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In a Narrow Grave: Essays on Texas

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In A Narrow Grave depicts Texas according to its geographic divisions exactly. McMurtry describes the people, customs, morals and behaviors of each of the divisions of Texas to a tee! If the reader happens to be from Texas or has lived extensively in Texas, he/she knows how accurate McMurtry's descriptions are and cannot help spending a large amount of the reading time laughing because of the accuracy. This books is absolutely enjoyable over and over again. My wish, is that he would write a sequel and revist the state again, doing a 90's or turn of the century version.

In a Narrow Grave is a short collection of essays published in 1968 after McMurtry's first three novels ("Horeseman, Pass By," "Leaving Cheyenne," and "The Last Picture Show"). The themes explored in these works of fiction are delved into further in this non-fiction work. Specifically, McMurtry discusses growing up in rural Texas and how that influenced his work. The main theme of the essays, not surprisingly, is the death of small town Texas as people abandoned the country for the big cities (he focuses on Dallas, Houston, and Austin).

Perhaps the most interesting chapter is the last one; McMurtry talks about his family, which includes several generations of Texas ranchers and cowboys. Many of the stories he tells have made their way into his novels, so one really begins to appreciate just how autobiographical his novels are. I also greatly enjoyed the chapter about the filming of the movie version of his novel, "Horseman, Pass By" (the movie is called "Hud" - a great classic). Another interesting section describes McMurtry's road trip across Texas. Less enjoyable was the chapter on Texas writers pre-1960, which focused on several non-fiction writers of whom I was unaware.

Overall, I enjoyed this book quite a bit and look forward to reading more of McMurtry's work. If you like McMurtry's fiction work, then you'll also likely enjoy this short compendium.

McMurtry, in this collection of essays about Texas, says he prefers fiction to nonfiction, for various reasons, but I for one find these ambivalent ruminations on his home state more enjoyable than some of his fiction. The insights come fast and furious in this short book, by comparison with a slow-moving novel like "Moving On," written about this same time, where a few ideas are stretched thin across several hundred pages.

Published in 1968, the content of "Narrow Grave" will seem dated to some readers. Written in the shadow of the assassination in Dallas and while another Texan was in the White House, the essays capture Texas in a period of rough transition from its rural past to its globalized present (the rise and fall of Enron would certainly have been featured in a current version of this book).

Much of it is timeless, however. It includes one of my favorite McMurtry essays, "Take My Saddle From the Wall: A Valediction," in which he provides a history of the McMurtry family, who settled in the 1880s on 320 acres west of Wichita Falls and in the following generation relocated to the Panhandle to live mostly as cowboys and ranchers. In this essay, McMurtry separates the mythic cowboy from the actual one and describes how cowboys are probably the biggest believers in the myths about them. It's full of ironies, colorful personalities, and wonderful details.

Altogether, the book attempts to present an unsentimental portrait of a state that also tends to get carried away by its own myths. The result is often a jaundiced view and gets to sounding like the worst Paul Theroux travel writing, where it seems like the writer has a personal grudge against the place he's describing. A car trip from Brownsville to the Panhandle is great fun for the wealth of local color captured along the way, but McMurtry focuses on every unhappy and unfortunate detail as if to warn the reader away from ever doing the same. The description of a fiddlers contest in East Texas is downright unkind.

It's easy to see, however, that it's a lover's quarrel McMurtry has with Texas. I gladly recommend this entertaining book to readers curious about the Lone Star State and the man who wrote "The Last Picture Show" and "Lonesome Dove"

In this engaging collection, a thirty-something McMurtry of the sixties takes a pointed look at his personal origins, the contemporary evolution of Cowboy mythology, and considers their impact on his fiction. Wide ranging, yet concise and agile; the disparate topics are bound together with admirable wit and sensitivity. Anyone raised in mid-century Texas will feel at home with the content, if not the voice. The mind behind the imagery of the final narrative is thoroughly astounding. In my limited view, these essays will uneasily remain McMurtry's most enduring effort.

This book is a great read. It was the first time I had read anything "short" for pleasure. I was thirteen years old and was into novels. I had already read "The Last Picture Show", "Horseman Pass By", "Texasville", all numerous times. The only essays and short stories I had consumed were the ones forced upon you (either to read or to write) in school. This book changed that for me. It showed how powerful a well written essay or short story can be.
My favorite of the essays was "A Look at the Lost Frontier" -the one about the south to north car ride across Texas on Hwy 281. This seemed so personal, because I had visited some of the places that he mentioned on that trip. I have remained fascinated about this road ever since, regularly having to travel on it because of business. I can feel the same kind of ironic peacefullness that he mentions when he gets to the New Mexico border and turns back around and heads home. If I have been out of state for a while, to get re-acclimated , I will get into the truck and drive either up or down 281 aimlessly for however long it takes and the next thing you know, I am the Texas state of mind once again. When I am doing this I will stop somewhere and read this story (my favorite place to do this for some reason is around Hico, Texas) and the next thing you know whatever state I was in and getting used to is very distant and I am home. It has such a calming effect. That is a powerful essay.
The other reason I like this and all of McMurtry's non-fiction is that you are continually discovering other authors. This was the first time I had ever heard of John Graves. In the part of the book where he was talking about Texas literature, he mentioned "Farewell to a River", about Graves' canoe trip down the Brazos before it was dammed up to make a series of lakes in north central Texas. Living on the Brazos, on one of these lakes, my interest was piqued. I found that book and read it at least ten times. Now when I cross the Brazos on Hwy 281, I too look down to see if I can see John Graves in his canoe, "for the Brazos is his river and one expects him there."
The other essays in the book are great as well, mostly dealing with the dissappearing of the West and the cowboy de-mystified, which is a theme never far from hand with McMurtry and always interesting. He also deals with the (at the time explosive) subject of Dobie, Bedichick, and Webb--old Southwestern lit. luminaries which at the time were considers the Gods of Texas letters. While most at the time thought him a smug upstart (he was thirty or so) and basically a traitor for suggesting that these three were rather pedestrian writers who had occasional flashes of quality, he did it with grace and most would have to if not agree with his point of view, at least give him credit for wanting to tackle the subject. It was brave. He didn't just take potshots. It was more about breaking out of regionalism than trashing the ones that had laid the foundation.
Also because of this collection of essays, I began tracking down and reading the books of J. Frank Dobie, Roy Bedichick, W.P. Webb., Terry Southern, and I can't remember who all. At first I disagreed totally about the big three, but then I was a young teenager and these books were very adventuresome. Later when I re-read them (and still do) what McMurtry was saying is evident and seems to be in the main correct. To me this book was Harry Potter. It made a teenager very interested in reading. That is a powerful essay collection.

The opinions by Mr. McMurtry on Texas are based on his travel and personal insights. One may feel the author is at times being too judgmental and harsh regarding the geography, cities, and urban behavior of the people who inhabit them. I chose not to come to these conclusions until I have visited these places and made my own observations. McMurtry is a native Texan and writes as such about his home state.

The stories of cowboys past, Teddy Blue and Charles Goodnight and others, signal the end of an era by frontiersmen whose bold, pionerring spirits set the early trend for how cowboys behaved and existed. There is a sadness when the genuine passes to pseudo-imitation. Gone are the cattle drives and rugged life on horseback on the Plains. Trucks have taken the place of the drive in getting the cattle to market, and cadillacs taken over for the horse.

In the movie,"HUD," written by McMurtry,he describes this transformation. Paul Newman, playing HUD, would rather be in town drinking and entertaining other men's wives, than on his ranch with his cattle. When his stock come down with a disease, Hud complains to his Father, played by Melvyn Douglas, detesting having to get on a horse and go down and stay with the cattle, while waiting for the government vet. HUD has become an urban cowboy.

The reader gleans insights into the McMurtry clan; how they came to Texas and settled, raising a large family along the way. Conflicts are later expressed between members at their annual Barbeque reunions that sometimes grew heated because of issues regarding ranching vs. farming and the place on the spread of Mexicans and Negros.

The author gives insight into Western Literature and Texas writers, relating a myriad of books about this in his bibliographies about the subject. When he mentions the starkly inept musical abilities by the fiddlers at the Fiddlers Reunion in Athens, Texas, no quarter is given. If a city is socially cold or distant, ugly in appearance, or the bars exceptionally dangerous, the reader finds out without reserve.

This is a non-fiction book that enlightens, amuses, and expresses the author's passion for a way of life put to death by modern technology and practice. If you have an interest in things western, you should read it.

Charles Hamilton Sr, Former Executive Director Northwest Teen Challenge and author of From Darkness To Light and A Step Of Faith.

From Darkness To Light

Larry McMurtry knows Texas, and in 1968 put together a book of his observations about all things Texas called In a Narrow Grave. The title is a fragment of a line from the song "The Dying Cowboy"; the title of the song relates more obviously to McMurtry's main topic. From McMurtry's perspective Texas is on the cusp of a change of identity, from cattle rich to oil rich. He both laments and celebrates the passing of the cowboy looking from the Texas that once was to what Texas is becoming. He does all of this in a manner that is both amusing, informative and thought provoking.

McMurtry chose to be "bookish" as he puts it, to following in his father and uncles' footsteps, though as McMurtry relates, those footsteps were being blown away and getting more difficult to follow all the time. He is critical of both the past he admires and the present he seems to distrust.

His journey is at times objective, subjective and intensely personal. In the most touching piece, the last in the book, he introduces us to the McMurtry clan and gives us a family profile of success and failure on the open Texas plain that is touching and heartbreaking in its depth. He describes lost times, places and people.

The shortfall here is the material is dated. Thirty-plus years have produced much change and it would have been interesting if McMurtry had produced an epilogue to bring us up to date and help us close the years since In a Narrow Grave was first published.

This book, dating back to 1968, following the immense success of three early novels, is the author's first attempt at writing non-fiction. In some ways, McMurtry seems more comfortable in the novel where his imagination and characterizations flourish. It could be that in fiction, all people are held equal at least in original creation of the characters, and an author is then free to treat them in the way he sees fit. Whereas in non-fiction, it becomes more difficult to offer opinions apart from naming people directly. At the same time, it is in non-fiction where an author has an opportunity to be forthright and authentic. These qualities remain true in this volume.

Keeping this in mind, McMurtry instead chooses to deal with regional subjects including Cowboys, cities, growing up, and family issues. Each essay with the possible exception of one is filled with classic McMurtry prose that spins smoothly, academically, and honestly. What begins with a humorous look at the making of Hud, ends with a deep, heartfelt tribute to members of the McMurtry clan. In the middle we find honest appraisals of various cities, sexuality, literature, and a diatribe against the astrodome.

The writing is intelligent and erudite with an appropriate blend of training and folkish earthiness, resulting in essays that set the stage for a lifetime of great writing in both fiction and non-fiction genres. The final essay in this book covers the McMurtry family and in particular Uncle Johnny, a man worthy of distinction and treated with the honor he so richly deserves. Aside from the sweeping generalizations and rather banal explanations of various cities in Texas, this book is an energetic read that could be enjoyed by everyone, particularly residents of Texas.

So it's dated history now, but written when Larry McMurtry was a young man beginning his publishing career. What an interesting and insightful read into the views of a "younger man" who later became an honored Pulitzer prize winner! As a native Texan, about McMurtry's age, I can recall a l960's Texas. He has treated his account with wit, energy, honesty and humor! I loved every page of the book and found myself chuckling at life the way it once was in the Lone Star state. As some have mentioned, it would be interesting to have a modern-day follow up of the Texas of today, but perhaps since Mr. McMurtry has now chosen to return to his roots, in Archer City, leaving the Eastern cities to other folks, he might be completely satisfied and comfortable with life as it in his small hometown in rural Texas where on each corner of the town square, he has placed a sizeable bookstore housing rare and collectable books, his legacy to future generations of Texans and others interested in such matters. I have toured these collections, and they are impressive indeed!
Evelyn Horan - teacher/counselor/author
Jeannie, A Texas Frontier Girl Books One - Three

In this collection of essays, McMurtry treats various aspects of Texas life from bestiality to the loss of the frontier, but in the end he is only moderately successful in uncovering the spirit of his subject. The writing is uneven, and not surprisingly, those essays that dispense with intellectual analysis and reflect the author's emotional feelings are by far the strongest of the collection. In particular, the essay on the McMurty family captures the sense of loss of a way of life in a way that intelectualizing could only muddle.

A major cause for the unevenness of the writing is due to the author's internal conflict over the appropriate way to record his observations: by non-fiction or through fiction. In those essays in which he attempts to intellectualize his prose, it becomes stolid and loses much of its impact, while the prose of those essays that deal with the textures and emotions of the subject rival some of his best writings.

About a quarter way through his book of essays, McMurtry muses: "... In writing this chapter I have begun to wonder if it is possible to write a discursive book about Texas which will not turn out to be simply a book for Texans, or more narrowly still, a book for Texan intellectuals." I think that this, along with the author's choice of prose style, becomes the central conflict for the author and at the book's end this uncertainty remains.