The Sporting Club is the 1969 debut novel

Debut novel

A debut novel is the first novel an author publishes. Debut novels are the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to publish in the future...

 of author Thomas McGuane

Thomas McGuane

Thomas Francis McGuane III is an American author. His work includes ten novels, short fiction and screenplays, as well as three collections of essays devoted to his life in the outdoors.-Early life:...

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Plot summary

The Sporting Club chronicles the friendship and rivalry of Vernor Stanton, an unstable patrician iconoclast, and the protagonist, Stanton's lifelong friend, James Quinn. Throughout the course of the novel, Stanton enlists Quinn on a series of misadventures and wild episodes, the aim of which is to ultimately destabilize the Centennial Club, a summer sporting resort for upper-class Michigan families, of which both men are members.

Film adaptation

"The Sporting Club" was adapted into a 1971 movie by director Larry Peerce

Larry Peerce

Larry Peerce is an American film and TV director whose work includes the theatrical feature Goodbye, Columbus, the early rock and roll concert film The Big T.N.T. Show, and One Potato, Two Potato , the first U.S...

 and screenwriter Lorenzo Semple, Jr. The film starred Nicolas Coster

Nicolas Coster

Nicolas Coster is a British-born American actor, most known for his work in daytime drama and as a character actor on nighttime television series.-Biography:...

 as Quinn, Robert Field as Stanton, and Maggie Blye

Maggie Blye

Maggie Blye is an American actress, also sometimes billed as Margaret Blye.Blye was born October 24, 1942 in Houston, Texas. She appeared in a number of popular television series including Perry Mason, Gunsmoke and Ben Casey early in her career....

as Stanton's wife, Janey.