The Casserole

Victo Ngai

I have a full page illustration in the current issue of New Yorker for a Thomas McGuane fiction.  The story is about a childless couple who journeys to the family ranch of the wife’s elderly parents to celebrate their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. 

I wanted to illustrate the following scene as it foreshadows the crumbling relationship between the 2 characters. 

“While we crossed, my wife stood on the ferry deck looking out on the river, smiling and sighing at the clouds of swallows circling the current.  I told her they were just after the bugs… I’ve long had trouble with people picking out some detail of the landscape and pretending it’s the whole story, as though, in this case, the blue light surrounding these speeding birds could do anything about the desolation of the country north of the river, a land I traverse holding my nose.”

“The Casserole” is a very powerful story and I was thrilled that this assignment fell on my lap - do get a copy and check it out! Big thanks to AD Chris Curry!!

(As you can see in the sketch the steeling wheel is on the right side in the sketch - coming from Hong Kong, I still get confused about that from time to time…)