Larry McMurtry

I read The Last Picture Show not long after I graduated from college and I felt an instant connection with Larry McMurtry's style, never mind that he was the son of Texas ranchers and I grew up in south suburban Chicago. I read the sequel and then decided to go back and read all of McMurtry's books, starting with 1961's Horseman, Pass By. It is taking me many, many years to do this, not because the novels are bad but because I stop and start and read plenty of other books along the way.

What do I love about McMurtry? His novels contain some of the same qualities as good country music: a solid sense of Southern (particularly Texan) geography, slightly unusual characters, humor and a dollop of raunchiness. Many of his novels have one or more sequels, and the most famous probably is Lonesome Dove, which is next on my list.

I have read and continue to read dozens of crime and mystery series in order of publication, but reading non-serial books this way allows me to observe the development of one author. Not every book is wonderful, and not every book is better than the last. A writer with as many publishing credits as McMurtry will have peaks, valleys and level ground among his books.

An example of the latter is my most recent read, The Desert Rose. This novel stands out in the McMurtry catalogue because it is set in Las Vegas, not Texas or even ranch country. The protagonist, Harmony, is a single mom of a teenage daughter and a Vegas showgirl about to turn 39, downright elderly for the topless-with-feathers business. Her daughter is a talented dancer about to take the stage. McMurtry says in a preface that he wrote the book in three weeks while taking a break from Lonesome Dove. It kind of shows. The characters are delightful, including Maude the goat, but the story feels unfinished (he later wrote a sequel), in contrast with my previous read, Cadillac Jack. In that story, McMurtry creates a wandering salesman who deals in antiques and junk while courting various women and hobnobbing with second-tier Washington elite. It took me a while to get through the novel because I read it while nursing but while I hated saying goodbye to Jack, I felt as if McMurtry was done with him and his character arc. Jack changes the way he views both objects and people; things happen to Harmony but she doesn't really change.

To be honest, I haven't found a McMurtry novel I like as much as The Last Picture Show, and I recommend it to anyone who hasn't read his books or has only read Lonesome Dove. It also is a terrific movie starring a young Jeff Bridges, Timothy Bottoms and Cybill Shepherd, plus a fantastic soundtrack of old Hank Williams tunes.