The Member-Guest

Life has not turned out quite as expected for the quietly dysfunctional, middle-American folks involved in a small-town country club's annual member-guest golf tournament. In 10 interconnected stories, McCown penetrates the lives of club employees, members and guests, revealing a plethora of colorful foibles as his characters cope with mounting restlessness and disappointment. Rod, the golf pro who never quite made it on the PGA tour-or in his marriages-is at the center of the collection, growing more reckless by the day, both at work and in his love life. Bev, who runs the snack bar, has been cheating on her husband, who for his part has been stealing the club's golf carts for extra cash. Lyle, a real-estate agent, will host a pre-tournament clambake in hopes of drumming up business, but his wife will wind up angrily sabotaging the all-male event-by filling the course holes with cement. Meanwhile, hustler Ed Betzger is sleeping with other men's wives, and the club's senile founder is keeping six noisy mules in the yard of his large, course-front home. McCown gently exploits the humor in his stories without succumbing to farce. With wise, often lyrical prose and an eye for striking, illustrative detail, he brings his characters to life in a book-length debut that's as imaginative as it is memorable. (Mar.)