Customer Reviews

Literary Life: A Second Memoir

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

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Like many others I am a fan of Larry McMurtry; I like his novels, his screenplays, his essays... he is truly a man of letters and as he himself laments, woefully under-appreciated. Unfortunately, this meager and thin offering does nothing in service of cementing his place in the literary life of America; it is poorly narrated, scattered, fragmented, and appallingly unedited (in every sense, including numerous embarrassing spelling gaffes). McMurtry has never been more repetitive (he's not a fan of fellow Archer City residents; prefers Tucson; writes because he worries about money sometimes, etc.--we hear over and over), and his self-proclaimed disdain for copy editing and the details of publication are manifest in this volume. The first volume in his memoir trilogy, "Books" exhibited McMurtry's fascination and interaction with being a professional (and major) used book dealer, and largely succeeded. This volume, which purports to focus on his literary and writing life, accomplishes only a bit of what it touts... Neither gossipy nor detailed, scholarly or entertaining, McMurtry offers instead what seems to be the outline notes for a literary memoir. While this book (or "assemblage" would be a better term) is a huge disappointment, some of the morsels he serves up are tasty.

Let's face it: anytime Larry McMurtry offers an insight, however slight or aesthetic, I will pay attention. His observations of Susan Sontag are loving and discomforting; his remembrance as a two-term president of PEN are only teasing...and how delicious if he was really as droll as he paints himself to have been (and there is every reason to believe he was). He tells us that he considers "Duane's Depressed" his best book, and never expected to write "Rhino Ranch." He's not particularly fond of "Cadillac Jack" but really loves "Boone's Lick" and "Loop Group" (I too enjoyed the latter). While I appreciated knowing these things, I would have been more interested in understanding how he came up with the plots or ideas ("Rhino Ranch" is a great story, and quite original!), or spent more time cogitating over his preference to write in cycles, quartets and quintets, etc.

Now in its second volume, McMurtry's memoir trilogy is some of the most disappointing writing of his career. I hope the final volume, "Hollywood" is a much better book. And again, why are these memoirs being published as three separate, slim volumes? McMurtry deserves better editing, and so do his readers.

Larry McMurtry has written a heartfelt and honest memoir about the writing side of his life. I found that this book comparable to Stephen King's On Writing, but more personal. McMurtry writes about the influences on his writing and the interesting and noninteresting folks who have crossed his path through the years.
While McMurtry has won a Pulitzer and has seen many of his novels turned into movies and TV mini-series, he is very self-effacing about his accomplishments. He doesn't get up on a pedestal and proclaim his greatness; if anything, he goes in the opposite direction and allows that he was fortunate with some of his breaks.
He relates funny experiences, such as the time he was president of the PEN America. He also writes about his reading habits, something I believe he feels is as important as his writing.

I read and reviewed McMurtry's first memoir, Books: A Memoir, as well as his non-fiction reflection on his various travels on the road, Roads : Driving America's Great Highways. I like both books, and I like this one as well. The problem that I have now is, as I get familiar with McMurtry's writing style, that I find myself less interested in exploring his fiction. There is something about his style that I find a bit too choppy. In reading A Literary life, I often found myself pausing mid-sentence to make sure I caught the train of thought, sometimes needing to reflect on the last clause in the sentence, wondering exactly what in the earlier part of the sentence this clause referred to. Needless to say, this makes for slow and rough reading. Perhaps it's unfair to anticipate negatively McMurtry's fiction based on his memoirs. I suppose his style may work well in fiction, or perhaps his fiction style differs and I will need to dip into his fiction and let that experience be the judge. In any event, I should probably start with Lonesome Dove: A Novel, his Pulitzer Prize winning novel, to test the waters.

In any case, McMurtry has led an interesting life, one well worth documenting. In A Literary Life, he recounts how he came to discover his desire to be a writer, how he produced his fiction and his pride in and attachment to his characters, as well as his relationships with editors and publishing houses. He is very open and shares story that are humbling of both him and other individuals. His humility also comes through as he shares his belief that much of his success has had a good share of luck, particularly in the number of his books that have been turned into movie or TV mini-series.

McMurtry also lists the great influences in his formation as a literary figure, and it is here where I found the book particularly rewarding as McMurtry names writers, critics and editors and gives reasons for why these individuals were influential in his writing career and were or are important literary figures in their own right. From this listing I culled a number of names whose works I now have a strong desire to read - George Lukacs, Peter Lubbock, Stanley Edgar Hyman, Wallace Stegner and James Lees-Milne, to name a few. Ironic, perhaps, that I will plunge next into these authors' works before diving into McMurtry's.

For over 40 years fellow Texan Larry McMurtry has been driving words along the way his dad and uncles pushed cows.

He has created many wonderful novels, a good number of which have been turned into great movies including, Last Picture Show, Hud, Terms of Endearment and Lonesome Dove.

Lately he has turned his attention to nonfiction, primarily memoirs about the book-collecting business.

His latest, "Literary Life," is a moving but sad reminder that book collectors and book readers seem destined to follow the cowboy into history and legend.

This book was infinitely more interesting than the first of his three planned memoirs. The first, I am convinced, is only of interest to those in the book-selling trade.

But Memoir No. 2 still suffers from the same flaws of the first: it's a breezy, flimsy book with too much name-dropping and not enough introspection.

Still, I think readers will be interested in the author's thoughts on his favorite and least favorite books, his literary influences and his brief life in academia.

The cynic would suggest that McMurtry is breaking his life story into three books to sell more copies, and he probably wouldn't deny that.. I see no reason that memoir No. 2 and No. 3 couldn't be combined into one.

I still think there's a void for a strong, comprehensive literary biography written about McMurtry, but it will have to be written by someone else.

After Mc Murtry has given us his "First Memoir,Books" ;now he has given us "A Second Memoir,A Literary Life".
I found this second book,in what he tells us is going to be a trilogy,even better and more interesting than the first.
In this book ,he takes us all through his experiences and loves about reading and writing. He tells us about his desire to be a man of letters,and how it influenced his life.He had a desire to write from his youth and had even written novels before finishing college.Fame as a writer,can be much harder to have happen than it is to wish for.This was always known by McMurtry,but that fact never limited him in his desire to write;and when he won the Pulitzer Prize for "Lonesome Dove",it came as a total surprise.
In this all too short book,he talks about almost every book he has written,why it was written,what it meant to him and surprisingly what he thought of it.
If there is anything consistent about his books ,it is is that they are so different from one another.It's therefore ,not surprising that readers will differ greatly in what they think of them.This can be seen from the reviews that customers have submitted.Some will rate them high,some low and others in between.I believe what we are seeing here is that the readers are really expressing how much they like the book as opposed to how well it is conceived and written.I know that is how I feel.The real interesting thing about this book is that the books I thought were the best;were not necessarily the ones that McMurtry thought were his best.I'd be surprised if others felt differently.For Instance,I always put "Cadalliac Jack" at the top of my preference,and "Loop Group" at the bottom ;just aout the opposite to what McMurtry did.Then again,I felt "The Berrybender Narratives" should have received much more aclaim than it got.I think from what McMurtry tells us, he would agree.
McMurtry tells us a lot about how he was accepted in the "literary world" and how he felt about it.In many ways,I can understand how he looked at that.I,for one, do not pay much attention to best seller lists,or what are the most "hyped" books.I read what I like and find more on my own.Although I have read all of McMurtry's novels,I hate to admit,I hadn't even been aware of the "Lonesome Dove" mini-series when it first ran.What got me interested in McMurtry was reading "Cadallic Jack" and how much I liked it.I had the same experience from reading "Cannery Row" by Steinbeck;and then proceeded to search for and read all of his novels.
Probably the biggest surprise I got from this book was McMurtry's involvement with PEN.I had not been aware of this at all.Here we get a real insight into the world of the "literary elite ".McMurtry knows he was never really accepted by them,and I don't think it really ever bothered him.He knew what he wanted to write,and that is all that really mattered to him.I think his comment on the people who made up PEN was very astute and it expressed my thoughts as well;even though I don't know ,or care much about them. McMurtry boiled it down to this;"PEN is less of an organization than a tribe". I think that some of my other favorite writers such as John Steinbeck,Erskine Caldwell,Roddy Doyle,Oscar Wilde,Brendan Behan,Frank McCourt,and even Mordecai Richler would agree.
I thouroughly enjoyed this book and found it will make me further understand McMurtry and his books and his life as "a man Of letters".I will be waiting with anticipation for his "third Memoir" on Hollywood;and know it will hold some great surprises.

Reading a good book is one of life's pleasures. But reading a good book about books makes that pleasure even more enjoyable. LITERARY LIFE by Larry McMurtry is a book about literature --- both reading it and writing it. It is the second of a planned three-part memoir by the 73-year-old Texan, who won the Pulitzer Prize for LONESOME DOVE and an Oscar for his screenplay for Brokeback Mountain. McMurtry's literary resume includes 29 novels, three memoirs and more than 30 screenplays; in the early 1990s he served as president of PEN, the literary and human rights organization; and Booked-Up, his used bookstore in Archer City, Texas, houses nearly 500,000 titles.

The first volume, BOOKS, covers McMurtry's life as a used book merchant. LITERARY LIFE focuses on his career as perhaps one of the most well-known authors from Texas. The forthcoming third installment will be about life in Hollywood and his experiences in filmdom.

From HORSEMAN, PASS BY, McMurtry's first novel written at age 25 --- which was later made into the movie Hud --- to THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, TERMS OF ENDEARMENT and LONESOME DOVE, McMurtry's impact in the world of literature and cinema cannot be overlooked: "My novels attract good filmmakers," McMurty observes, because readers connect with his characters. "My characters move them, which is also why those same characters move them when they meet them on the screen."

McMurtry's observations are not lengthy ruminations on writing and life; instead, they are brief, pithy comments on the books he has written, the people he has met, and the experiences of nearly 50 years as a writer, including a period of time when a mysterious ailment stalled his writing. Sadly, McMurtry offers little information on that period in his life, but hopefully, the third volume will tell readers more. For a man who still loves his typewriter, LITERARY LIFE almost seems to be written in the style of Twitter, where brevity is the preferred element of communication.

Adding to the fun of the book is McMurtry's shameless name-dropping: he has a long list of well-known writers and celebrities to mention. From eating chicken gizzards with Susan Sontag to Katherine Graham, Robert DeNiro and Mike Nichols, there are adventures with talented folks in the entertainment industry. None of them are lengthy, but all are engaging.

There is an unintended benefit that comes from reading a memoir such as LITERARY LIFE. This is a book you must read with a pencil and paper at your side. McMurtry mentions movies I have not yet seen but will soon be adding to my Netflix queue. He tells of his favorite authors and their books, and I find myself searching for their works at my library and on various websites. This is what inevitably happens when sharing a conversation about books and writing with a renowned author such as McMurtry. In the end, that is the joy of LITERARY LIFE: a simple conversation about books from a writer whose legacy is remarkable. If you love to read, you will love this book.

--- Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman