The first Larry McMurtry book I read was Lonesome Dove (1985). The 1989 Western adventure television miniseries was announced and I read the novel before I watched the episodes. The series was originally broadcast by CBS from February 5 to 8, 1989, drawing a huge viewing audience, earning numerous awards, and reviving both the television Western and the miniseries. The novel won a Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for Best Novel.
Over the years, I read more of McMurtry’s works: Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen and In a Narrow Grave. Recently, I read McMurtry’s anthology of contemporary Western stories, Still Wild, (you can read my review here) so I decided to read a couple more McMurtry books I’ve had on my shelves for years.
Books: A Memoir (2008) is an entertaining guide through a life-time of reading. McMurtry starts with his reading interests in childhood and ramps up the obsession with reading and buying books–he eventually owns a bookstore–with the true motivations of a collector. “Today the only book in my 28,000 volumes to survive from that year is a little book in the New Directions Classics series: Ezra Pound’s ABC of Reading, a book I still reread every five years or so.” (p. 71)
Literary Life: A Second Memoir (2009) expands on McMurtry’s first memoir. McMurtry describes his struggles as a writer…and bookstore owner. I enjoyed McMurtry’s frankness about his personality and his view of the world. “I have never been good with groups, and the PEN board, to its credit, was a fervent and passionate group. I admired their passion but never shared it: I’m just too much of a Hobbesian.” (p. 139)
“V. S. Naipaul is obviously a great writer, but his genius is mostly to manifest itself in his nonfiction, not his fiction. This a touchy point with writers who consider themselves novelists first. Suggesting that tie nonfiction is really better will usually be taken as a deadly insult. Yet I think it’s true of James Baldwin as well as Norman Mailer, none of whose novels equal the great ‘reportage’ he did in the Sixties and Seventies. (The exception is his masterpiece, The Executioner’s Song, which is so good it doesn’t matter which genre one puts it in.)” (p. 173)
Reading Larry McMurtry’s insights on writers just delights me! I’m sure you would find McMurtry’s opinions fun, too! GRADE: A (for both books)
Wow, no Oscar predictions? We haven’t seen any of the movies, have zero interest and won’t be watching.
As the Bramhall cartoon so aptly put it, “A Gala Celebration of Movies You Never Heard Of and Will Never See.”
But to the important post: books. I read both of these memoirs, as well as HOLLYWOOD: A THIRD MEMOIR, IN A LONELY GRAVE and the Walter Benjamin book, and FILM FLAM: ESSAYS ON HOLLYWOOD. Plus the entertaining ROADS: DRIVING AMERICA’S GREAT HIGHWAYS. McMurtry loved to drive long distances, and Texas has a lot of them!
Besides LONESOME DOVE, one of my favorite books, my favorite of his fiction is TERMS OF ENDEARMENT (I can still see Shirley MacLaine yelling, “Give my daughter the shot!” My mother used to do that.) But I also read THE LAST PICTURE SHOW,HORSEMAN PASS BY (filmed as HUD), LEAVING CHEYENNE, THE DESERT ROSE, MOVING ON, ALL MY FRIENDS ARE GOING TO BE STRANGERS, SOMEBODY’S DARLING, THE EVENING STAR, maybe one or two others.
Jeff, you would think Larry McMurtry would be better known and more widely read. Like you, I have no interest in the Oscars. Hollywood is in trouble.
McMurtry is widely read, George…
I think THE LAST PICTURE SHOW is the only one of his fiction books I’ve read—although I’ve read some of his non-fiction (although not this book). I wholeheartedly agree with him about some writers being so much better as writers of non-fiction than of fiction (Joan Didion & Joyce Carol Oates are the two that immediately come to my mind).
I’m with Jeff on the Oscars: I’m completely uninterested in the show and haven’t seen any of the nominees.
Deb, I’ve seen five of the nominees. I’m a fan of A COMPLETE UNKNOWN.
Deb. I think I agree with you on Didion more than Oates, though some of the longer Oates novels are not as good, in my experience, as her shorter fiction.
I once met McMurtry in passing in the early ’80s, at the bookstore he owned in Georgetown. I didn’t really talk to him, and only later realized it was he. Just as well; I hadn’t and haven’t read enough of his books to weigh in on them. I’ll also be a no-show for Oscar tonight. The list of nominees gets more uninspiring every year. I wonder how much longer they’ll have any theatrically released movies to choose from.
Fred, I’m baffled that AMC and Regal Theaters are still around. The movies available are mostly horror flicks (made on the cheap) and animated features for kids.
I think you answered your own question, there, George.
Every few years I look at a McMurtry novel and toy with the idea of reading one but the timing has never been right. I did watch the “Lonesome Dove” miniseries and remember thinking it was quite impressive for television of that era and that Anjelica Huston just lit up the screen.
I’m happy to read that McMurtry had no stomach for those bozos at PEN who have always struck me as little more than insufferable, perpetual grad students. Owning and running a bookstore is a thankless, Herculean task. Bookstore customers are all too often the awful retail version of a Hydra with the heads of a cry baby, the worst possible Karen and the most helpless old person. I can’t imagine anyone with the temperament of a writer taking on that job.
I’ve been sitting out the Oscars since the nineties but my god this year’s lot may just be the most unappealing looking list of contenders I’ve ever seen. Everything these days looks and feels like it was made for Netflix which is the kiss of death.
Byron, you and I share the same distain for PEN. I always thought it was a club for snobs. I enjoyed reading about McMurtry’s bookstore stories–both good and bad. I came away knowing I could never own or run a bookstore with all the grief that goes with it. I agree with you on the state of movies today: pathetic.