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Paradise
Long considered to be the brilliant dark horse of literary nonfiction, Pulitzer Prize–winning Larry McMurtry delivers a searing and reflective exploration of what paradise is, whether it exists, and how different it is from life in his Texas hometown.
In 1999, Larry McMurtry, whose wanderlust had been previously restricted to the roads of America, set off for a trip to the paradise of Tahiti and the South Sea Islands in an old-fashioned tub of a cruise boat, at a time when his mother was slipping toward a paradise of her own. Opening up to her son in her final days, his mother makes a stunning revelation of a previous marriage and sends McMurtry on a journey of an entirely different kind.
Vividly, movingly, and with infinite care, McMurtry paints a portrait of his parents' marriage against the harsh, violent landscape of West Texas. It is their roots—laced with overtones of hard work, bitter disappointment, and the Puritan ethic—that McMurtry challenges by traveling to Tahiti, a land of lush sensuality and easy living. With fascinating detail, shrewd observations, humorous pathos, and unforgettable characters, he begins to answer some of the questions of what paradise is, whether it exists, and how different it is from life in his hometown of Archer City, Texas.
In 1999, Larry McMurtry, whose wanderlust had been previously restricted to the roads of America, set off for a trip to the paradise of Tahiti and the South Sea Islands in an old-fashioned tub of a cruise boat, at a time when his mother was slipping toward a paradise of her own. Opening up to her son in her final days, his mother makes a stunning revelation of a previous marriage and sends McMurtry on a journey of an entirely different kind.
Vividly, movingly, and with infinite care, McMurtry paints a portrait of his parents' marriage against the harsh, violent landscape of West Texas. It is their roots—laced with overtones of hard work, bitter disappointment, and the Puritan ethic—that McMurtry challenges by traveling to Tahiti, a land of lush sensuality and easy living. With fascinating detail, shrewd observations, humorous pathos, and unforgettable characters, he begins to answer some of the questions of what paradise is, whether it exists, and how different it is from life in his hometown of Archer City, Texas.
109 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2001
14 people are currently reading
226 people want to read
About the author
Larry McMurtry
150 books4,042 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 - 29 of 50 reviews
August 26, 2025
With his mother's impending death, McMurtry embarks on a trip to the South Sea islands, on a working boat with several other well-to-do passengers from all over the world. It starts out with him musing about his parents' relationship, his mother's life, interspersed with notes on his trip of a lifetime.
Then we stop hearing anything about his parents and not really much about his travels. It's more about his fellow passengers and a line or two here and there about the islands and the current and former inhabitants. But it reads like somebody's rambling diary about nothing. Really. I could forgive him for dropping the supposed premise of writing this book halfway through if he actually made it the least bit interesting. How do you take a trip to an exotic place rich with scenery and stories and turn it into boring drivel? Disappointing to say the least.
Then we stop hearing anything about his parents and not really much about his travels. It's more about his fellow passengers and a line or two here and there about the islands and the current and former inhabitants. But it reads like somebody's rambling diary about nothing. Really. I could forgive him for dropping the supposed premise of writing this book halfway through if he actually made it the least bit interesting. How do you take a trip to an exotic place rich with scenery and stories and turn it into boring drivel? Disappointing to say the least.
September 1, 2022
Admittedly, I haven’t found much value in travel writing. There are curt descriptions of scenery and locations I’ve never heard of much less considered visiting. Beyond a second-hand high, the genre appears relatively useless to a reader who neither cares to nor can visit for themselves.
I’ll concede my narrow view. I hope McMurtry can forgive me.
His particular blend of memoir and travelogue is billed as “his most personal writing to date.” Any reader of Lonesome Dove or The Last Picture Show should chuckle at that.
There are few strengths in Paradise. The sections that don’t quite work outweigh the ones that do. Yet, as most of McMurtry’s writing goes, the strengths carry some mystic quality of forgetfulness upon the reader of anything previously noted as shaky.
Townes van Zandt often discussed how humans are the sole creature incapable of only thinking about the present. It’s human nature to consider the past and future in everything.
I suppose the best sort of this type of writing illustrates that principle. The trick is being able to balance both past and future so that one does not suffer in the other’s shadow. For the most part, McMurtry balances. Past the halfway point, the book drifts farther toward description of island life and various fruits. There’s irony here because McMurtry spends a fair amount of time on the value of a good view. At what point does a good view become enough? From the mountains, beach, jungle, freighter. In some ways, they’re all the same.
It would seem that McMurtry would agree. But he’s far more interested in the folks that see that good view evening after evening without end. I’d suppose that what he’s really after in pairing this meditation on paradise life with a reflection on his parents’ lives.
Death is the good view we each encounter. At some point, deaths reach exhaustion. In some way, they’re all the same. Or are they? Seemingly, McMurtry wrestles with this throughout most of his journey. It’s only upon his return to Texas, when visiting his elderly mother for the final time that both death and paradise become more personal than ever before.
There’s a profound difference in partaking an island sunset during a vacation versus one in the place you call home. How much more is that true of experiencing a death of a parent than that of a stranger?
I’ll concede my narrow view. I hope McMurtry can forgive me.
His particular blend of memoir and travelogue is billed as “his most personal writing to date.” Any reader of Lonesome Dove or The Last Picture Show should chuckle at that.
There are few strengths in Paradise. The sections that don’t quite work outweigh the ones that do. Yet, as most of McMurtry’s writing goes, the strengths carry some mystic quality of forgetfulness upon the reader of anything previously noted as shaky.
Townes van Zandt often discussed how humans are the sole creature incapable of only thinking about the present. It’s human nature to consider the past and future in everything.
I suppose the best sort of this type of writing illustrates that principle. The trick is being able to balance both past and future so that one does not suffer in the other’s shadow. For the most part, McMurtry balances. Past the halfway point, the book drifts farther toward description of island life and various fruits. There’s irony here because McMurtry spends a fair amount of time on the value of a good view. At what point does a good view become enough? From the mountains, beach, jungle, freighter. In some ways, they’re all the same.
It would seem that McMurtry would agree. But he’s far more interested in the folks that see that good view evening after evening without end. I’d suppose that what he’s really after in pairing this meditation on paradise life with a reflection on his parents’ lives.
Death is the good view we each encounter. At some point, deaths reach exhaustion. In some way, they’re all the same. Or are they? Seemingly, McMurtry wrestles with this throughout most of his journey. It’s only upon his return to Texas, when visiting his elderly mother for the final time that both death and paradise become more personal than ever before.
There’s a profound difference in partaking an island sunset during a vacation versus one in the place you call home. How much more is that true of experiencing a death of a parent than that of a stranger?
May 5, 2021
A contemplative non-fiction narrative of McMurtry's trip to Tahiti and the surrounding islands. Along the way he contemplates his parents' relationship and his mother's impending death, and also talks about the artist Gauguin and his experiences on the islands. Turns out Gauguin was what we'd certainly call a pedophile today, seeing as how he had three mistresses on the island that he got pregnant, all of whom were in the 14 to 15 year 0ld age range.
Despite the distaste for Gauguin that I felt, the first two thirds of this book was actually very interesting, although not much happens activity wise. It's all thoughts in the author's head. However, the last third sort of dispenses with the discussion of his parents and focuses more on the people he's traveling with (by boat), and on the Islands themselves. The islands seem to have quite a bit of a sameness about them, and in the end there aren't really any great insights into the life of the islanders or of the European tourists he is traveling with.
It was a short book, however, and easy to read.
Despite the distaste for Gauguin that I felt, the first two thirds of this book was actually very interesting, although not much happens activity wise. It's all thoughts in the author's head. However, the last third sort of dispenses with the discussion of his parents and focuses more on the people he's traveling with (by boat), and on the Islands themselves. The islands seem to have quite a bit of a sameness about them, and in the end there aren't really any great insights into the life of the islanders or of the European tourists he is traveling with.
It was a short book, however, and easy to read.
August 1, 2016
Mr. McMurtry loves to travel, apparently, doing so serves as an aide in helping him focus on his writing, his work and his life. As his mother was in the final stages of life, he decided to travel “on the old road, the first road, the original superhighway: the sea.” (p. 55) to reflect upon his parents’ relationship. Finding a measure of distance from an event or a problem is often helpful in getting clarity or finding a solution to the subject at hand. I hope he was able to find such on this trip, as the majority of what he discussed was the islands of the South Pacific, particularly the Marquesas.
The discussion of his parents’ life together was painful to read. Married for 42+ years but never seemed to enjoy the time they had together. Constant bickering and arguments grew from the frustration they found in the disappointment of the life they had rather than the life for which they had hoped, one where support and words of affirmation and love were a standard of practice. They remained wed, for appearance sake, until the elder Mr. McMurtry died. They chose suffering the misery of an unhappy marriage rather than be seen as “a failure” in the eyes of their neighbors.
Mr. McMurtry, being the fine author he is, has used the conflict he witnessed between his parents in creating many of the relationships often found in his novels (Terms of Endearment, Horseman, Pass By, the Duane Moore Series) and speaks dispassionately and with directness of the struggles he witnessed without discounting the love he and his siblings felt from both parents. One would hope he has dealt sufficiently with the pain of his parents discord that the detachment he shows in relating this memoir is the result of resolution and not an act of avoidance.
The majority of the book is filled with an abbreviated account of his two week cruse on the supply ship, Aranui, as she sailed around the islands near Tahiti. The ship is “a floating warehouse with a spic-and-span 1970’s-era Holiday Inn on top.” (p. 57). The itinerary was to visit each of the six islands in the nearby chain as the crew would bring “cases of Coca-Cola” and other “necessities” to the local population and pick up the goods produced, usually copra (dried coconut meat) on the islands. At each port, the tourists would go ashore to satisfy “their retail addiction,” buying what was offered, regardless of the quality of said item(s). Mr. McMurtry used the time to study the light as it changed on the sea and played on the mountains. His reflection upon, and the title of the book, paradise is a source of existential contemplation. Each island is a tropical “paradise” but even paradise becomes monotonous, the writer notes, when it is given too easily or witnessed without effort.
By the memoirs’ end, the two stories (his parents’ relationship and his tour of “paradise”) have blended into a single narrative. The “paradise” Hazel Ruth and William Jefferson McMurtry expected to find when they married turned out to be dust and worry, the monotony of their dissatisfaction only eased by the joy they found in being parents of their four children. The paradise of the South Pacific islands, once pristine in their innocence and self-sufficiency, was “lost” when the first European explorers made the natives aware of what they didn’t have (but did not need). The world weary passengers who sailed with the author on this voyage wanted to find simple bliss on the islands but were not willing to do without the luxuries they commonly found at home. The McMurtry’s wanted to find delight in marriage but were not willing to give up their selfish expectations in hope of finding more than they dreamt possible.
Perhaps I walk in paradise daily and its familiarity has blinded me to the astonishment it holds.
The discussion of his parents’ life together was painful to read. Married for 42+ years but never seemed to enjoy the time they had together. Constant bickering and arguments grew from the frustration they found in the disappointment of the life they had rather than the life for which they had hoped, one where support and words of affirmation and love were a standard of practice. They remained wed, for appearance sake, until the elder Mr. McMurtry died. They chose suffering the misery of an unhappy marriage rather than be seen as “a failure” in the eyes of their neighbors.
Mr. McMurtry, being the fine author he is, has used the conflict he witnessed between his parents in creating many of the relationships often found in his novels (Terms of Endearment, Horseman, Pass By, the Duane Moore Series) and speaks dispassionately and with directness of the struggles he witnessed without discounting the love he and his siblings felt from both parents. One would hope he has dealt sufficiently with the pain of his parents discord that the detachment he shows in relating this memoir is the result of resolution and not an act of avoidance.
The majority of the book is filled with an abbreviated account of his two week cruse on the supply ship, Aranui, as she sailed around the islands near Tahiti. The ship is “a floating warehouse with a spic-and-span 1970’s-era Holiday Inn on top.” (p. 57). The itinerary was to visit each of the six islands in the nearby chain as the crew would bring “cases of Coca-Cola” and other “necessities” to the local population and pick up the goods produced, usually copra (dried coconut meat) on the islands. At each port, the tourists would go ashore to satisfy “their retail addiction,” buying what was offered, regardless of the quality of said item(s). Mr. McMurtry used the time to study the light as it changed on the sea and played on the mountains. His reflection upon, and the title of the book, paradise is a source of existential contemplation. Each island is a tropical “paradise” but even paradise becomes monotonous, the writer notes, when it is given too easily or witnessed without effort.
By the memoirs’ end, the two stories (his parents’ relationship and his tour of “paradise”) have blended into a single narrative. The “paradise” Hazel Ruth and William Jefferson McMurtry expected to find when they married turned out to be dust and worry, the monotony of their dissatisfaction only eased by the joy they found in being parents of their four children. The paradise of the South Pacific islands, once pristine in their innocence and self-sufficiency, was “lost” when the first European explorers made the natives aware of what they didn’t have (but did not need). The world weary passengers who sailed with the author on this voyage wanted to find simple bliss on the islands but were not willing to do without the luxuries they commonly found at home. The McMurtry’s wanted to find delight in marriage but were not willing to give up their selfish expectations in hope of finding more than they dreamt possible.
Perhaps I walk in paradise daily and its familiarity has blinded me to the astonishment it holds.
April 3, 2008
I'm not sure if my three star rating here is accurate, this book got under my skin in many ways. It is a travel book and a meditation on the author's parent's marriage. Possibly the travel destination, being in French Polynesia and my recent travel there had something to do with it getting under my skin. I did find it very informative and emotionally resonant. I'm going to change it to 4 stars in light of that.
November 3, 2012
Enjoyed McMurtry's travel memoir to the South Pacific and specifically to former homes and artistic inspirational places of Gaugin. How I would love to visit the South Pacific travel destination of McMurtry and many other interesting authors over the centuries. If we had not seen the Seattle Art Museum's gorgeous exhibition on Gaugin, then I might not have hung on every word of description. Art coming together with other art is a treasure.
April 24, 2008
a bit meandering, this is a contemplative book about life, the meaning of paradise on earth, the island of the south pacific. told very much from the perspective of white, western culture, the book still does take a nice look at tourism, too, and it's mixed blessing for native peoples. the writing itself is so beautiful though, i would recommend this book for that alone.
February 9, 2025
McMurtry is one of my all time favorite authors- I read as much of him as I can find.
This was disappointing. A travelogue? A look at his parents’ marriage? A goodbye to his mom? It attempts all three but rambles around and doesn’t really do any of those well. I never did understand why, when his mother is facing imminent death , he would choose to set out on a cargo ship with spotty ability to reach Texas by phone, for the South Seas- Tahiti and the Marquesas among other islands.
We learn a little about his parents; then he sets off on his trip. His normal ability to really make me feel place and know characters somehow fails here. I recently finished the Wide Wide Sea - Hampton’s book about Cook and his time in the same seas. I got a much better sense of place- and an intense desire to visit- from Hampton.
McMurtry just sounds depressed the whole time- bored of the endless trinket sellers; only slightly interested in the other wealthy passengers but mostly wanting to be left alone to read his book. He seems peeved no one on board has read his books. He mentions once that an Italian woman notices he looks “sad.” But he doesn’t explore why or even that he is. Duane’s Depressed is one of my favorite all time books. But McMurtry fails at presenting his own path through depression. And then his mom dies the day after he gets back. The end.
So disappointing
This was disappointing. A travelogue? A look at his parents’ marriage? A goodbye to his mom? It attempts all three but rambles around and doesn’t really do any of those well. I never did understand why, when his mother is facing imminent death , he would choose to set out on a cargo ship with spotty ability to reach Texas by phone, for the South Seas- Tahiti and the Marquesas among other islands.
We learn a little about his parents; then he sets off on his trip. His normal ability to really make me feel place and know characters somehow fails here. I recently finished the Wide Wide Sea - Hampton’s book about Cook and his time in the same seas. I got a much better sense of place- and an intense desire to visit- from Hampton.
McMurtry just sounds depressed the whole time- bored of the endless trinket sellers; only slightly interested in the other wealthy passengers but mostly wanting to be left alone to read his book. He seems peeved no one on board has read his books. He mentions once that an Italian woman notices he looks “sad.” But he doesn’t explore why or even that he is. Duane’s Depressed is one of my favorite all time books. But McMurtry fails at presenting his own path through depression. And then his mom dies the day after he gets back. The end.
So disappointing
March 8, 2020
Similar feel as his Roads book. In this one, McMurty goes to the Society Islands in French Polynesia to write about his parents' relationship. While he never really explains why he chose Tahiti as his base to write about his parents or what they have to do with the notion of paradise, the book is pleasant and relaxing, and McMurtry fans will enjoy his indominitable yet tranquil take on living life right. He does spend some time on his parents' history including his dad's avoidance of travel and his mother's fight to look and act respectable; but he ultimately spends more time waxing philisophic on the meaning of paradise and the ironic discontent of the paradise chasers who are his travel companions. Obviously not where someone should start with McMurty (try Lonesome Dove for an epic or Cadillac Jack for fun), but a breezy, easy read for someone interested in McMurty the man.
June 25, 2022
I liked this book, which seemed more of a travel book than one about Mr. McMurtry's parents. That said, there were some pages devoted to his mother and father, more concerning the former.
I found the discussions of paradise and our despoiling of Eden (the tropical islands) interesting. I've often thought about people who live in, say, Hawaii, and how they perceive the so-called paradise that is their everyday environment. Familiarity breeds contempt, right? Mr. McMurtry points out that monotony - the endless, unceasing, crushing beauty of paradise - can have a detrimental effect on how we view such perfection.
His comparisons between the island dwellers and the Native-Americans of Arizona and New Mexico rang very true and his shipboard companions provided comic relief. I loved the story of the mistakenly pilfered lunch. This is worth the read in my book.
I found the discussions of paradise and our despoiling of Eden (the tropical islands) interesting. I've often thought about people who live in, say, Hawaii, and how they perceive the so-called paradise that is their everyday environment. Familiarity breeds contempt, right? Mr. McMurtry points out that monotony - the endless, unceasing, crushing beauty of paradise - can have a detrimental effect on how we view such perfection.
His comparisons between the island dwellers and the Native-Americans of Arizona and New Mexico rang very true and his shipboard companions provided comic relief. I loved the story of the mistakenly pilfered lunch. This is worth the read in my book.
January 1, 2021
4.2 star From the description, I didn't know if I would like this book, but I did. The author read the book. Nice voice. The book is a study of how people view what they think constitutes paradise, how what looks like paradise to the traveler may be anything but paradise to the person living that life. As a character in his own story, he turned out to be a very insightful, thoughtful, decent person.
So, now you know how I rang in New Year's Eve 2020.
So, now you know how I rang in New Year's Eve 2020.
June 8, 2021
Favorite part of this is when ol' Larry goes, "I have survived into my sixty-fourth year by never underestimating the belligerence of swine. I keep a wary eye on the sows." Wise words from the guy who won the damn Pulitzer for a book with a bunch of pigs in its very first sentence. Has McMurtry ever been properly considered alongside Pynchon as one of the great hogmen of 20th-cent. US lit? Could be something there.
December 23, 2022
This seems like two separate short essays smashed together. I enjoyed the first portion about his parents, but the account of his travels in Polynesia were unfocused and rambling, though it did reinforce my opinion that cruise travel is not for me. Even though it’s a short book it seems unending. Maybe that’s the point, a book that feels like being stuck on a ship in the South Seas.
March 11, 2021
The previous reader underlined a sentence on page 109, which I can only assume is their review of this book.
"the force of monotony begins to pull against the attractions of paradise."
Indeed it does, fellow reader.
"the force of monotony begins to pull against the attractions of paradise."
Indeed it does, fellow reader.
September 5, 2025
Pure McMurtry
A delightful read. A Fun travel log across the uncharted ( at least for most humans) South Pacific. Good history of McMurty’s upbringing mixed into a humorous look at his fellow travelers, peoples of the Marquesas and life in general.
A delightful read. A Fun travel log across the uncharted ( at least for most humans) South Pacific. Good history of McMurty’s upbringing mixed into a humorous look at his fellow travelers, peoples of the Marquesas and life in general.
April 30, 2018
This was just ok. I actually skimmed so much of it. I was really only interested in his parents. It started out more about them but the last 2/3 of the book there wasn't much at all.
August 26, 2018
A quick but interesting read.
McMurtry writing as he does so well about women but in nonfiction not novel form. I do not know how I missed this when it was first published.
McMurtry writing as he does so well about women but in nonfiction not novel form. I do not know how I missed this when it was first published.
March 3, 2024
I'm not usually a non-fiction reader. An interesting journal read.
January 2, 2025
I found the information about his parents to be more interesting than the rest of the book.
July 8, 2025
Short but a slow read.
October 22, 2025
A quick read and enjoable.
November 18, 2014
I'm not sure that Larry McMurtry is capable of writing poorly. I imagine that he could make the tax instructions interesting.
This is so much in evidence with PARADISE, a book that might have been a hopeless jumble in other hands. It is a book about relationships. It is a book about history. It is a book about self-discovery and trying to figure out how to connect the pieces together in a troublesome puzzle. It is a book about travel, and people who are so enmeshed in their own need for convenience that they miss the culture surrounding them. And it is also about some truly remarkable people who pop into our lives from time to time before disappearing on their own journey.
The central theme is travel to someplace that is believed to have importance. We have all probably imagined our dream excursion. (Mine was to Japan.) The writer goes to islands in the South Seas, an area thought by many to be Paradise. Of course, even Paradise can lose its luster after a time, but the method of the journey allows plenty of time for reflection...seeking a flow of the past into the present. And, yes, there is also time set aside for the writing of this book.
Considering how random the thoughts and observations seemed throughout, I was amazed by my high level of interest. It wasn't that I was waiting for something momentous to happen, or to share in the joy of a major revelation. No, I was enjoying the opportunity to explore the mind of another, seeing things through his eyes and pondering on the influence our choices have throughout not only our lives, but through the lives of others.
This may seem like meandering, but there was never a time when it was not inviting and an enjoyable read. It felt as if I might be having a late night conversation with a close friend.
At the end, there is awareness as puzzle pieces come together. Yet the journey there needs to be taken to fully appreciate what is discovered, or else the discovery is a throw-away moment.
I recommend this one to anyone who feels in a reflective mood.
This is so much in evidence with PARADISE, a book that might have been a hopeless jumble in other hands. It is a book about relationships. It is a book about history. It is a book about self-discovery and trying to figure out how to connect the pieces together in a troublesome puzzle. It is a book about travel, and people who are so enmeshed in their own need for convenience that they miss the culture surrounding them. And it is also about some truly remarkable people who pop into our lives from time to time before disappearing on their own journey.
The central theme is travel to someplace that is believed to have importance. We have all probably imagined our dream excursion. (Mine was to Japan.) The writer goes to islands in the South Seas, an area thought by many to be Paradise. Of course, even Paradise can lose its luster after a time, but the method of the journey allows plenty of time for reflection...seeking a flow of the past into the present. And, yes, there is also time set aside for the writing of this book.
Considering how random the thoughts and observations seemed throughout, I was amazed by my high level of interest. It wasn't that I was waiting for something momentous to happen, or to share in the joy of a major revelation. No, I was enjoying the opportunity to explore the mind of another, seeing things through his eyes and pondering on the influence our choices have throughout not only our lives, but through the lives of others.
This may seem like meandering, but there was never a time when it was not inviting and an enjoyable read. It felt as if I might be having a late night conversation with a close friend.
At the end, there is awareness as puzzle pieces come together. Yet the journey there needs to be taken to fully appreciate what is discovered, or else the discovery is a throw-away moment.
I recommend this one to anyone who feels in a reflective mood.
May 13, 2025
A touching, if simple, book about what the large concept of Paradise means to Larry McMurtry. He still hasn’t topped The Last Picture Show for me, but his humanist Texan schtick worked well for me here. (Helps that this is partially about how much of a mama’s boy he is.)
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May 6, 2023Something about the early 2000s and about male writers born in the 1930s that wants to write a biography of one's parents.
I think about the John Williams novel Stoner, about a kid who grows up in rural Missouri on a farm, gets sent to college to learn about agronomy and economics, falls in love with Medieval literature and never looks back. There's that kind of maybe guilt, maybe sense of responsibility built into these kinds of biographies. And I can think of quite a few of them: there's this one, Richard Russo's Elsewhere, Richard Ford's Between Them, Philip Roth's Patrimony, and I am sure others.
Larry McMurtry finds himself in Tahiti in his 60s, and while he's also quite occupied with thoughts of Paul Gauguin, who spread disease, art, and abuse across the country in the late 1800s, as well as Melville, who positioned his first novel Typee on the island, McMurtry can't help but think about his parents as well, young farmers from Archer Co, Texas, who never really left Texas, but gave their son enough of a life for him to go to college, write novels, write movies, and travel endlessly. It's less a love letter to them so much as a reckoning of how little of the world they experienced because they happened to get together to start a family in the worst depression the country saw in one of the worst places hit by it.
In addition to this, it's a relatively interesting, only slightly problematic travel narrative about a visit to Tahiti.
I think about the John Williams novel Stoner, about a kid who grows up in rural Missouri on a farm, gets sent to college to learn about agronomy and economics, falls in love with Medieval literature and never looks back. There's that kind of maybe guilt, maybe sense of responsibility built into these kinds of biographies. And I can think of quite a few of them: there's this one, Richard Russo's Elsewhere, Richard Ford's Between Them, Philip Roth's Patrimony, and I am sure others.
Larry McMurtry finds himself in Tahiti in his 60s, and while he's also quite occupied with thoughts of Paul Gauguin, who spread disease, art, and abuse across the country in the late 1800s, as well as Melville, who positioned his first novel Typee on the island, McMurtry can't help but think about his parents as well, young farmers from Archer Co, Texas, who never really left Texas, but gave their son enough of a life for him to go to college, write novels, write movies, and travel endlessly. It's less a love letter to them so much as a reckoning of how little of the world they experienced because they happened to get together to start a family in the worst depression the country saw in one of the worst places hit by it.
In addition to this, it's a relatively interesting, only slightly problematic travel narrative about a visit to Tahiti.
February 11, 2016
This book left me cold emotionally. As the previous owner stated, Mr. McMurtry uses his sojourn among the Tahitian islands to explore his father and mother's relationship with each other.
However, Texas and Tahiti are worlds apart socially, culturally and emotionally. When reminiscences of his parents make appearances in his cataloging of his trip, they are as awkward and clumsy as the tourists making their way from one island to another.
However, his trip through the islands and his musings on French colonialism and the influence of such diverse characters as Gauguin, Brel and Captain Cook, et al., are engaging enough if told in a rather sparse style. His memories of the islands are detailed enough to provide an interesting travelogue to the curious tourist.
I decided to release this book because it seems Mr. McMurtry isn't going to be one of my favorite authors.
However, Texas and Tahiti are worlds apart socially, culturally and emotionally. When reminiscences of his parents make appearances in his cataloging of his trip, they are as awkward and clumsy as the tourists making their way from one island to another.
However, his trip through the islands and his musings on French colonialism and the influence of such diverse characters as Gauguin, Brel and Captain Cook, et al., are engaging enough if told in a rather sparse style. His memories of the islands are detailed enough to provide an interesting travelogue to the curious tourist.
I decided to release this book because it seems Mr. McMurtry isn't going to be one of my favorite authors.
May 29, 2010
McMurtry goes on a cruise (on a working freight ship) from Tahiti to the Marquesas, at a time when his mother is near death, ostensibly to contemplate the strange marriage of his parents, who divorced after 45 years. He discusses them in the book, but not a lot. Instead he focuses on the events of the cruise, with slight portraits of the other passengers, and the islands he sees. Lots of references and discussions, of course, of Gauguin, Robert Louis Stevenson, Melville, etc. I liked this book quite a bit, slight as it was, as I've enjoyed his later small autobiographical books.
July 5, 2012
A collection of McMurtry's thoughts while he cruises the South Seas: Ruminations about his parents, their separation from each other, restlessness (his own and that of others) with the so-called perfection in paradise, physical and emotional distance, Western expanse, mob xenophobia, the weighing of the marginality of his life against the vast Pacific. The book's depths are far deeper and penetrating than the slimness of its volume suggests; his fans (especially those who've digested much of his work) should gain rich insight into the man who created the beloved characters of his many novels.
January 4, 2015
You get a lot more information about his fellow passengers than about the Islands and their people. Of course anyone going to French Polynesia today has to have money - there are a lot cheaper and equally beautiful islands in the South Pacific to explore for the more frugal traveler. But if you are locked into a boat tour, you are only going to have time for a quick impression, no matter where you float. Mc Murtry family history back in Texas was just irrelevant. This writer is just another self-obsessed stuff shirt, waiting for the chance to quote the classics and show off.
May 25, 2015
I'm a fan of Larry McMurtry's fiction, but Paradise is a personal story. It is an island travelogue as well as a reflection of his parents' marriage as his mother is slipping away from life. I didn't learn much about Hazel and Jeff McMurtry, other than the fact that they weren't travelers and were very much products of their time. McMurtry made some insightful observations about travel and how many tourists want to experience new cultures without giving up any of the amenities they are used to. Tahiti was romantic when tied to Paul Gaugin's art and island cultures were well observed.
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