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Loop Group
Loop Group is Larry McMurtry at his contemporary best, a novel that can best be described as Thelma and Louise meets Terms of Endearment, in which two aging ladies set out on a road trip that will take them from Hollywood to Texas, with many adventures on the way.In perhaps his finest contemporary novel since Terms of Endearment, Larry McMurtry, with his miraculously sure touch at creating instantly recognizable women characters and his equally miraculous sharp eye for the absurdities of everyday life in the modern West, writes about two women, old friends, who set off on an adventure—with unpredictable and sometimes hilarious results. As Loop Group opens, we meet Maggie, whose three grown-up daughters have arrived at her Hollywood home to try and make her see sense about her busy life, a life that intersects with lots of interesting—all right, bizarre—people. Her daughters push her into having a few second thoughts about it, and these are reinforced when her best friend, Connie, seeks an escape from her own world of complex and difficult relationships with men. Maggie conceives the idea of driving to visit her Aunt Cooney’s ranch near Electric City, Texas, and the two women prepare for the trip by buying a .38 Special revolver (which leads to unexpected trouble along the way). This road trip will end by changing their lives. Alternately hilariously funny and profoundly sad—even tragic—Loop Group is a major Larry McMurtry novel and a joy to read.
268 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2004
30 people are currently reading
439 people want to read
About the author
Larry McMurtry
146 books4,003 followersLarry Jeff McMurtry was an American novelist, essayist, and screenwriter whose work was predominantly set in either the Old West or contemporary Texas. His novels included Horseman, Pass By (1962), The Last Picture Show (1966), and Terms of Endearment (1975), which were adapted into films. Films adapted from McMurtry's works earned 34 Oscar nominations (13 wins). He was also a prominent book collector and bookseller.
His 1985 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Lonesome Dove was adapted into a television miniseries that earned 18 Emmy Award nominations (seven wins). The subsequent three novels in his Lonesome Dove series were adapted as three more miniseries, earning eight more Emmy nominations. McMurtry and co-writer Diana Ossana adapted the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain (2005), which earned eight Academy Award nominations with three wins, including McMurtry and Ossana for Best Adapted Screenplay. In 2014, McMurtry received the National Humanities Medal.
In Tracy Daugherty's 2023 biography of McMurtry, the biographer quotes critic Dave Hickey as saying about McMurtry: "Larry is a writer, and it's kind of like being a critter. If you leave a cow alone, he'll eat grass. If you leave Larry alone, he'll write books. When he's in public, he may say hello and goodbye, but otherwise he is just resting, getting ready to go write."
His 1985 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Lonesome Dove was adapted into a television miniseries that earned 18 Emmy Award nominations (seven wins). The subsequent three novels in his Lonesome Dove series were adapted as three more miniseries, earning eight more Emmy nominations. McMurtry and co-writer Diana Ossana adapted the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain (2005), which earned eight Academy Award nominations with three wins, including McMurtry and Ossana for Best Adapted Screenplay. In 2014, McMurtry received the National Humanities Medal.
In Tracy Daugherty's 2023 biography of McMurtry, the biographer quotes critic Dave Hickey as saying about McMurtry: "Larry is a writer, and it's kind of like being a critter. If you leave a cow alone, he'll eat grass. If you leave Larry alone, he'll write books. When he's in public, he may say hello and goodbye, but otherwise he is just resting, getting ready to go write."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 168 reviews
May 19, 2012
My first book by the Pulitzer-winner Larry McMurtry and I thought I did not choose well.
I have a copy of his Lonesome Dove but it seems to be a book belonging in the genre that I am not sure I would enjoy reading: western. I used to enjoy watching western movies when I was younger but I am not sure I would like to read books about them now that I am older. You see, I used to love seeing those cowboys riding their horses galloping on the desert producing blinding dusts everywhere. I also loved to see two men in a duel. I thought they were crazy but there was some kind of heroic prestige doing that as it to prove that they were real men. Those were some of the images that I was expecting to see in the US when I visited in 2000 but I did not see any even when I came to pass Houston, Texas to visit a sister-in-law. Call me naive, not realizing that those were the bygone years in American history. But I have been living in a small third-world country all my life not knowing everything happening in the other parts of the world.
Anyway, I still thought that sampling McMurtry, by reading this book Loop Group was the next best thing to do. When I read the blurbs, and one of my favorite Nicholson's movie Terms of Endearment was mentioned, I said, this should be good! So, I picked this up and read.
Not really a big disappointment. The story revolves around two middle-aged female friends, Maggie and Connie that reminded me not of "Terms" but of the 1991 ultimate female-bonding film, Thelma and Louise starring Geena Davis as Thelma and Susan Sarandon as Louise. The reason is obvious. Maggie and Connie both led lives that suck, so they pack up their things and go for a long trip. They meet many kinds of people - strange and good - that changed their perceptions in life. There is that part when they are arguing who said "You can't go home again." and they don't remember who said it, whether Mel Gibson or John Steinbeck (Travels with Charley) and they were arguing in a funny way. But of course, we know that this was a title of one of Thomas Wolfe's novels.
There are many tongue-in-cheek conversations that contain sexual themes so this might not be for everyone. However, while listening to their banters, I felt like I was stranded in an American airport listening to middle-age American women talking no-holds barred. The lines are quite witty, funny and so at times, amusing.
My only complaint and this has nothing to do with McMurtry is that this is an ALL female book so I was kind of left out as a man. The male characters are either idiotic, lame or insensitive so I could not relate to the story. The women are also too different from the women in my life so, this book is just not a book for me.
I have a copy of his Lonesome Dove but it seems to be a book belonging in the genre that I am not sure I would enjoy reading: western. I used to enjoy watching western movies when I was younger but I am not sure I would like to read books about them now that I am older. You see, I used to love seeing those cowboys riding their horses galloping on the desert producing blinding dusts everywhere. I also loved to see two men in a duel. I thought they were crazy but there was some kind of heroic prestige doing that as it to prove that they were real men. Those were some of the images that I was expecting to see in the US when I visited in 2000 but I did not see any even when I came to pass Houston, Texas to visit a sister-in-law. Call me naive, not realizing that those were the bygone years in American history. But I have been living in a small third-world country all my life not knowing everything happening in the other parts of the world.
Anyway, I still thought that sampling McMurtry, by reading this book Loop Group was the next best thing to do. When I read the blurbs, and one of my favorite Nicholson's movie Terms of Endearment was mentioned, I said, this should be good! So, I picked this up and read.
Not really a big disappointment. The story revolves around two middle-aged female friends, Maggie and Connie that reminded me not of "Terms" but of the 1991 ultimate female-bonding film, Thelma and Louise starring Geena Davis as Thelma and Susan Sarandon as Louise. The reason is obvious. Maggie and Connie both led lives that suck, so they pack up their things and go for a long trip. They meet many kinds of people - strange and good - that changed their perceptions in life. There is that part when they are arguing who said "You can't go home again." and they don't remember who said it, whether Mel Gibson or John Steinbeck (Travels with Charley) and they were arguing in a funny way. But of course, we know that this was a title of one of Thomas Wolfe's novels.
There are many tongue-in-cheek conversations that contain sexual themes so this might not be for everyone. However, while listening to their banters, I felt like I was stranded in an American airport listening to middle-age American women talking no-holds barred. The lines are quite witty, funny and so at times, amusing.
My only complaint and this has nothing to do with McMurtry is that this is an ALL female book so I was kind of left out as a man. The male characters are either idiotic, lame or insensitive so I could not relate to the story. The women are also too different from the women in my life so, this book is just not a book for me.
November 2, 2023
If you're going to read a book by Larry McMurtry, do not read this one. Please, go read Lonesome Dove or The Last Picture Show or Moving On instead.
November 7, 2016
This novel was very disappointing, especially since it was written by a writer who won the Pulitzer Prize before writing this book. The writing was almost sophomoric and the story was stultifying. I finished it only because I was wondering how it would end.
Even the ending was disappointing. It was as if the author couldn't think of a better ending and wound things up quickly to finish writing. Throughout the book, there was a lot of boring, uninspired dialogue between two female friends about nothing very special, IMO.
Not much action either... just a road trip to visit an eccentric aunt. She was the most entertaining character. All the others, besides the two friends, were not fully developed. The two friends were rather ordinary, nothing very clever about them.
There was a big change from McMurtry's Pulitzer Prize winning book, Lonesome Dove, published in 1985, and this one, Loop Group, published in 2004!
Even the ending was disappointing. It was as if the author couldn't think of a better ending and wound things up quickly to finish writing. Throughout the book, there was a lot of boring, uninspired dialogue between two female friends about nothing very special, IMO.
Not much action either... just a road trip to visit an eccentric aunt. She was the most entertaining character. All the others, besides the two friends, were not fully developed. The two friends were rather ordinary, nothing very clever about them.
There was a big change from McMurtry's Pulitzer Prize winning book, Lonesome Dove, published in 1985, and this one, Loop Group, published in 2004!
June 17, 2024
"Loop Group" is the story of two sixtyish Hollywood gals, their strange environment, and their stranger friends and associates. Maggie Clary, the protagonist, has just had a hysterectomy and is feeling pretty low. To cheer herself up, she plans a road trip to see her Aunt Cooney, who lives in Electric City, Texas with two million chickens. Hijinks ensue. This is California/Texas slapstick. *Good*, raunchy slapstick.
'I'll tell you what,' her best friend Connie tells Maggie during one of their midnight rambles, 'I'd rather be promiscuous than be a matron.' 'I'll second that,' Maggie responds.
There's really no way to capture the loopy silliness of LG, but I'll try:
Maggie and Connie get a flat tire at Canyon de Chelly. They get help from Jiminy, a small Indian man who says he "knows a man in Teec Nos Pos who'll fix your flat for one dollar." Off they go, Jiminy in tow, to Big Lewis's garage. En route, they make a disquieting discovery: "After strictly promising her daughters not to pick up hitchikers, [Maggie] had immediately picked up a murderer.
"Don't tattle," she mouthed to Connie...
Maggie and Connie hide out in Big Lewis's filthy ladies room, "trying to figure out a smooth and foolproof way to get rid of Jiminy."
Not a problem, it turns out, as Jiminy steals the girls' van.
FYI, a "loop group" dubs in crowd sounds and such for low-budget movies and reissues.
Reread in 2020. There’s a core of sadness under the hijinks that I’d forgotten, that is present in all of the contemporary McMurtry novels I’ve read. In his Westerns too, come to think of it.
I was taken aback by how many readers here *hated* the book. Well, tastes differ. Even more so when humor is involved. But I was well-pleased with my reread. Middle-rank McMurtry, so definitely recommended for his fans. For me, a weak 4 star rating. FWIW, my wife didn't much like it, either....
'I'll tell you what,' her best friend Connie tells Maggie during one of their midnight rambles, 'I'd rather be promiscuous than be a matron.' 'I'll second that,' Maggie responds.
There's really no way to capture the loopy silliness of LG, but I'll try:
Maggie and Connie get a flat tire at Canyon de Chelly. They get help from Jiminy, a small Indian man who says he "knows a man in Teec Nos Pos who'll fix your flat for one dollar." Off they go, Jiminy in tow, to Big Lewis's garage. En route, they make a disquieting discovery: "After strictly promising her daughters not to pick up hitchikers, [Maggie] had immediately picked up a murderer.
"Don't tattle," she mouthed to Connie...
Maggie and Connie hide out in Big Lewis's filthy ladies room, "trying to figure out a smooth and foolproof way to get rid of Jiminy."
Not a problem, it turns out, as Jiminy steals the girls' van.
FYI, a "loop group" dubs in crowd sounds and such for low-budget movies and reissues.
Reread in 2020. There’s a core of sadness under the hijinks that I’d forgotten, that is present in all of the contemporary McMurtry novels I’ve read. In his Westerns too, come to think of it.
I was taken aback by how many readers here *hated* the book. Well, tastes differ. Even more so when humor is involved. But I was well-pleased with my reread. Middle-rank McMurtry, so definitely recommended for his fans. For me, a weak 4 star rating. FWIW, my wife didn't much like it, either....
November 14, 2012
Larry McMurtry has said in several recent memoirs that some writers go on producing novels long after they've run out of steam. He has also said that he feels like he was one person before his heart bypass surgery in the 1990s, and another after. His books since the mid-1990s have certainly borne out both theories. In LOOP GROUP it's a woman who has that feeling of being/having been two people, that she was one person before her hysterectomy and another person afterward. I was a huge McMurtry fan up until this change in his writing came about (his books, starting with SOME CAN WHISTLE in 1989, became increasingly bleak and depressing), but basically swore off him after THE LATE CHILD (1995), one of the worst books I've ever read by anyone. I tried TELEGRAPH DAYS a couple of years ago for the heck of it, thinking I'd give him another chance, but didn't get far with it. Now that I've just enjoyed his autobiographical works WALTER BENJAMIN AT THE DAIRY QUEEN, BOOKS, and LITERARY LIFE (which should not be read too closely together, however, due to some repetitions), I'm giving his recent fiction another go, but I think I'm running out of steam already, less than 60 pages into LOOP GROUP.
12/22/09 - WRETCHED BOOK! I gave up entirely after a completely ridiculous sex scene on page 74, as bad as a silly one in the aforementioned THE LATE CHILD.
Mr. McMurtry's fiction and I have parted company once again.
11/14/12: McMurtry said in a recent interview that he's through writing fiction, that most writers go downhill after fifty and he had a good ride. This is certainly not true of all writers, but unfortunately in his case I think the shoe sort of fits.
12/22/09 - WRETCHED BOOK! I gave up entirely after a completely ridiculous sex scene on page 74, as bad as a silly one in the aforementioned THE LATE CHILD.
Mr. McMurtry's fiction and I have parted company once again.
11/14/12: McMurtry said in a recent interview that he's through writing fiction, that most writers go downhill after fifty and he had a good ride. This is certainly not true of all writers, but unfortunately in his case I think the shoe sort of fits.
January 1, 2009
Another Larry McMurtry, and not set in Texas this time.
I'm a big fan of McMurtry, and found this to be a good read. How does he think of these characters? There is a tinge of "Thelma and Louise" here, but the characters, the situations, and the plot are in no way similar. Maggie, the protagonist is a Native Hollywoodian Auntie Mame character, and won my sympathy immediately. I loved the read, actually, loved rooting for Maggie.
McMurtry is having fun with this book, and his antics left me only slightly distracted. He must have set out to make dialogue work without falling back on what we are all taught -- just say "said." Characters "argued," "told him," "went on," "begged," etc. Anything but "said."
Also, he played with splitting a character's speech into two paragraphs, the first paragraph ending sans an end-quote, and the second paragraph having the tag, "she continued."
It sounds diverting, I'm sure, but actually it was part of the "let's have some fun here" entertainment.
If the reader is in a serious mood, hold back on reading this book. But don't lose sight of it, either.
I'm a big fan of McMurtry, and found this to be a good read. How does he think of these characters? There is a tinge of "Thelma and Louise" here, but the characters, the situations, and the plot are in no way similar. Maggie, the protagonist is a Native Hollywoodian Auntie Mame character, and won my sympathy immediately. I loved the read, actually, loved rooting for Maggie.
McMurtry is having fun with this book, and his antics left me only slightly distracted. He must have set out to make dialogue work without falling back on what we are all taught -- just say "said." Characters "argued," "told him," "went on," "begged," etc. Anything but "said."
Also, he played with splitting a character's speech into two paragraphs, the first paragraph ending sans an end-quote, and the second paragraph having the tag, "she continued."
It sounds diverting, I'm sure, but actually it was part of the "let's have some fun here" entertainment.
If the reader is in a serious mood, hold back on reading this book. But don't lose sight of it, either.
October 21, 2011
I can almost say that I hated this book. Why did I finish it then? Maybe because I kept thinking that it couldn’t be THAT bad, that it would get better. I kept thinking I was missing something…that how could such a celebrated author write complete nonsense…
Basically, the book, written by the same author who wrote Lonesome Dove and Terms of Endearment (really??? I didn’t even know the same person wrote such two very different stories), is centered on Maggie, a 60+ year old woman who has lived in the heart of Hollywood her entire life. Maggie is very sad and can’t make sense of her life. That’s it. That’s the story. I’ve given it away…it’s all over. For 200 pages we follow Maggie around as she bumbles through several weeks in her life. There is no climax (although there is plenty of talk about sex)…LOL There are no revelations, no great understanding, nothing is fixed or changed.
I did not like any, not one, of the characters in this book. I could not relate to any of them and I wouldn’t want to know any of them. There was so much whining and crying and odd behavior that I wanted to run away...
...far away...run from this book!
Basically, the book, written by the same author who wrote Lonesome Dove and Terms of Endearment (really??? I didn’t even know the same person wrote such two very different stories), is centered on Maggie, a 60+ year old woman who has lived in the heart of Hollywood her entire life. Maggie is very sad and can’t make sense of her life. That’s it. That’s the story. I’ve given it away…it’s all over. For 200 pages we follow Maggie around as she bumbles through several weeks in her life. There is no climax (although there is plenty of talk about sex)…LOL There are no revelations, no great understanding, nothing is fixed or changed.
I did not like any, not one, of the characters in this book. I could not relate to any of them and I wouldn’t want to know any of them. There was so much whining and crying and odd behavior that I wanted to run away...
...far away...run from this book!
January 21, 2012
Do you enjoy being hit repeatedly in the face with a bed pan?!
Then you'll LOVE this crap!
It's official, kids: Larry McMurtry done lost his mind. Or perhaps has had a lobotomy. Because I'm sure as death and taxes that this is NOT the same guy who wrote the uncompromising, compelling and heart-wrenching Lonesome Dove series (in point of fact, the only Westerns I've ever whole-heartedly loved). Actually, I think the explanation might be that he lost a drunken bet with his agent. Or owed money to the mob? Surely he's not just mindlessly bent on the destruction of the American novel and his reputation as a whole. Surely.
Other reviews have summed up the awfulness pretty well, but I'll add this: If I wanted to watch two boring old women smoke pot, talk about nothing and drink vodka, I'd pay more visits to my Aunt Lucille and her "special friend", "Aunt" Casey, in Ft. Lauderdale. By the end of the book, you'll wish you could at least wrest some of the drugs and booze from the characters' gnarled old fingers for sheer relief.
Then you'll LOVE this crap!
It's official, kids: Larry McMurtry done lost his mind. Or perhaps has had a lobotomy. Because I'm sure as death and taxes that this is NOT the same guy who wrote the uncompromising, compelling and heart-wrenching Lonesome Dove series (in point of fact, the only Westerns I've ever whole-heartedly loved). Actually, I think the explanation might be that he lost a drunken bet with his agent. Or owed money to the mob? Surely he's not just mindlessly bent on the destruction of the American novel and his reputation as a whole. Surely.
Other reviews have summed up the awfulness pretty well, but I'll add this: If I wanted to watch two boring old women smoke pot, talk about nothing and drink vodka, I'd pay more visits to my Aunt Lucille and her "special friend", "Aunt" Casey, in Ft. Lauderdale. By the end of the book, you'll wish you could at least wrest some of the drugs and booze from the characters' gnarled old fingers for sheer relief.
September 19, 2015
60-year-old Maggie is supposedly "in despair" since her hysterectomy but it's a good thing the author told us because I'd certainly never know it from the story. She seems to be happy enough putting the moves on her 80 year old perverted psychologist who she has suddenly discovered she's "in love" with and getting drunk and high with her best friend.
This is one of the worst books I've ever read-and I'm actually quite flabbergasted at how bad it was given the number of novels this author has published. These two self-centered, whining, foul-mouthed women were ridiculous--completely unlikeable and unbelievable characters. Nothing about them rang true or seemed real and the book was just one stupid conversation and one stupid situation after another. There was no flow--none of the actions in the book seemed to stem from the other--just a random set of scenes. If I had had anything else around to read, I would have given this up after the first chapter and to tell you the truth, I wish I had. Ug!
This is one of the worst books I've ever read-and I'm actually quite flabbergasted at how bad it was given the number of novels this author has published. These two self-centered, whining, foul-mouthed women were ridiculous--completely unlikeable and unbelievable characters. Nothing about them rang true or seemed real and the book was just one stupid conversation and one stupid situation after another. There was no flow--none of the actions in the book seemed to stem from the other--just a random set of scenes. If I had had anything else around to read, I would have given this up after the first chapter and to tell you the truth, I wish I had. Ug!
April 16, 2025
I thought this was a great book. No, it wasn't Lonesome Dove. But McMurtry already wrote Lonesome Dove and he is not required to sit at his desk and re-write Lonesome Dove over and over for the rest of his life. If you want Lonesome Dove then go read it over and over until your head explodes.
Rather than sweaty cowboys in hot leather saddles fighting Comanches on the plains, this is a book about two women entering the third chapter of life and trying to figure out what that will look like. In some ways the outcome is liberating and in some ways it is sad and constricting. Overall though, the story and outcomes are funny in that marvelous Larry McMurtry dry humor kind of way.
If you are one of those people who thinks artists should be allowed to be creative during their careers then you will probably enjoy this book. However, if you are one of those people who believe authors, or musicians for that matter, should stay in their lane for five decades or more then you should probably go elsewhere.
Rather than sweaty cowboys in hot leather saddles fighting Comanches on the plains, this is a book about two women entering the third chapter of life and trying to figure out what that will look like. In some ways the outcome is liberating and in some ways it is sad and constricting. Overall though, the story and outcomes are funny in that marvelous Larry McMurtry dry humor kind of way.
If you are one of those people who thinks artists should be allowed to be creative during their careers then you will probably enjoy this book. However, if you are one of those people who believe authors, or musicians for that matter, should stay in their lane for five decades or more then you should probably go elsewhere.
February 1, 2020
Wow people are trashing this book but I kinda loved it? I have an affinity for McMurtry's lady protagonists, so maybe I'm biased, but this was a sweet story about the ways in which life kinda sneaks past us until suddenly we find that we've had these wonderful gifts in the people we love, who have been our companions through our ups and downs, often on opposite ends of that spectrum. I havent read a McMurtry I didnt love, but those developed around women's lives are especially dear to my heart.
Maybe I'm just getting sentimental as I approach middle age. I dont know. But I had to weigh in on this. It's a fun, easy, and heartwarming read.
Maybe I'm just getting sentimental as I approach middle age. I dont know. But I had to weigh in on this. It's a fun, easy, and heartwarming read.
March 14, 2008
I saw this one at Half Price and realized that despite my deep and abiding love for Larry McMurtry, I hadn't read anything by him in a long time. Much too long. I was not disappointed in this book although it was nowhere near as good as some of his others. Still hilarious; mentions lots of chickens, and the romances were just so funny.
I also realized that I think I have read just about everything the man has ever written EXCEPT for any of the Lonesome Dove books, which is just plain weird. So I am going to get right on top of that.
I also realized that I think I have read just about everything the man has ever written EXCEPT for any of the Lonesome Dove books, which is just plain weird. So I am going to get right on top of that.
May 26, 2008
wish there was a 1-1/2. Picked this up on sale for some beach fluff reading. I usually love McMurtry, and this had some moments of his humor and insight. But overall it just seemed like random details never tied together. I wonder if he just dashed this random tale off to pay a bill. Not a contender with the rest of his books.
August 28, 2008
Smut. Total crap. I seriously did not need to read about some 60 year old woman blowing her 80-something year old shrink or "self-lubricating" from excitement. I picked this piece up in the $3.99 bin at Borders and should have put it right back down.
February 25, 2010
I'm abandoning this effort. McMurtry's one of my favorites but in recent years his fiction has been uneven to say the least. I'm switching to his recent memoir entitled "Books" and setting this failure aside.
October 18, 2008
This book was painful to get through! I probably wouldn't have finised this book if it wasn't for a book club.
Read
February 10, 2009Grownups, beware any book where the dustcover says the story is 'zany'.
Yuck.
Yuck.
February 25, 2009
don't know if I can stand the reader/narrator. The story isn't strong enough to keep me from abandoning due to the readers style. It's like she's reading to children.
December 20, 2009
Although I've enjoyed some if his other works, this book was not a worthwhile read.
December 11, 2009
i hated this book. not really sure why i even finished it. i found if offensive.
April 22, 2010
I thought this book is kind of stupid. I read it hoping that it would pick up and become more interesting. But, it didn't.
September 28, 2014
Awful. Just awful! Can't believe I wasted previous reading time on this crap! Just telling it like it is!
November 22, 2020
Have you ever been baffled when someone told you their job title? In this 2004 Larry McMurtry novel, Maggie runs a loop group in Hollywood. That meant nothing to me, but I learned that a loop group does sound mixing for films. One of her employees is Connie, her lifelong friend since their teenage years together in Hollywood. They are now 60, and Maggie is having something of a delayed midlife crisis. She has been widowed for some time. Connie's husband just left her. Maggie has gone into a funk, and she decides that what they both need is a road trip. They set off for Electric City, Texas, where Maggie's rich aunt lives. McMurtry is quick to politely admit the reference to Thelma and Louise. But Maggie and Connie aren't going convertible style - they're driving the beat up van that they've been using every day to pick up the employees on the way to the sound studio!
As always, McMurtry revels in pointing out the inanities of the human condition with humor. And the surprising incongruities that dwell in every person. It's enjoyable to learn the shared history Maggie and Connie have, and watch the way they cry on each others' shoulders, share their joys and heartbreaks and put up with each others' moods:
"But then it occurred to her that she hadn't really had a love of her life. Of course, there had been a lot of guys, some of whom had shown promise in the love-of-her-life area, but somehow they had all drifted away to be the love of somebody else's life. And Rog had been anything but love-of-her-life material - once he had even given her a mop for her birthday. What did that say?
... 'Hey, Nordstrom is having a great sale - why don't you come with me and check it out?' Connie asked. 'We could eat Mexican food at that place on Pico.'
'Thanks, I don't think so, not today,' Maggie said. Somehow the thought that she had never really had a love of her life left her feeling discouraged - too discouraged to just go check out one more sale at Nordstrom."
There's not much they don't share with each other. Right now, a lot of that is everything that is going on in their grown kids' lives. McMurtry, like some of my other favorite modern writers Richard Russo and Nelson DeMille, creates characters that we care about.
Although the road trip is hardly an epic journey, there are McMurtry moments with interesting comments on the people of the American West, and references to other literature of the West and Midwest. At one point the action highlights a culturally relevant fact that I hadn't noticed in travels in the Southwest, but that McMurtry must have experienced. Maggie and Connie stop at several places staffed by Native Americans. Each time they check out at the registers, they are unable to engage the cashiers in conversation.
"People aren't very friendly, up in these parts," Maggie said. "I've never been anyplace where people are this unfriendly."
"They've got good memories," Officer Sheffield observed. "They haven't forgotten what white people have done to them. You know?"
A general comparison can be made to the "journey" of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz - taking a trip to run away from something doesn't usually provide answers that weren't already within one. And yes, there is an old wizard of sorts in Maggie's life. McMurtry also gives a nod to Steinbeck's The Red Pony along the way - he mentions a horseman named Jody.
As always, McMurtry revels in pointing out the inanities of the human condition with humor. And the surprising incongruities that dwell in every person. It's enjoyable to learn the shared history Maggie and Connie have, and watch the way they cry on each others' shoulders, share their joys and heartbreaks and put up with each others' moods:
"But then it occurred to her that she hadn't really had a love of her life. Of course, there had been a lot of guys, some of whom had shown promise in the love-of-her-life area, but somehow they had all drifted away to be the love of somebody else's life. And Rog had been anything but love-of-her-life material - once he had even given her a mop for her birthday. What did that say?
... 'Hey, Nordstrom is having a great sale - why don't you come with me and check it out?' Connie asked. 'We could eat Mexican food at that place on Pico.'
'Thanks, I don't think so, not today,' Maggie said. Somehow the thought that she had never really had a love of her life left her feeling discouraged - too discouraged to just go check out one more sale at Nordstrom."
There's not much they don't share with each other. Right now, a lot of that is everything that is going on in their grown kids' lives. McMurtry, like some of my other favorite modern writers Richard Russo and Nelson DeMille, creates characters that we care about.
Although the road trip is hardly an epic journey, there are McMurtry moments with interesting comments on the people of the American West, and references to other literature of the West and Midwest. At one point the action highlights a culturally relevant fact that I hadn't noticed in travels in the Southwest, but that McMurtry must have experienced. Maggie and Connie stop at several places staffed by Native Americans. Each time they check out at the registers, they are unable to engage the cashiers in conversation.
"People aren't very friendly, up in these parts," Maggie said. "I've never been anyplace where people are this unfriendly."
"They've got good memories," Officer Sheffield observed. "They haven't forgotten what white people have done to them. You know?"
A general comparison can be made to the "journey" of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz - taking a trip to run away from something doesn't usually provide answers that weren't already within one. And yes, there is an old wizard of sorts in Maggie's life. McMurtry also gives a nod to Steinbeck's The Red Pony along the way - he mentions a horseman named Jody.
December 19, 2022
Loop Group feels something like a band performing a greatest hits medley in concert; it hits on most of the things McMurtry is best known for, but with no vigor or originality. It’s the story of a midlife crisis, a road trip, a death, motherhood, and friendship; it’s full of concerned, narrow-minded family members, supportive but bemused friends, a deeply inappropriate therapist/patient relationship, quirky side-characters, and a protagonist who is at one point struck numb by grief. All familiar notes, but none of them resonate with the force of better McMurtry books. The book constantly talks about cell phones as only an old man writing in 2005 could. I think he felt the need to return to contemporary territory after finishing the epic historical Berrybender Narratives, but Loop Group falls short of even lesser novels like Somebody’s Darling or The Desert Rose (while borrowing DNA from both). It’s a slight book, and readable, but it adds little of note to McMurtry’s bibliography.
September 9, 2018
Though it's a minor inclusion in Larry McMurtry's portfolio, "Loop Group" does include the dark concerns McMurtry has addressed in later works such as "Rhino Ranch" and "The Last Kind Word Saloon", namely concerns about aging and death. It appears he's terrified of both and the unnerving they bring him engenders the reader to be more compassionate to his characters as the novel goes on. But it's mostly a likable, episodic book (with a road trip through Arizona and Texas at the core), stuffed with his typically idiosyncratic, bemused characters wandering in and out, presented in unadorned fashion. McMurtry is writing about women again--he seems fearless in his efforts to portray them realistically (though whether he's successful is something this reader can't answer)--but in his prime protagonist, Maggie Clary, he seems to have created a female alter ego, whose hysterectomy has caused her to feel as if she's lost something of herself; in this manner she's aligned with McMurtry's male alter ego, Duane Moore, whose depression in those novels somehow seemed personal to the author. For the most part, though, this short book strikes an amusing tone (even as sudden death interjects, which it does--twice) and it leaves you with a warm afterglow. If you're new to McMurtry, "Loop Group" would not be the place to start owing to the amiably haphazard approach he brings; but if you've become comfortable with his style and themes, it has its virtues.
August 30, 2009
Fine, but nothing exciting. Didn't really feel a connection to any of the characters, and one or two of them were just plain annoying. It was one of those books that I just didn't really see much of a point to once I got to the end of it. It kind of turned me off that every single character was rampantly unfaithful in their marriages - I'm not so naive that I think that sort of thing doesn't happen, but still, every single character, at least all the married ones.
December 24, 2009
The cover of this book had me thinking that it was going to involve a younger age group but the two main characters I'm guessing are in the 50-60 age range. Reading about middle-aged women having sex, doing drugs and racking up credit card debt really doesn't click with me. Maybe I should read this book again in 30 years and see if I have the same feeling?
March 29, 2018
A fan of Larry's work, this was OK but not at the level of Lonesome Dove, Texasville or others he's written. I'm a big fan of his offbeat sense of humor though there's only smatterings of it in Loop Group. Regardless it's a 'beach blanket read' and something worth putting on the 'to read for later' list.
September 16, 2014
I'm listening to this unabridged book in the car. Course, since I only drive 1.5 miles to work, it'll take me a while to get through this. So far, I'm not impressed. So far it's the weakest Larry McMurtry I've ever read and I've read a lot o' Larry McMurtry.
April 25, 2016
This wasn't one of the best book's that I have read, but it wasn't the worst either. I found this book to be entertaining. It was a bit of a weird story that I felt could have been a bit more interesting if Connie and Maggie's road trip was a bit longer and full of more adventure.
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