions:
Szabo is wimpy, undecisive, urban, and face-conscious. Barney is shrewd, clever, skillful, and worldly. David is excellent, attracted to Barney, refuses Szabo, affected by his parents’ divorce. Szabo’s mother is independent and get-tough.
(3) Excellent psychological descriptions:
Especially Szabo’s psychology is well described: “Szabo had no idea why he was dissembling like this, unless it was to buy time. “…he was certain he should have married…trying to keep her out of the bars.” “But even as his derisive question he was reminding himself how he might have been absent for his own child.”Title:
Good Samaritan is a person who gratuitously gives help or sympathy to those in distrss. Luk 10:307.Barney pretends to be a hard worker, but steals a Russel painting in the end. So he is Not a good Samaritan. But he visits David, insures the paiting, and above all gives Szabo a chance to reflect himself. He unites Szabo and David. So he is a good Samaritan.
Author:
Born December 11, 1939.McGuane's writing is noted for its mastery of language (particularly the early novels), a comic appreciation for the irrational core of many human endeavors, multiple takes on the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s, and an increasing devotion to family relationships and relationships with the natural world in the changing American West, primarily Montana. (Wikipedia)
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