Customer Reviews

The Desert Rose

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Set in tawdry Las Vegas, the story is about Harmony, now hitting 40, and once a real show-stopper on the Strip. But life has stopped being good for Harmony, and nothing in her life - her career, her lovelife, and especially her daughter Pepper - is going right. But she's a trooper, and nothing gets her down for long. McMurtry gets the sweetness and sadness of Harmony just right, even though at times her innocence comes across more as just ignorance of the ways of the world. Well done.

I read this book after reading Lonesome Dove, and was not tremendously impressed. I'm a big Mcmurtry fan, having read several of his other books, and must say that this one is a bit weaker than his others. It is very quick and easy to read, however, and did interest me enough that I bought The Late Child (the sequel).

This novel is good for summer reading, but not one of McMurtry's best. It does not have the grandeur of the Lonesome Dove series, or the poignancy of THE LAST PICTURE SHOW. However, it does showcase a cast of quirky and eccentric (if not wholly believable) characters that seem uniquely human. The plot is interesting and fast-paced. The story is told from the points of view of Harmony, an aging Las Vegas showgirl, and her beautiful daughter Pepper. The symmetry of their stories--as Harmony's career ends and Pepper's begins--lends the story a lot of texture and irony. And McMurtry, as usual, writes in a strong, compelling voice.

But there are some flaws. First, it is obvious Harmony is supposed to be a more likable character than Pepper. McMurtry even refers to Pepper as "a monster" in his preface to the mass market edition. However, Pepper is stronger, smarter, and takes her destiny into her own hands. I identified with her much more than her overly optimistic mother. I have heard that Pepper is absent from the sequel (THE LATE CHILD). If that's true, I'll probably skip it.

Second, there is a LOT of sex in this book. This is not unusual for McMurtry's novels, but unlike in LAST PICTURE SHOW and TEXASVILLE, it adds nothing to the story. Much of it was thrown in simply for the sake of vulgarity and titillation.

Finally, the book could have benefitted from another go-round with the editor. There is a big timing descrepancy in Part I (told from Harmony's point of view) and Part II (told from Pepper's point of view). In Part I, we learn of an important breakfast conversation between the women about Pepper's future. However, when the events are retold in Part II, the conversation is left out--and there are no time gaps during which it could have occured. This is a small flaw, but an annoying one (I have a pet peeve against sloppy editing).

Flaws notwithstanding, the story was fun (and short). I've definitely read worse.

I love McMurtry's writing -- but this is far from his best. The weakness in this book is the main character: Harmony is powerless, easily intimidated and willfully blind to what goes on around her. Yes, she's a nice enough person, but she lacks the strength to take any decisive action in her life. Her daughter, Pepper, is energetic and domineering, even somewhat ruthless. Harmony watches her daughter's rise in life, but cannot seem to understand it or learn from it. She is, at the end of the book, as unfocused and weak as she was at the beginning. It's true that not every novel has to be a "bildungsroman." Still, I wanted to see Harmony open her eyes and show some spunk.

The main character Harmony is off the wall, naive, jaded, irresponsible, loyal, and filled with goodness. You can't help but like this character no matter how many dumb turns she makes in her life. McMurty paints his main character with a warm and affectionate brush.

I have read many of McMurtry's works from the 80's and find them to be quite trashy and immoral and other such nonsense. However, why do I keep reading his second rate novels??? Because I love the way he writes. Sure his plots are thin and his characters are rarely upstanding in everyway (not to mention having the same characters with different names and the old ladies in his books always die of cancer, etc.) McMurtry wrote quite a few of these little ditties that take only hours to read...but worth it if you like words........

Not a typical McMurtry novel;but then again none of his are.I've had this book for a long time as well as it's sequel "The Late Child"and for a change of pace decided to give it a try.
It is a great read.Somewhat like "Tems of Endearment";but more along the lines of "Cadillac Jack";which was my first McMurtry novel and probably my favorite.As a matter of fact I would'nt have been surprised if he has shown up somewhere;maybe at one of Myrtle's garage sales.
McMurtry has put together a great bunch of characters who all belong with one another.Kind of like the cast you find in a novel by Erskine Caldwell,Kinky Friedman,Hunter Thompson or even Steinbeck.These characters come from a different slice of life . These are the personal lives of the people who live very public lives in the Las Vegas entertainment world.In spite of it all, these are real people.Mc Murtry shows it is a tough world and eats up the workers and gamblers and spits them out when they reach the end of their prime or run out of cash.Rather than being Rednecks I guess you'd have to call them Pinknecks.They are somewhat akin to those loveable characters we know as Carnies.
Anyway, the book is a great,fast moving read with a surprise on every turn of a page.A lot of characters and I'm glad I made notes as they appeared so I could keep track of them.
Liked it so much I'm reading "The Late Child " next to see what happened to all these characters.It's surprising that so much time went by between this book and the sequel--12 years.

Poignant, beautiful, complex character-driven novel a must for McMurtry fans.

By setting the price for this extremely short novel, that was written decades ago - $6.00 more than the paperback - Simon & Schuster makes it clear that they don't want you to buy the kindle edition.

I suggest you give them what they want.

$13.52 for the paperback is also highway robbery, so I suggest you pick it up second-hand.

The Dessert Rose isn't in the same class as classics like Lonesome Dove, Terms of Endearment, etc. but it's still vintage McMurtry, e.g. The Last Picture Show, Texasville, Dwayne's Depressed...

BTW while were on the subject of Larry McMurtry - who got an Oscar for the screenplay - I highly recommend Willie Nelson's classic: I Ain't Goin Down on Brokeback Mountain.

I enjoyed this book, mainly because of Larry McMurtry's talent for drawing characters. I've found myself upset and mad and things people did in the book, and I've had to remind myself that it's a book. (That's a hallmark of a good book to me!).
I bought this book for $5.00 in a used book store. That's how I purchase any book with a Kindle price over $9.99. I would have paid $9.99 on the Kindle, but nothing over that. Sorry, Amazon. Until you start flexing your considerable muscle with the publishers, that's how I'm going to buy my books.