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The Last Picture Show #2
Texasville
With Texasville, Larry McMurtry returns to the unforgettable Texas town and characters of one of his best-loved books, The Last Picture Show. This is a Texas-sized story brimming with home truths of the heart, and men and women we recognize, believe in, and care about deeply. Set in the post-oil-boom 1980s, Texasville brings us up to date with Duane, who's got an adoring dog, a sassy wife, a twelve-million-dollar debt, and a hot tub by the pool; Jacy, who's finished playing "Jungla" in Italian movies and who's returned to Thalia; and Sonny -- Duane's teenage rival for Jacy's affections -- who owns the car wash, the Kwik-Sackstore, and the video arcade.
One of Larry McMurtry's funniest and most touching contemporary novels.
One of Larry McMurtry's funniest and most touching contemporary novels.
544 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
340 people are currently reading
2407 people want to read
About the author
Larry McMurtry
150 books4,051 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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June 27, 2021
Question: Can one of your favorite authors write one of the worst novels you've ever read? Sub-question: Is 542 pages of scraps from a favorite author better than no novel at all? These questions were more compelling to me than anything in the first half of Texasville, Larry McMurtry's sequel--the first of four continuations, actually--to his acclaimed 1966 novel The Last Picture Show. Published in 1983, this book is a crushing disappointment, a massive jokefest that takes place thirty years later in the fictional town of Thalia as it still struggles to survive, hanging on now through the oil bust of the early 1980s.
The sequel focuses on Duane Jackson, a former Prom King who as a high school senior was married to town beauty Jacy Farrow for a few hours before it was annulled. Duane made millions in the oil boom, built a huge house and married a whirlwind named Karla he has four sociopath children with. With the oil bust, Duane is twelve million in debt and for more reasons than that, depressed. He shuttles between his office, the Dairy Queen and city council meetings which he presides over as mayor and is in charge of planning a centennial celebration for the county, which debates whether to acknowledge the existence of Texasville, the county's first town that has been lost in the sands of time.
There was an opportunity for a compelling novel here, one that shows how every material item a teenager in the '50s might've yearned for--money, cars, drugs and a multitude of sexual partners, or marriage and kids, or all of the above--is available as an adult in the '80s, but happiness remains as elusive as ever. McMurtry isn't interested in writing a novel that can stand up to The Last Picture Show and is content to simply let the reader hang out with the characters as they exchange jokey banter or obsess over sex in order to stave off boredom. A little bit of this would've been fine at the service of a story, but the jokes are all that's here. Imagine 542 pages of this:
Karla had also encouraged the kids to scribble their plans on the calendar, on the theory that it might make it easier to find them in case of emergency. She had tried to start calendar training when Dickie and Nellie were teenagers, but it hadn't worked well.
Dickie liked the idea of a calendar, but his entries had often alarmed his mother. His very first entry read "Go fuck girls." Many of his plans seemed to involve criminal violence. Once he wrote "Go start a fire." Or he might write "Go beat the shit out of Pinky." Pinky had briefly been a friend. Karla was always having to tear pages off calendars and buy new ones for fear that Dickie's entries might be used against him in criminal proceedings.
Larry McMurtry's novels are given to a lot of banter and broad comedy--he enjoys a car stunt almost as much as Burt Reynolds did in the movies he was making in the late '70s--but Texasville felt like a first draft being passed off as a finished book. Every chapter is exactly the same: Duane is depressed, women enter stage right to say something crazy, he drives somewhere else, men enter stage left to say something ridiculous, Duane remains depressed. I gave up at the 50% mark. It's one of the most self-indulgent pieces of free-writing that I've ever had to read and bares no resemblance to the quality of The Last Picture Show.
The sequel focuses on Duane Jackson, a former Prom King who as a high school senior was married to town beauty Jacy Farrow for a few hours before it was annulled. Duane made millions in the oil boom, built a huge house and married a whirlwind named Karla he has four sociopath children with. With the oil bust, Duane is twelve million in debt and for more reasons than that, depressed. He shuttles between his office, the Dairy Queen and city council meetings which he presides over as mayor and is in charge of planning a centennial celebration for the county, which debates whether to acknowledge the existence of Texasville, the county's first town that has been lost in the sands of time.
There was an opportunity for a compelling novel here, one that shows how every material item a teenager in the '50s might've yearned for--money, cars, drugs and a multitude of sexual partners, or marriage and kids, or all of the above--is available as an adult in the '80s, but happiness remains as elusive as ever. McMurtry isn't interested in writing a novel that can stand up to The Last Picture Show and is content to simply let the reader hang out with the characters as they exchange jokey banter or obsess over sex in order to stave off boredom. A little bit of this would've been fine at the service of a story, but the jokes are all that's here. Imagine 542 pages of this:
Karla had also encouraged the kids to scribble their plans on the calendar, on the theory that it might make it easier to find them in case of emergency. She had tried to start calendar training when Dickie and Nellie were teenagers, but it hadn't worked well.
Dickie liked the idea of a calendar, but his entries had often alarmed his mother. His very first entry read "Go fuck girls." Many of his plans seemed to involve criminal violence. Once he wrote "Go start a fire." Or he might write "Go beat the shit out of Pinky." Pinky had briefly been a friend. Karla was always having to tear pages off calendars and buy new ones for fear that Dickie's entries might be used against him in criminal proceedings.
Larry McMurtry's novels are given to a lot of banter and broad comedy--he enjoys a car stunt almost as much as Burt Reynolds did in the movies he was making in the late '70s--but Texasville felt like a first draft being passed off as a finished book. Every chapter is exactly the same: Duane is depressed, women enter stage right to say something crazy, he drives somewhere else, men enter stage left to say something ridiculous, Duane remains depressed. I gave up at the 50% mark. It's one of the most self-indulgent pieces of free-writing that I've ever had to read and bares no resemblance to the quality of The Last Picture Show.
February 27, 2023
In 1966 a thirty-year-old writer named Larry McMurtry published The Last Picture Show.
It's a work of art, as far as I'm concerned, and one of the tightest, brightest and most adeptly edited novels ever handed to the world.
And Larry let it be. . . let it be brilliant, all by its little old self, let it be a famous novel turned into an even more famous movie, until he was finally convinced to return to Thalia, Texas, twenty-two years later.
The Last Picture Show was brought to life in film by a stunning young woman named Cybil Shepherd, and Texasville, the novel, is dedicated to her. (Both she and Jeff Bridges returned, two decades later, to reprise their original roles in the movie).
This sequel is a strange offering.
A book like Texasville could never be published in today's market. It's too meandering, too sprawling, too unedited. It is, in almost every way, a 180 degree offering, of the original.
I can see what happened (what I'm about to write is completely made-up, but still probably true): Larry M walked into his editor's office, muddy boots and all, two years out from the height of his success (the publication of Lonesome Dove in 1985) and plunked down 400 yellow legal pads filled with messy cursive. He said to his editor, “Here's the sequel. Have at her. Got to go.”
The editor probably brought it in to his boss and shrugged his shoulders and said, “Let's just print it.”
You can't convince me that this book was ever edited. If it were, it would be 100 pages lighter, and a lot tighter.
Nonetheless, I'm a Superfan of Larry's, so I finished the novel, and I enjoyed it, but I would never, in good conscience, advise someone unfamiliar with Mr. M's work, to start here.
It's a work of art, as far as I'm concerned, and one of the tightest, brightest and most adeptly edited novels ever handed to the world.
And Larry let it be. . . let it be brilliant, all by its little old self, let it be a famous novel turned into an even more famous movie, until he was finally convinced to return to Thalia, Texas, twenty-two years later.
The Last Picture Show was brought to life in film by a stunning young woman named Cybil Shepherd, and Texasville, the novel, is dedicated to her. (Both she and Jeff Bridges returned, two decades later, to reprise their original roles in the movie).
This sequel is a strange offering.
A book like Texasville could never be published in today's market. It's too meandering, too sprawling, too unedited. It is, in almost every way, a 180 degree offering, of the original.
I can see what happened (what I'm about to write is completely made-up, but still probably true): Larry M walked into his editor's office, muddy boots and all, two years out from the height of his success (the publication of Lonesome Dove in 1985) and plunked down 400 yellow legal pads filled with messy cursive. He said to his editor, “Here's the sequel. Have at her. Got to go.”
The editor probably brought it in to his boss and shrugged his shoulders and said, “Let's just print it.”
You can't convince me that this book was ever edited. If it were, it would be 100 pages lighter, and a lot tighter.
Nonetheless, I'm a Superfan of Larry's, so I finished the novel, and I enjoyed it, but I would never, in good conscience, advise someone unfamiliar with Mr. M's work, to start here.
May 31, 2022
“It’s really swift, this life.”
TEXASVILLE takes place thirty years after its predecessor THE LAST PICTURE SHOW. The main characters from that earlier text are now in their late 40s, and the town of Thalia, Texas is about to celebrate its centennial. The main focus of this text is Duane Moore. Duane is a rich oilman, now facing bankruptcy. His good friend from his teenage years, Sonny Crawford (and a big part of TLPS) is relegated to a secondary role in this novel. Duane and Sonny, who were the closest of friends in TLPS are casual friends at this point, despite having lived in the same small town all of their lives. They have had no big rift, life just happened and caused the drifting apart. It really saddened me, and added to the melancholy that hangs over the entire novel.
The text is funny. The situations and dialogue are crackling with humor. This novel is so ridiculous, so over the top in the situations that it presents the reader, that in anyone else’s hands it would have been a disaster. In Larry McMurtry’s hands it is merely perplexing. I’m not sure what exactly I feel about it. It’s not love, but it certainly is not hate.
Some items worth mentioning:
At one point a character says of Thalia, “We’re all crazy and life in this town is what’s done it.” The book seems intent on proving that statement true in spades. It makes for some enjoyable scenarios.
The protagonist, Duane, has a dog named Shorty. He kinda ambles through the book and I just delighted in most every mention of him.
There is an unexpected and touchingly apt analogy that appears later in the book when Duane looks on his life like an old sheet being torn up for rags. It’s a moment that will give the reader pause.
Quotes:
• “Getting rich had been tiring, but nothing like as tiring as going broke.”
• “ ‘I was just laughing at nothing’, he said. ‘It’s either that or cry about everything, and I wasn’t in a crying mood.’ "
• “There doesn’t have to be anything so good about somebody to make you jealous when you’re in high school.”
• “A young man is even more unreliable than a drunk.”
• “Sundown brought with it a quality of peace that belied almost everything that happened during the day.”
• “Most people are forgotten.”
• “I guess I’d just like to lead a sensible life.”
• “Everybody causes somebody trouble.”
• “I think my wits live somewhere else now.”
• “That’s my limitation, it don’t have to be yours.”
• “Despite all the problems, past, present and to come, he felt deeply happy to be where he was.”
Notwithstanding the fact that I am not sure what the point of TEXASVILLE is (it feels a bit undefined), I did not mind the read at all. When I picked it up, it held my attention. Even with the outlandishness I felt the characters had dimension (McMurtry was very good at that) and I saw flashes of myself from time to time in the words of the text.
Sometimes with a book that is enough.
TEXASVILLE takes place thirty years after its predecessor THE LAST PICTURE SHOW. The main characters from that earlier text are now in their late 40s, and the town of Thalia, Texas is about to celebrate its centennial. The main focus of this text is Duane Moore. Duane is a rich oilman, now facing bankruptcy. His good friend from his teenage years, Sonny Crawford (and a big part of TLPS) is relegated to a secondary role in this novel. Duane and Sonny, who were the closest of friends in TLPS are casual friends at this point, despite having lived in the same small town all of their lives. They have had no big rift, life just happened and caused the drifting apart. It really saddened me, and added to the melancholy that hangs over the entire novel.
The text is funny. The situations and dialogue are crackling with humor. This novel is so ridiculous, so over the top in the situations that it presents the reader, that in anyone else’s hands it would have been a disaster. In Larry McMurtry’s hands it is merely perplexing. I’m not sure what exactly I feel about it. It’s not love, but it certainly is not hate.
Some items worth mentioning:
At one point a character says of Thalia, “We’re all crazy and life in this town is what’s done it.” The book seems intent on proving that statement true in spades. It makes for some enjoyable scenarios.
The protagonist, Duane, has a dog named Shorty. He kinda ambles through the book and I just delighted in most every mention of him.
There is an unexpected and touchingly apt analogy that appears later in the book when Duane looks on his life like an old sheet being torn up for rags. It’s a moment that will give the reader pause.
Quotes:
• “Getting rich had been tiring, but nothing like as tiring as going broke.”
• “ ‘I was just laughing at nothing’, he said. ‘It’s either that or cry about everything, and I wasn’t in a crying mood.’ "
• “There doesn’t have to be anything so good about somebody to make you jealous when you’re in high school.”
• “A young man is even more unreliable than a drunk.”
• “Sundown brought with it a quality of peace that belied almost everything that happened during the day.”
• “Most people are forgotten.”
• “I guess I’d just like to lead a sensible life.”
• “Everybody causes somebody trouble.”
• “I think my wits live somewhere else now.”
• “That’s my limitation, it don’t have to be yours.”
• “Despite all the problems, past, present and to come, he felt deeply happy to be where he was.”
Notwithstanding the fact that I am not sure what the point of TEXASVILLE is (it feels a bit undefined), I did not mind the read at all. When I picked it up, it held my attention. Even with the outlandishness I felt the characters had dimension (McMurtry was very good at that) and I saw flashes of myself from time to time in the words of the text.
Sometimes with a book that is enough.
December 12, 2012
It's rare to find a book that really, truly, makes you laugh out loud. Many are humorous, and you think "That's pretty funny...clever". But Texasville will get you kicked out of church for cracking up. I should add that I've read it three times, and it's not short. I just go back to it every once in awhile because nothing can pull me out of a funk like this book.
October 15, 2016
Too many characters without enough differentiation, such that after 542 pages I still wasn’t sure (nor did I care) who Billie Ray and Bobby Sue even were. These people were hard to care about, the new rich in small town America reeling from a loss of fortune. I spent too much time in poor Duane’s brain, and his midlife crisis just wasn’t that interesting. He never does figure out all the women in his life, who run him ragged and manipulate his every waking hour. His kids and grandkids are out of control and his many mistresses unreliable. Duane himself is frustratingly stuck, and he never gets out of it. This reads like a long slog narrative, even the many chapters seemed arbitrary (who really plans 97 chapters, seemingly arbitrarily chosen?). McMurtry seems to have dialed this one in, almost as if he was fulfilling the terms of a contract for a certain number of words, thumbing his nose at his publisher (I have no knowledge of this, pure speculation).
Yes, I was disappointed, having loved the other two I’ve read by Larry (Horseman, pass by and The Last Picture Show). I’ll read Lonesome Dove someday, but I won’t be reading his entire lexicon, as I had once planned.
I’m glad this is over, but I don’t regret it. The humor was there and he’s a talented writer, just not at his best, and I did learn about small town life in Texas where the people congregate at the Dairy Queen and swap their empty headed drivel. I know this is the way it is in some places, I just didn’t need to read 500+ pages of such.
The plot plodded and the end just stopped abruptly as if the word quota was met. Moving on to something better.
Yes, I was disappointed, having loved the other two I’ve read by Larry (Horseman, pass by and The Last Picture Show). I’ll read Lonesome Dove someday, but I won’t be reading his entire lexicon, as I had once planned.
I’m glad this is over, but I don’t regret it. The humor was there and he’s a talented writer, just not at his best, and I did learn about small town life in Texas where the people congregate at the Dairy Queen and swap their empty headed drivel. I know this is the way it is in some places, I just didn’t need to read 500+ pages of such.
The plot plodded and the end just stopped abruptly as if the word quota was met. Moving on to something better.
August 10, 2015
This was quite different in tone than the first book of this series, The Last Picture Show. TLPS was a coming-of-age story about 3 teenagers trying to make sense of their worlds in a dusty town with no visible futures for them. There's a scurrying to find place and direction.
In Texasville, there's also a scurrying to find place and direction but from a middle-age position. The same three characters are again the center of the story but with the focus on one, Duanne. While TLPS is warm and touching, Texasville is humorous and farcical, with the action meandering all over the place. This is Duanne's coming-of-age story. He's trying to figure out where his life is going and what the point is.
It's very hard to get a feel for any of the characters, except perhaps Sonny (my favorite from TLPS). The characters are rather broadly portrayed without any glimpse into their true thoughts or psyches. Yet, this is an interesting bunch of characters and they grow on you......you just don't get to know them well.
All in all, an interesting continuation of The Last Picture Show, yet difficult to get a true grip on. I will continue this series with Duane's Depressed (that's not looking too rosy for Duanne's future). Larry McMurtry's writing is enjoyable and I trust that he'll close this series with the answers and resolutions for everyone.
In Texasville, there's also a scurrying to find place and direction but from a middle-age position. The same three characters are again the center of the story but with the focus on one, Duanne. While TLPS is warm and touching, Texasville is humorous and farcical, with the action meandering all over the place. This is Duanne's coming-of-age story. He's trying to figure out where his life is going and what the point is.
It's very hard to get a feel for any of the characters, except perhaps Sonny (my favorite from TLPS). The characters are rather broadly portrayed without any glimpse into their true thoughts or psyches. Yet, this is an interesting bunch of characters and they grow on you......you just don't get to know them well.
All in all, an interesting continuation of The Last Picture Show, yet difficult to get a true grip on. I will continue this series with Duane's Depressed (that's not looking too rosy for Duanne's future). Larry McMurtry's writing is enjoyable and I trust that he'll close this series with the answers and resolutions for everyone.
June 10, 2019
The guy who told me to read this said I was in for quite a laugh. That proved to be true, at first; most characters are immediately likeable, and the crude and shameless use of foul language is a masterpiece. However, as I plunged deeper into Texasville, I became increasingly sad. This is a book that displays human nature, and the sadness of it. No matter if you are a bank president, an oilman, a housewife or just a total nobody, everyone is just as miserable as you are. I'd like to think that the book’s central thesis is 'the grass isn’t greener on the other side'.
Beautiful but heartbreaking. That being said, I could not put this goddamn book down.
Beautiful but heartbreaking. That being said, I could not put this goddamn book down.
November 13, 2020
McMurty is the best writer of the Ole West, and his contemporary works like terms of endearment and Cadillac Jack had spark and humor.
The last picture show was a fine Bildungsroman.
This book is awful.
There’s no plot and no characters or more accurately the characters are caricatures of something or another.
These folks aren’t human and their predicaments fall outside even the range of farce.
Naming the book Texasville makes me think the author was trying to make some point about Texas, and America, and the time but the characters are so poorly crafted that the whole novel just comes across as one very long poison pen note to a people and a state.
The last picture show was a fine Bildungsroman.
This book is awful.
There’s no plot and no characters or more accurately the characters are caricatures of something or another.
These folks aren’t human and their predicaments fall outside even the range of farce.
Naming the book Texasville makes me think the author was trying to make some point about Texas, and America, and the time but the characters are so poorly crafted that the whole novel just comes across as one very long poison pen note to a people and a state.
April 20, 2020
I gave this book a whole 268 pages. At some point I crossed a boundary where I thought, "Well, I'm not liking this but I'm too far in to stop now." And then later I crossed another boundary where I thought, "Am I really going to read another 250 pages of this?" At page 268, the start of chapter 47, I threw in the towel. The writing is fine, but the characters are not interesting or eliciting of any care. I know this is a sequel of sorts to *The Last Picture Show,* so perhaps if I'd read that I might've enjoyed it more. Instead, it's just boring, soulless characters talking to each other about nothing. It's like Seinfeld, but not funny. It's like My Dinner with Andre, but not interesting. It's like Dazed and Confused, but not nostalgic. It just *is*. And consequently I'm just *done*. Tell McMurtry I tried.
April 16, 2012
Thirty years have passed since Duane Moore and Sonny Crawford graduated from high school in Thalia, Texas. The events of "The Last Picture Show" are a distant memory to everyone except Sonny, who continues to live in the past and occasionally gets lost there. Duane has married, gotten rich in the oil boom, raised a bunch of kids, built a 12,000-square-foot house outside of town, and is now $12 million in debt. The boom is over, and disappointment, the dominant mood of the characters in McMurtry's earlier book, is settling in again.
This time, however, disappointment and depression are mostly played for laughs. Sonny, the poignant central character in "Picture Show," has been sidelined in this story by Duane's domestic conflicts, his efforts to remain optimistic in the face of bankruptcy, and his affair with a married woman who is also carrying on with Duane's dope-dealing, womanizing son. McMurtry plays up the ironies and absurdities of life in Thalia where, as Duane observes, everyone seems to have gone crazy. The married and unmarried swap partners with the free-for-all abandon of romance as it's portrayed in country and western songs. And a kind of lunacy grips others, whose adventures push the narrative into wildly implausible episodes of farce, such as a mammoth egg-throwing fight on the closing night of Thalia's centennial celebration.
The melancholy mood that dominates "The Last Picture Show" makes only a brief appearance in this much longer novel, as Duane remembers a young employee killed in Vietnam. And readers, like me, who are fans of McMurtry's earlier work, will be disappointed that McMurtry treats the sorrows of his characters this time so lightly. At worst, the behavior of the town's residents gives Duane headaches and he comes to a realization that his "success" as an oilman and a respected citizen is not an achievement that gives him much self-esteem. The liberated 1980s women in his life (wife Karla, mistress Suzy, and old high school sweetheart Jacy) constantly remind him that he's less than adequate as a man. And at 48, he understands that he no longer has the energy he once had.
Meanwhile, there are pleasures to be had in the novel. In particular, I enjoyed the endless varieties of ironic and humorous disputes that characterize the verbal exchanges between the characters. Duane has a comic ruefulness that both protects him and reveals his vulnerability. And finally, that is the central theme of this novel as all the middle-aged characters (and there are a host of them) try in one way or another to come to terms with lives that haven't lived up to expectations.
This time, however, disappointment and depression are mostly played for laughs. Sonny, the poignant central character in "Picture Show," has been sidelined in this story by Duane's domestic conflicts, his efforts to remain optimistic in the face of bankruptcy, and his affair with a married woman who is also carrying on with Duane's dope-dealing, womanizing son. McMurtry plays up the ironies and absurdities of life in Thalia where, as Duane observes, everyone seems to have gone crazy. The married and unmarried swap partners with the free-for-all abandon of romance as it's portrayed in country and western songs. And a kind of lunacy grips others, whose adventures push the narrative into wildly implausible episodes of farce, such as a mammoth egg-throwing fight on the closing night of Thalia's centennial celebration.
The melancholy mood that dominates "The Last Picture Show" makes only a brief appearance in this much longer novel, as Duane remembers a young employee killed in Vietnam. And readers, like me, who are fans of McMurtry's earlier work, will be disappointed that McMurtry treats the sorrows of his characters this time so lightly. At worst, the behavior of the town's residents gives Duane headaches and he comes to a realization that his "success" as an oilman and a respected citizen is not an achievement that gives him much self-esteem. The liberated 1980s women in his life (wife Karla, mistress Suzy, and old high school sweetheart Jacy) constantly remind him that he's less than adequate as a man. And at 48, he understands that he no longer has the energy he once had.
Meanwhile, there are pleasures to be had in the novel. In particular, I enjoyed the endless varieties of ironic and humorous disputes that characterize the verbal exchanges between the characters. Duane has a comic ruefulness that both protects him and reveals his vulnerability. And finally, that is the central theme of this novel as all the middle-aged characters (and there are a host of them) try in one way or another to come to terms with lives that haven't lived up to expectations.
March 4, 2015
If I could give this book 6 or even 10 stars, I would.
"Texasville" takes us back to Thalia, Texas, thirty-some years after the events of "The Last Picture Show." (McMurtry has taken a few liberties with the timelines of the series, which bothers me a little but not much; anyway, "Texasville" takes place in 1986) and we once again meet up with Duane, Sonny, Jacy, Ruth Popper and Genevieve.
Whereas LPS focused most on Sonny, T-ville is Duane's story. Duane has made his fortune in oil and is living large, though he only has a few hundred in the bank and is in deep debt. He's married and has four kids, two of them grown, and this brutally hot summer the town of Thalia is celebrating its centennial with a huge party; also, Duane's high school class is holding it's 30th reunion.
Duane's wife is materialistic, oversexed, snarky but loves him to pieces. His kids are variously serial brides, dope dealers and preteen psychopaths. Even his dog is neurotic and also stupid, but fanatically loyal.
And Sonny? Poor Sonny. McMurtry apparently took to heart the famous writing advice "Kill your darlings." He doesn't kill Sonny, but he's let the years turn him into a sad, lonely, mentally-unravelling character who owns several local businesses like Sam the Lion used to, but lacks his dignity or force of personality.
Jacy has grown up and moved away, then come back to town. She is more mature, less spiteful, but still self-absorbed and sometimes high-handed with others.
Ruth Popper, now that her husband is dead, works as Duane's secretary, and she is easily the happiest person in Thalia. Her long-ago affair with Sonny seems to have saved her soul, if not her life.
The book's outstanding feature is its humor. McMurtry almost seems to be sitting next to you as you watch events in Thalia unfold, elbowing you in the ribs, winking, and laughing just as loud as you are at the hilarious situations that develop, whether it's a tumbleweed invasion during a parade, Duane taking out his frustrations on a wildly expensive but hideously tacky hippo-shaped footstool, or his eleven-year-old twins' seriously foul back-talk. It's clear McMurtry had a lot of fun writing this, and I had a lot of fun reading it.
"Texasville" takes us back to Thalia, Texas, thirty-some years after the events of "The Last Picture Show." (McMurtry has taken a few liberties with the timelines of the series, which bothers me a little but not much; anyway, "Texasville" takes place in 1986) and we once again meet up with Duane, Sonny, Jacy, Ruth Popper and Genevieve.
Whereas LPS focused most on Sonny, T-ville is Duane's story. Duane has made his fortune in oil and is living large, though he only has a few hundred in the bank and is in deep debt. He's married and has four kids, two of them grown, and this brutally hot summer the town of Thalia is celebrating its centennial with a huge party; also, Duane's high school class is holding it's 30th reunion.
Duane's wife is materialistic, oversexed, snarky but loves him to pieces. His kids are variously serial brides, dope dealers and preteen psychopaths. Even his dog is neurotic and also stupid, but fanatically loyal.
And Sonny? Poor Sonny. McMurtry apparently took to heart the famous writing advice "Kill your darlings." He doesn't kill Sonny, but he's let the years turn him into a sad, lonely, mentally-unravelling character who owns several local businesses like Sam the Lion used to, but lacks his dignity or force of personality.
Jacy has grown up and moved away, then come back to town. She is more mature, less spiteful, but still self-absorbed and sometimes high-handed with others.
Ruth Popper, now that her husband is dead, works as Duane's secretary, and she is easily the happiest person in Thalia. Her long-ago affair with Sonny seems to have saved her soul, if not her life.
The book's outstanding feature is its humor. McMurtry almost seems to be sitting next to you as you watch events in Thalia unfold, elbowing you in the ribs, winking, and laughing just as loud as you are at the hilarious situations that develop, whether it's a tumbleweed invasion during a parade, Duane taking out his frustrations on a wildly expensive but hideously tacky hippo-shaped footstool, or his eleven-year-old twins' seriously foul back-talk. It's clear McMurtry had a lot of fun writing this, and I had a lot of fun reading it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 26, 2020
Turgid, slow, and irritating. I didn't believe any of the characters, especially the women. They were all so arbitrarily mean and mercurical, nasty to each other without cause, uniformly depressed and sex-obsessed. None of the continuing characters seemed at all like the very interesting people in The Last Picture Show, the first-class novel to which this is a "sequel."
I loved Larry McMurtry's books up to and through Lonesome Dove (one of the best American novels), but post LD...it's downhill all the way.
I loved Larry McMurtry's books up to and through Lonesome Dove (one of the best American novels), but post LD...it's downhill all the way.
March 31, 2023
"Everything, it seemed, had been washed too many times, had worn too thin."
My patience was also wearing thin with this novel, I loved "The Last Picture Show" but this follow up was disappointing, I didn't hate it because well, the writing, but there could have been a much better book here somewhere, and 500 plus pages of mostly bouncing around Duane's head with his constant whining was entirely too much, but I will say the egg throwing debacle made me chuckle. I'll probably pick up the third book at some point but I'll give it a rest for a while.
My patience was also wearing thin with this novel, I loved "The Last Picture Show" but this follow up was disappointing, I didn't hate it because well, the writing, but there could have been a much better book here somewhere, and 500 plus pages of mostly bouncing around Duane's head with his constant whining was entirely too much, but I will say the egg throwing debacle made me chuckle. I'll probably pick up the third book at some point but I'll give it a rest for a while.
May 21, 2023
McMurtry is a tremendously talented writer and while I loved the first coming of age book in what became a series, I did not enjoy this one so much. Middle aged people living in a town dependent on oil.
Starting out with our protagonists Duane and Karla who are in open relationships and then their small town life as adults after they spent all the funny money, there just wasn't much that happened in this book that I cared about other than Sonny the sometimes suicidal son. There was also too much dialogue in the book.
3 stars
Starting out with our protagonists Duane and Karla who are in open relationships and then their small town life as adults after they spent all the funny money, there just wasn't much that happened in this book that I cared about other than Sonny the sometimes suicidal son. There was also too much dialogue in the book.
3 stars
December 4, 2022
"’Duane, you keep harping on the wrong things,'
Suzie said. ‘Something doesn't have to last a hundred
years to be beautiful.’”
A great take within the story but also my criticism of the story.
Suzie said. ‘Something doesn't have to last a hundred
years to be beautiful.’”
A great take within the story but also my criticism of the story.
October 21, 2020
Larry McMurtry has been one of my favourite authors since I first read Lonesome Dove 30 years ago. When I first joined Goodreads I immediately followed half a dozen people who had 5 starred Lonesome Dove, figuring that this was as good a sign as any that I’d have similar taste in books. I’ve read a fair proportion of McMurtry’s work and loved a lot of it but Texasville has remained my second favourite of his books and is the one I pull out when I need a lift. This sequel to The Last Picture Show catches up with Duane, Sonny and Jacy almost 30 years after the first book. Duane is 48 with a wife, family and $12m of debt hanging over his failing oil drilling company. The townsfolk of Thalia are collectively losing their minds as they plan a centennial celebration. McMurtry draws a colourful cast of townspeople, rich in detail and foibles. The book is funny and sad by turn, a collection of mid life crises and a commentary on the joys and tribulations that come from being part of a family.
This is one of those books that creates a fictional world I’d love to visit and characters I wish I knew.
This is one of those books that creates a fictional world I’d love to visit and characters I wish I knew.
December 19, 2024
I probably should have known better - the reviews are largely pretty scathing - but I had to read it.
Texasville feels much more like the spiritual successor to Leaving Cheyenne than The Last Picture Show. The sense of humor, the theatrics, the dramatic mood changes, the clever dialogue, and the pure spectacle of it all is massively at odds with the mournful, stoic nature of The Last Picture Show. While that novel is all about loss, Texasville is all affairs and romance and torrid sex.
Like Duane, I don't relate very well to the plot of this novel. I'm also rather disappointed that Sonny is barely a footnote in the plot; McMurtry made Duane a fairly unlikeable young man in Last Picture Show - it's an odd development that he's suddenly center stage in Texasville (and beyond).
I really should have known better though.
Read the reviews. Trust them.
...that all being said, I'm still going to read the next book. Ugh - what an idiot. I need to know where this all goes though. It's such a fucking circus. I shouldn't care, but I do.
2.5/5 - rounded up.
Texasville feels much more like the spiritual successor to Leaving Cheyenne than The Last Picture Show. The sense of humor, the theatrics, the dramatic mood changes, the clever dialogue, and the pure spectacle of it all is massively at odds with the mournful, stoic nature of The Last Picture Show. While that novel is all about loss, Texasville is all affairs and romance and torrid sex.
Like Duane, I don't relate very well to the plot of this novel. I'm also rather disappointed that Sonny is barely a footnote in the plot; McMurtry made Duane a fairly unlikeable young man in Last Picture Show - it's an odd development that he's suddenly center stage in Texasville (and beyond).
I really should have known better though.
Read the reviews. Trust them.
...that all being said, I'm still going to read the next book. Ugh - what an idiot. I need to know where this all goes though. It's such a fucking circus. I shouldn't care, but I do.
2.5/5 - rounded up.
February 29, 2020
In the sequel to The Last Picture Show, Duane is depressed and no longer horny. He’s trying to be horny again but it’s completely futile. He only gets horny once or twice but you can tell his heart isn’t really in it. The town of Thalia is suffering from an economic depression so in a way the town is also metaphorically not horny. Larry McMurtry’s beautiful and sparse prose lights up ever page and gives readers a strong sense that no one is having a horny time in Thalia.
By the end of this moving, funny novel, you don’t really know if Duane will ever be horny again but you still hold out hope. And that’s what makes Larry McMurtry a master of fiction.
By the end of this moving, funny novel, you don’t really know if Duane will ever be horny again but you still hold out hope. And that’s what makes Larry McMurtry a master of fiction.
March 3, 2009
I'm quitting this book around page 300 and counting it as "read". About 200 pages into the book I started wondering what the plot was, because nothing had really happened and up to the point that I stopped reading, no action appeared to be building. There are about a thousand characters and really nothing to distinguish one from another. It wasn't horrible to read, but with so many other books out there I can't devote any more time to this one.
December 8, 2010
I'm an absolute sucker for Larry McMurtry. This book once again proves that this man is a genius at character development. After reading Last Picture Show, who could imagine wanting to read a whole book from Duane's perspective? Well, this works, and Duane's pretty darn likable once you are in his head. And his wife Karen, wow!
May 12, 2015
Funny in a typical Texas kind of way, though the title has little to do with the story. The characters are off the charts as are the situations, especially the Centennial Celebration which in and of itself is a farce! Great stuff by a talented author.
June 24, 2012
Only if you really want to know what's become of Duane, Sonny and Jacy since Last Picture Show. I didn't care for it.
April 6, 2024
I have been a big fan of Larry McMurtry for years. Somewhere along the line, however, I seemed to lose interest in his style and moved on to other types of books. By happistance, I picked up this book recently and could not put it down. His style seems so natural and his books overshelms the reader with humor and a greater understanding of mankind.
July 24, 2021
I have such complicated feelings about this book. Without it, I would not exist. I was conceived on the set on the 1989 film. I didn’t read the book or watch the movie until 30 years later.
McMurtry (RIP) did a wonderful job setting the scene and tone of this book. A dusty Texan town in the middle of nowhere. A woman swimming in a reservoir. A cattle dog in the passenger seat of a pickup outside the Dairy Queen. His character development is excellent, and the way he writes—I mean, I feel like I could have been there. So far so good.
Then he just makes everyone act completely insane. Everyone cheats and shoots inanimate objects, people drive their cars into houses, there is a scene in which probably 1000 eggs are used as projectiles…everything is chaos. If McMurtry had used a lighter hand in his plot devices, I think his real strength—the setting and the lovely nuances of its inhabitants—would have been able to shine much brighter. This book is like making a beautiful painting and then dumping a bucket of mud all over it.
Sure am grateful he wrote it, though! I owe it my life.
McMurtry (RIP) did a wonderful job setting the scene and tone of this book. A dusty Texan town in the middle of nowhere. A woman swimming in a reservoir. A cattle dog in the passenger seat of a pickup outside the Dairy Queen. His character development is excellent, and the way he writes—I mean, I feel like I could have been there. So far so good.
Then he just makes everyone act completely insane. Everyone cheats and shoots inanimate objects, people drive their cars into houses, there is a scene in which probably 1000 eggs are used as projectiles…everything is chaos. If McMurtry had used a lighter hand in his plot devices, I think his real strength—the setting and the lovely nuances of its inhabitants—would have been able to shine much brighter. This book is like making a beautiful painting and then dumping a bucket of mud all over it.
Sure am grateful he wrote it, though! I owe it my life.
March 24, 2010
I love Larry McMurtry and would recommend most of his books, but, I hate to say, he dropped the ball on this one. I enjoyed learning more about the characters first introduced in The Last Picture Show – the prequel to Texasville – but overall the story lacked any substance or excitement. I just couldn’t get into it, which is a shame because I find most of McMurtry’s stories to be highly entertaining. If you want to read something by LM, I suggest Lonesome Dove, Horseman Pass by, All My Friends are going to be Strangers, Anything for Billy, or The Last Picture Show – all classics.
August 27, 2013
The spin off/follow up to The Last Picture Show we witness Dwayne and all the characters of Thalia, Texas as in soap opera like fashion interact and manage not to kill themselves or each other. I just gulped this one down as it was the perfect antidote to a a lot of crap going on in my life. It's nothing deep or thought provoking just the myriad of situations and people who get themselves involved with: sexual indiscretion, drugs, infidelity and all aspects of small town life where everyone goes to the same Dairy Queen and everyone knows everyone's business.
love it.
love it.
July 13, 2020
If you've ever spent time in small Texas towns, you'll relish the sardonic humor of Larry McMurtry's Texasville, where the kids are unmanageable, those who got rich on oil are going bankrupt, breakfast is at the DQ and it's hard to keep track of who's screwing whom. I thought this book was hilarious but it's not a page-turner.
May 28, 2017
Lonesome Dove is McMurtry's western masterpiece. But Texasville may be his best contemporary opus. Here McMurtry out-Irvings John Irving. This is just a well-written hilariosly fun 500 pg quirky story of a small Texas town and i adored it. Haven't enjoyed myself with weidness like this since John Irving's Hotel New Hampshire.
January 17, 2009
This is sequel to the great Last Picture Show. It was an ok read but not nearly up to first book. The whole dark tone of Last Picture Show is lost.
August 2, 2019
Deep, moving, trashy, entertaining, funny funny funny. He’s the best. I laughed, I cried, I groaned at some of the slapstick.
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