Late Child [Hardcover]

Larry McMurtry (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 12, 1995

In an effort to recover from the loss of a daughter, Vegas showgirl Harmony leaves town with her son and travels throughout the country with a dog named Iggy Pop before returning to her family home in Oklahoma. 100,000 first printing. $100,000 ad/promo.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

McMurtry's bittersweet 19th novel marks the welcome return of Harmony, the naively optimistic showgirl from The Desert Rose (1983). Now 47, Harmony is working in a Las Vegas recycling plant, retired from her reign as the most beautiful showgirl ever seen on the Strip (she dated Elvis and Sinatra, but slept only with Dan Duryea). Harmony's relentlessly hopeful take on life is shattered when she receives a letter from New York City explaining that her dancer daughter, Pepper, has died of AIDS. Not even the arrival of her sisters, Neddie and Pat (the latter a veteran of three trips to Masters and Johnson for sex addiction) can ease her overwhelming anguish. Fearing that grief might literally drive her insane, Harmony packs all her possessions into a U-Haul and, with her sisters and her precocious five-year-old son, Eddie, begins the drive home to Tarwater, Okla. Along the way, Eddie rescues an abandoned dog?whom they christen "Iggy Pop"?from a Hopi reservation, and the U-Haul is destroyed in a fall into the Canyon de Chelly. This necessitates a detour to New York City, where the group is carried off to the seedy No-Tel Motel in Jersey City by three Arab-immigrant hustlers. They meet Pepper's female lover, temporarily adopt a homeless teenage hooker and visit the Statue of Liberty, where Iggy Pop survives disaster with a seagull and makes the cover of People magazine. When Harmony finally makes her way to Tarwater, she finds her family laden with troubles so perilous she must turn her grief to strength if she's to save them and herself. Raucous, unexpected and downright quirky, this is McMurtry at his powerful best. BOMC alternate.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

McMurtry returns to the territory he mapped out in Terms of Endearment.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First Edition edition (May 12, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684809982
• ISBN-13: 978-0684809984
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,675,459 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Larry McMurtry is the author of twenty-nine novels, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lonesome Dove. His other works include two collections of essays, three memoirs, and more than thirty screenplays, including the coauthorship of Brokeback Mountain, for which he received an Academy Award. His most recent novel, When the Light Goes, is available from Simon & Schuster. He lives in Archer City, Texas.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Classic McMurtry: good story and characters whom you'll miss, March 21, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Late Child (Mass Market Paperback)

A nice sequel to The Desert Rose. In Harmony, the central character, McMurtry reveals someone who is so full of warmth, so open with her fears and misgivings and just so real that I found myself missing her when I finished the book. Of course, that's frequently effect that his main characters have upon me. I did feel, however, that he tried to juggle a few too many characters -- some of them were pretty lame. On the whole though, it is an enjoyable story with creative plot twists

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars McMurtry Celebrates Humanity, October 24, 2002

By 

Gregory T Whiteker (Charleston, WV United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Late Child (Hardcover)

Once again, Larry McMurtry writes with such unabashed compassion for people, warts and all, that I came away uplifted. This book is a perfect example of how McMurtry is the antidote to the Dr. Laura-style judgementalism which permeates our culture. In this book, McMurtry collects flawed folks, eloquently and humorously describes their mistakes and insecurities, then loves them anyway. When I'm in an over-critical mood, reading a McMurtry book is just the attitude adjustment I need.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Different is good sometimes......, September 3, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Late Child (Hardcover)

This book is different from McMurtry's other work. Accept it, and enjoy it for what it is. Some of the characters Harmony meets in her travels are hilarious. The three "ragheads" she meets in New York are adorable. In the past, you just couldn't trust McMurtry. You form a relationship with his characters, and he knocks them off. Not this time. Take it to the beach; you can't put it down. Sections are laugh-out-loud funny.