Literary Life: A Second Memoir [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Larry McMurtry (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 8, 2009

LARRY McMURTRY IS THAT RAREST OF ARTISTS, a prolific and genre-transcending writer who has delighted generations with his witty and elegant prose. In Literary Life, the sequel to Books, he expounds on the private trials and triumphs of being a writer. From his earliest inkling of his future career while at Rice University, to his tenure as a Wallace Stegner fellow at Stanford with Ken Kesey in 1960, to his incredible triumphs as a bestselling author, this intimate and charming autobiography is replete with literary anecdotes and packed with memorable observations about writing, writers, and the author himself. It is a work to be cherished not only by McMurtry’s admirers, but by the innumerable aspiring writers who seek to make their own mark on American literature.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this, the second of three planned memoirs, McMurtry takes a laconic look back over a life in letters that now includes some 40 books and an equal number of screenplays. Best known for the popular movies made from his novels, including Terms of Endearment and The Last Picture Show, McMurtry also co-wrote the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain and served two terms as the president of American PEN. This makes for a lot of literary living, and McMurtry reminisces about interactions with such luminaries as Norman Mailer, Susan Sontag, and John Updike, as well as lesser-known figures like Michael Korda and Grover Lewis. Throughout his career, McMurtry has mostly written about his native Texas and the American West, and the early chapters provide a fascinating look into the artistic development of smalltown boy into writer during the 1950s and 1960s. Further on, the book declines into a series of hit-and-miss literary anecdotes, with McMurtry's side business as a bookseller providing many of the highlights. McMurtry's understated style is charming and deceptively sophisticated, although at times it is so laconic as to lack a pulse. Still, the old master proves entertaining. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

McMurtry is best known as a Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist, but he is also a fine memoirist. Here, in his follow-up to the acclaimed Books (2008), McMurtry continues to chronicle his lifelong love affair with the printed word, which includes his own disappointments and triumphs as a writer. He grew up on a ranch outside Archer City, Texas, where he learned to love reading but showed no particular skill or interest in writing as a career. He stumbled badly as an undergraduate at Rice but seemed to find himself and his writing voice as he earned a BA from North Texas State and then returned to Rice to earn an MA. McMurtry offers wonderful and often surprising insights into the process of creative writing; for example, he asserts that writing a novel is far easier than writing a short story. Once McMurtry entered the fray as a professional writer, his reactions to his advancement and praise may seem bizarre, even to him. He also provides interesting views concerning the work of fellow writers, including Jack Kerouac and Ken Kesey. This is an enjoyable and revealing look at the thoughts and career of a great writer. --Jay Freeman

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First edition (December 8, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1439159939
• ISBN-13: 978-1439159934
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #811,792 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

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Honest, perceptive, informative and personal, December 5, 2009

By 

Robert Tucker - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Literary Life: A Second Memoir (Hardcover)

Having pre-ordered Literary Life, I was excited to receive it in the mail from Amazon and proceeded to set aside two other books in order to dive into this one. Reading it in nearly one sitting, I am pleased to recommend this to other readers.

Larry McMurtry's second memoir titled Literary Life is a personal chronicle of his development as a writer, including mention of many of his books, his writing career, his struggles, and his successes. In the first installment, which he claims will total three books although I suspect and hope four will occur, McMurtry discusses his life as a book collector and book scout, culminating in a vast personal collection as well as the mecca of used book stores in Archer City, Texas called Booked Up. Literary Life, without excluding the world of book scouting, provides a glimpse into the personal angst and joys of a professional and immensely successful writer.

A career that has included screenplays, essays, historical research, western fiction, modern fiction, an Oscar, and a Pulitzer prize is examined in a type of autobiographical account that is at various times touching, relaxing, daunting, entertaining, informative, and always honest. A heart-felt balance between humility and hints of pride shine forth throughout the pages as McMurtry carefully presents his life as a writer. Acknowledging some great fortune in his career but also mentioning his failings and insecurity in various sectors (a nice piece on his time as President of PEN American Center), and without even a hint of imperiousness, Literary Life explores the amazing career of one our most successful living American authors.

The classic prose of Larry McMurtry with its smooth yet non-rhetorical language finds fruition in personal opinions and facts on other writers and books. Obviously uncomfortable talking about himself, he continually moves forward in wanting to discuss writers, books, essays, magazines, and reviews. This makes for a charming and vastly informative book that leaves the reader enlightened, refreshed, and curious about books. Early in the book, McMurtry claims not to be a scholar, yet I know many "scholars" who are not anywhere near the level of scholarship of Larry McMurtry.

Rarely can a writer achieve excellence in the fields of fiction and non-fiction, but in Larry McMurtry's case, he has done just that. While I tend to enjoy his non-fiction a little bit more due to its authentic and capsulized honesty, it is in his fiction where his creativity finds its biggest outlet. This is a highly recommended book and fans of McMurtry will again be satisfied. We are anticipating the next installment of Memoirs which promises to be about Hollywood.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Major Disappointment, December 29, 2009

By 

Lee Goldberg (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Literary Life: A Second Memoir (Hardcover)

I consider myself a huge Larry McMurtry fan. Although I have found his last few novels disappointing, even his weakest book is better than most of what's out there. I always learn a lot from how he creates characters, sets a scene, and crafts a sentence. So I eagerly awaited the second volume of his memoirs. I wanted to learn about his approach to writing and the evolution of his books, many of which are among my all-time favorites. Sadly, this very slim, meandering, and infuriatingly unfocused memoir disappoints on just about every level (and I say that as someone who actually enjoyed BOOKS, his first volume about his life as a bookseller/collector). This reads like stream of consciousness. It's rambling on the page without any direction. McMurtry's train of thought is frequently derailed, veering off into asides that have little or nothing to do with writing...and that seem to have no point whatsoever. Where was his editor, Michael Korda? Probably off giving one of the dinner parties that McMurtry talks about in one of his many asides. I also wish I had a dollar for every time McMurtry starts an anecdote, only to stop when it begins to get relevant or interesting and say he'll go into more detail about it in his next memoir. It made me wish he'd just skipped ahead to the next memoir and dropped this one. If you're as big a McMurtry fan as I am, you're going to read this no matter what I say...but be forewarned, it's a let-down. I have to disagree with another reviewer here who compared it favorably to Stephen King's far superior ON WRITING, which actually talked in detail about the craft and business of writing. I wish McMurtry had actually given us a book like that.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Casual approach to McMurtry's "Life" yields hazy results, April 1, 2010

By 

Clare Quilty (a little pad in hawaii) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Literary Life: A Second Memoir (Hardcover)

Author, essayist and screenwriter Larry McMurtry has led a full life -- some of his three dozen novels formed the basis for such classic films as "Hud," "Terms of Endearment" and "The Last Picture Show"; he won an Academy award for scripting "Brokeback Mountain"; and his epic Western "Lonesome Dove" netted him a Pulitzer prize.

He's also a well-traveled book dealer who survived a heart attack that led to quadruple bypass surgery and subsequent months of serious depression.

In fact, he's been so busy he divided his memoirs into three volumes: One about rare book scouting; another recounting his career as a novelist; and a third devoted to working in Hollywood.

So it's a shame "Literary Life," the second and latest installment is kind of a drag.

In a series of short chapters, he tosses out stories and anecdotes like a man pitching cards at an upturned hat -- some go in and some don't.

A number of McMurtry's famous friends drift through the tales, including authors Ken Kesey and Susan Sontag, editor Michael Korda, director Peter Bogdanovich and literary agent Irving "Swifty" Lazar, but they remain, for the most part, ill-defined wisps.

To use a "Lonesome Dove" analogy: "Life" is as laid-back as Gus McCrae but ultimately as dry as Woodrow Call.

The first volume of this series, simply called "Books," is a far better crafted discussion that, unfortunately, focuses on a subject with a much smaller range of interest.

Hopefully by the time McMurtry gets around to volume three and his adventures in the screen trade, he will have regained enough wind to give his memoirs the spark and feeling that makes his fiction writing so rich.