Customer Reviews

Last Picture Show (Firecrest Books)

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Larry McMurtry, probably America's most uneven 'great' writer, produced at least one masterpiece of contemporary storytelling, The Last Picture Show. This book is so true to its time and place, so honest in its language and its character's actions, that one comes to feel that these are real people that one has known - and maybe loved - for a long time. The story is so direct and the characters are so simple and ordinary that the emotional empact of the book comes as some surprise. One doesn't expect that the stuff of great emotional intensity could be built on such a prosaic foundation.

All of McMurtry's really good books have been turned into better than average cinema. I think it's a toss up as to whether the movie or the book is better in this case, but there can be no question that the book is an American classic and will be read with pleasure (and tears) by generations.

Now, if we could just keep him from bad sequels - like Texasville . . .

Wow. Like the movie that was based on it, this book is one of those almost-forgotten gems of modern art. Other folks here have outlined the plot--such as it is--and the characters. I am just here to add my own endorsing reflections, for what they're worth.

Larry McMurtry really nailed it on the head where small-town America is concerned. The ties that bind, the price you pay for being different in ANY way, and how, in Lois' words, "anything gets old if you do it often enough." (I grew up in a town that had a "show" that didn't get movies until a year or two after they'd played in the big cities. And I had a teacher or two as lazy as Coach Popper (none as chauvinistic, however). People who went to "off" to college were the exeption rather than the rule--much as it was in Thalia. We had boys and girls like Duane, Sonny, and Jacy, too--though I don't remember hearing of any were close to their livestock. . .if you know what I mean:)) At least two of the characters here had married young--because that's what you did and what else was there to do, really--and settled into lives of boredom and routine. While I can't say I thought all the actions of the young and not-so-young characters here were necessarily smart or well-thought-out, there was never a moment that I didn't understand what they were thinking.

Much has been written about Sonny, Duane, Sam the Lion, and the other menfolk here, but I also thought McMurtry did an especially good job of developing all four of the main female characters here--especially Lois, and secondly Jacy--both of whom had spirit and passion much too large for the time and place of their lives. I liked these women in spite of myself! I will now have to read Texasville to find out what happens to them and everyone else.

I recommend this to anyone who enjoys character studies or stories about small-town living (though you might enjoy this more if you left the small town like I did).

Very well-written. This did whet my appetite for more of Larry's work!

I'm 17 and have lived in a small town all my life, although my town is a little less depressing than the community of Thalia. The theme of this book is the trappings of small towns, the loneliness of them, and the bittersweetness of youth, which I could relate to all too well. I had not read McMurtry before, but was instantly smitten by the 50's setting and the author's excellent characterization. The book reads swiftly, thanks to the compelling characters (and their many love affairs), who are likeable but still recognizably flawed, yearning for what they can't have, and settling to get what they can.

This is not your typical coming-of-age novel. It is a beautifully crafted work of Southern lit that I think even a city-dweller could relate to; although it is predominantly about being stuck in Thalia, it's also about feeling so lost in a place you know so well. My first McMurtry novel to read is now one of my favorite books.

Great writers write about what they know and the places they know. It's not a surprise that McMurtry sets so many of his stories in Texas. But that does not lessen the universality of his stories. The Last Picture Show is simply the best coming of age story about growing up in north america ever written.

This book is written in a clean direct style. Some may feel that in order to be termed "great literature" a book has to have a wordy and complex style. But to me, the greatest literature is that which most clearly cuts to the essence of what makes its characters human. Those are the characters we relate to in literature. And this book is loaded with them.

In fact it's almost frightening the way McMurtry gets inside the heads of these kids. You are bound to cringe at least once remembering the times you made the exact same mistakes as these kids.

I don't think this type of amazing story-telling is unique to this novel. Terms of Endearment is an incredible novel and seems to have not been mentioned by most other reviewers. Of course Lonesome Dove is bound to have admirers as well.

In all, this is a great novel that is simple on the surface but has layers of complex undertones for those willing to explore them. As a coming of age story, this is one of my favorites.

Enjoy.

"The Last Picture Show", one of Larry McMurtry's earliest and most famous works, prove what a great story teller he is. The characters (Sonny, Duane, Jacy, Ruth, Herman, Lois, Sam, etc) all seem so true to life you find yourself caring about them as they suck you into their sex-obsessed world of teenage lust and adult disappointments. Sonny and Duane mistake Jacy for the glittering prize she is not and pay for it in their own ways. Jacy is manipulative, shallow and heartless and easily the most despicable character (perhaps after Herman) but even then, you feel pity rather than hatred for her. The miserable lives of Ruth and Lois lend a deep sense of pathos to the story. Life is "no win" in this small Texan town. You never forget the bleakness of the lives of this ensemble cast of characters in small town America but not for one moment do you feel weighed down by a sense of dreariness which seems to afflict novels of this genre. McMurtry's easy writing style and his sparkling wit and humour, all conspire to lighten the mood and keep the reader in rapt attention throughout. He never makes heavy weather of serious themes and though his works (including TLPS) are studied today as literature, it is so accessible and incredibly enjoyable you never feel it is hard work. Such is the talent of McMurtry. The next thing I'm going to do is check out the award winning movie version which McMurtry had a hand in making and is considered one of the classic movies of the early 70s. One of the most enjoyable novels I have read this year. Highly recommended.

Larry McMurtry is the quintessential author on all things Texas. In the Fall semester of college, 1985, his novel, "The Last Picture Show," was assigned reading in my Literature class. I had never heard about the film version, and I am very glad. I believe this is a novel about good versus evil; only the "evil" here is the righteous, narrow-minded, bigoted, bible-beating, and monotonous, which represses all in its path, and the "good" is the carefree, spirited, reckless, and adventurous, which is supposed to lead all to happiness. The only problem is in 1951 Thalia, Texas, the "good" was still supposed to be taboo; hence the conflicts for this great novel. McMurtry tells this tale with humor, drama, and warmth. The things that make us human are worthwhile, even if others do not condone them. For most in this story, sex and love are the things that they believe make their lives worthwhile, but for Billy, the mentally challenged friend of Sonny, sweeping is what made him human. In the end, only Sonny could see this tragedy of his death while the "evil" spat and farted in the wind making excuses for the tragedy. This novel moved me, and I have read it several times. I highly recommend it.

I have read this novel many times over the years. Having come of age in small-town Texas, where there was only one movie theater for entertainment (we called it "The Show" and it's gone now)I completely relate to this book. We even talked our parents into letting us go to the same show on both Friday AND Saturday nights! Crazy. This should have been required reading for my spouse who hails from a large city! There is a great deal of depth to a number of the characters and something new has been revealed each time I read the book. I borrowed the name of one of the characters for my first child. The only thing that I was NOT aware of any of my country bumpkin friends engaging in was sex with the ranch animals!

"The Last Picture Show" is undoubtedly one of Larry McMurtry's finest novels. Set in a small town on the barren North Central plains of 1950's Texas, this beautifully told coming-of-age story captures the dual spirit of the blind hopefulness and hard reality that are such a part of growing up. Only McMurtry could deliver such a brilliant cast of characters who are as equally eccentric as they are ultimately tragic. This coming-of-age story flows wonderfully against the vast and desolate backdrop we know as the state of Texas in a time when the wide-open ranges and cowboys of legend had given-way to the barbed-wire and oil derricks that had come to take their place. This is vintage McMurtry. If you enjoyed "Lonesome Dove", you'll certainly enjoy "The Last Picture Show"

Larry McMurtry's "The Last Picture Show" as a novel is admittedly autobiographical and the characters he introduces us to, he later admitted, are also based (loosely, he says!) on real people. This is the story of vibrant young people in the not-so-vibrant West Texas town of Thalia.

A true coming-of-age and rites of passage story, we find Duane Moore, pal Sonny, and girlfriend Jacy at true crossroads of life. They are ready to enter adulthood but they are stuck literally in the middle of nowhere, a dying, last of the old timer-towns in dusty West Texas. But as Grace Metalious earlier showed us that beneath the surface of a small town lies a much more involved--even disgusting--involvement and the secrets that lie there do not need to be uncovered. Uncovered they are, of course, as McMurtry--perhaps on a personal mission of his own--is not content to live with the status quo. He takes the ennui of everyday life in a small town and, after careful study, surgically exposes them, for better or for worse.

This is not a "they lived happily ever after" accounting. It is a tumbleweed infested, drought eroded, down-and-out account of the lives of his protagonist, who find (but they've never really expected anything more) that the world is not lit by candlelight, but by lighting, as Tennesse Williams wrote. They view--but never understand--the mysteries of sex and of love. With McMurtry's sometimes not so subtle humor, these realities are somewhat softened. But it is this exposure to the realities of life--its disappointments and depressions--that carry "The Last Picture Show." (Billyjhobbs@tyler.net)

"The room mothers were scandalized by the number of bars in the city and kept everyone in a tight group to protect them against lurking perverts." - Regarding San Francisco during the high school seniors' trip, from THE LAST PICTURE SHOW

Yes, well, San Francisco is like that; it goes with the territory.

At this late date since its original 1966 publication, it's hardly necessary for me to rehash at length the plot of this engaging book. (I mean, one might wonder why it took me so long to get around to reading it.) Succinctly stated, the plot is a coming-of-age story about a number of high school seniors growing up in the small, dusty, and dying town of Thalia somewhere in Texas between Fort Worth and the Oklahoma state line. It's the early 1950s; the Korean War is on.

The beauty of any fictional literary piece by Larry McMurtry lies in his phenomenal ability to capture the nuances of human relationships in a story that encompasses a diverse range of characters.

To my perception, THE LAST PICTURE SHOW is about trashy behavior, especially that practiced by teenagers, and most especially that practiced by teenage boys (though the female gender is capably represented in this regard, also). Much of the conduct is, as would be expected, fueled by sexual tension and raging hormones, but also occasionally derives from class snobbishness, religious zealotry, and just plain petty cruelty. As in any other locale in the world, the journey for the soon-to-be-grown-ups is all about graduating from the trashy behavior of youth to the trashy behavior of adulthood. Both are perhaps comprised of the same basic elements, that of adults only becoming more sophisticated. In the author's hands, the story is both poignant and darkly comedic.

I read this novel non-stop and am compelled to rent the 1971 film version (The Last Picture Show).

There is one passage that I found especially meaningful:

"Loneliness is like ice. After you've been lonely long enough you don't even realize you're cold, but you are. It's like ... a refrigerator that had never been defrosted at all - never."