Larry McMurtry novels

[way2]

(Update: It has been a month since my last entry, and there hasn't been another word about far flung job prospects.)

I loved Terms of Endearment and I enjoyed Lonesome Dove. So, in the wake of Larry McMurtry's wonderful screenplay adaptation of Brokeback Mountain, I sought out another of his novels. The library had audiobooks of a four-novel

Comments

How can Someone Who Soars So High fall so low?

[erebor]

McMurtry has done some works of great sensitivity. I've often felt that he really understands his women characters in a deeper way than some other male authors.

However ... I've also remarked several inferior novels, all of which entailed some really violent, psychopathic behavior. There was some of this in Lonesome Dove, but in the context of a great novel, it worked. In lesser works, the violence stands out and makes me wonder what it is about the psychopath he finds so fascinating that he keeps returning to that behavior.

He probably did his research well. Lonesome Dove shows he is capable of that. But ... no, you're not missing anything. I think it's McMurtry who sometimes misses the mark.

Re: How can Someone Who Soars So High fall so low?

[way2]

Hi, there!!

I was originally assuming that he must have researched the West very thoroughly and that his episodes of violence were based on things that allegedly happened. However, a friend of mine met him a long time ago--maybe the mid-80's?--and asked him about the violence in Lonesome Dove. She says he said he just makes the stuff up and asserts that readers want it. In the Berrybender series, there's a character, a journalist, who states this sentiment--that his readers want to read about sensational violence and scandal. It's as if McMurtry was inserting an apologia for The Berrybender Narratives into the book.

Re: How can Someone Who Soars So High fall so low?

[erebor]

I wasn't referring to the violence in Lonesome Dove when I mentioned research. A historian I know told me way back that the western cultural references were quite good. As I said, the violence was and is a mystery to me. It's sad if it's true that it's there just for effet.

[way2]

...well, yes, he did. I liked it when he did that before, but I'm not loving it with the mustache and beard for some reason.

Sure has pretty eyes, though, huh?