Summary
The character I.B. "Berl" Pickett may be a doctor, but other than that he's a real mess. Maybe that's what happens when you're named after Irving Berlin. Or maybe that's what happens when you're born to a woman who would name her child after Irving Berlin - and a father who chose Lefty Frizzell. Either way, Berl got off on the wrong foot in life, and had it not been for a kindly neighbor who happened to be a doctor and saw something worth nurturing in the odd boy, Berl Pickett would never have found medicine, at which he turned out to be very good - good with patients, that is, not other doctors or administrators or any kind of authority figure. Let's just say Berl is your typical Thomas McGuane "hero" and leave it at that.
In his fiction, Mr. McGuane, deservedly one of America's most celebrated writers, casts a cool but not cruel eye on human foibles, and "Driving on the Rim," his ninth novel, is no exception. But he can't resist satirizing the circumstances of his characters, especially Berl Pickett.See the full content of this document
Extract
Darting Doctors and Holy Rollers
World War II provided the defining moments for Berl's father's life, an experience from which he never truly recovered. As for Berl's mother, she's an avid Holy Roller who can't unde...
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