User:Misterbonesm/Barton McGuire

Barton McGuire (1958- ) is an American humorist, essayist, and novelist.

Biography
Barton McGuire was born on the Central Coast of California and began writing critical essays while still in high school. He was nearly expelled (along with several of his friends) for publishing an alternative to the school newspaper which was purported to have offended government agencies. In the mid-1970s McGuire entered the military, serving for four years in Kansas as an ICBM (Titan III) combat crewman. Soon after ending his tumultuous military career, McGuire returned to California, where he drifted for several years. During this time he held numerous odd jobs, including fisherman, forester, cook, repossession agent, music teacher, and union copywriter. Always reclusive, McGuire apparently has little interest in widespread acknowledgement, and his work was, and still is, disseminated primarily through the efforts of those close to him. He was last known to be residing in the Mendecino region.

Books and Writings
It is not known for certain when McGuire's essays about a group of morally questionable friends called the "Holy League of Rudy" first appeared in coffeehouses north of San Francisco, but by 1989 McGuire had become well-known among Northern California independent literati, and his memoirs and poems, published by friends, appeared in restaurants, bars, libraries, college campuses, and bookstores from Mt. Shasta City and Ukiah to San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara. McGuire's writing is noted for: the broad, rapid-fire humor of its narrative and dialogue, drawing comparisons to such diverse influences as the Marx Brothers and Damon Runyon; its unadorned prose and often crude characters, who seem at once outlandish and familiar; its preoccupation with the state of California, its topography, lifestyle, and often bizarre people. Detractors cite recurring themes such as displacement, irreverence, and disdain for authority as indications of McGuire's immaturity, while defenders of his work consider these and other themes essential to the writer's voice. By the late 1990s, copies of McGuire's writings had become rare. Then, in 2006, rumors surfaced of the pending publication of several novels. A web site was established (again by friends of the author) in 2008 for readers to sample the novels. They are, as of the writing of this article, still unpublished.

The Book of Bones
Bones is Bobby Braziano, a young man with a crazy circle of friends, an ambitious and frightening girlfriend, and no prospects.

The Book of Fats
Ian Wendell Thomas is known to his friends as Fats, and he's proud of it. His activist youth and misguided marriage to the daughter of a Mexican Mafia kingpin create havoc and discomfort, to say the least.

The Book of Wheeze
A life-long asthmatic, Samuel Henry Martin is called Wheeze by the Holy League of Rudy. His professional life as a clinical social worker in the state hospital is threatened by the arrival of an old friend, who leads Wheeze and company from the Golden Gate Bridge to the summit of Mt. Shasta.