Customer Reviews

Texasville

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Thirty years have passed since Duane Moore and Sonny Crawford graduated from high school in Thalia, Texas. The events of "The Last Picture Show" are a distant memory to everyone except Sonny, who continues to live in the past and occasionally gets lost there. Duane has married, gotten rich in the oil boom, raised a bunch of kids, built a 12,000-square-foot house outside of town, and is now $12 million in debt. The boom is over, and disappointment, the dominant mood of the characters in McMurtry's earlier book, is settling in again.

This time, however, disappointment and depression are mostly played for laughs. Sonny, the poignant central character in "Picture Show," has been sidelined in this story by Duane's domestic conflicts, his efforts to remain optimistic in the face of bankruptcy, and his affair with a married woman who is also carrying on with Duane's dope-dealing, womanizing son. McMurtry plays up the ironies and absurdities of life in Thalia where, as Duane observes, everyone seems to have gone crazy. The married and unmarried swap partners with the free-for-all abandon of romance as it's portrayed in country and western songs. And a kind of lunacy grips others, whose adventures push the narrative into wildly implausible episodes of farce, such as a mammoth egg-throwing fight on the closing night of Thalia's centennial celebration.

The melancholy mood that dominates "The Last Picture Show" makes only a brief appearance in this much longer novel, as Duane remembers a young employee killed in Vietnam. And readers, like me, who are fans of McMurtry's earlier work, will be disappointed that McMurtry treats the sorrows of his characters this time so lightly. At worst, the behavior of the town's residents gives Duane headaches and he comes to a realization that his "success" as an oilman and a respected citizen is not an achievement that gives him much self-esteem. The liberated 1980s women in his life (wife Karla, mistress Suzy, and old high school sweetheart Jacy) constantly remind him that he's less than adequate as a man. And at 48, he understands that he no longer has the energy he once had.

Meanwhile, there are pleasures to be had in the novel. In particular, I enjoyed the endless varieties of ironic and humorous disputes that characterize the verbal exchanges between the characters. Duane has a comic ruefulness that both protects him and reveals his vulnerability. And finally, that is the central theme of this novel as all the middle-aged characters (and there are a host of them) try in one way or another to come to terms with lives that haven't lived up to expectations.

The common theme among the other reviewers seems to be that "it ain't no Last Picture Show." While I can recognize that LPS is a more tightly constructed book in the English class, reading it for credit context, I think this book actually has more life. The action is absurd in many respects, and the characters do selfish things, but there's a buoyant feeling to the whole business. Sometimes, driving down the road, I think of how Duane's dog, Shorty, rode away from Duane "looking inscrutable," and I just crack up. This is McMurtry doing what he does best.

I read this book a while ago, but it has stuck in my memory ever since. I thought this book was the funniest book I'd ever read. I remember actually laughing out loud while reading. Maybe you have to be from down south or to be a southerner to understand the humor, but I thought it was hilarious.

I haven't read many of Larry McMurtry's early books so far, so I don't know if he's not living up to his earlier promise, as some people contend. I did, however, like Texasville quite a bit. The contrast that McMurtry is trying to show here is quite obvious: while life in 50s-era The Last Picture Show was miserably simple, modern life in Texasville is horribly complex. The book is "wacky", and it is long and rambling compared to TLPS, but it reflects the situation in mid-80s Thalia much like TLPS reflected its own time. The story is episodic, like TLPS, but there are many more episodes to cover this time around.

What is interesting in this story is that the characters have had every chance to lead happy lives, yet they are not happy at all. Most of them were at once time rich and successful, but this seems to have made their lives more complicated without actually improving them. Duane and Karla, the two main characters in the story, have bought lots of stuff and have both had more than a few affairs, which distracted them from the fact that they were growing apart. The other characters in the story are in similar predicaments. When the money runs out, chaos erupts. So how could the story not be sort of wacky? It is interesting to see who becomes aware of their unhapppness, and how they deal with it.

This book is also quite funny. The oil bust-era may also remind you of the current high-tech bust. Many of the charactres seem to be in similar situations as today's former dot-com millionaires. I think most readers of TLPS will not de disappointed if they keep an open mind.

Lots of fun. I read this shortly after "The Last Picture Show" and was pleasantly jolted by the contrasts between the two books, especially in tone and situation. The characters fumble with the same basic and pesky questions of sex, family, friendship, community... and boredom! "The Last Picture Show" laid these out as the challenges of coming-of-age. But "Texasville" wittily examines the way they haunt us into middle-age. Underneath the frenzy of spending sprees, sexual exploits, financial ruin, windstorms, and various melees, I found this a surprisingly poignant story of a group of people trying to figure out what to do with their lives and how to get along with each other.

This sequel to "The Last Picture Show" focuses on the residents of Thalia, Texas 32 years later, as they prepare to celebrate the county's centennial. The focus shifts from Sonny, who is now a secondary character, to Duane Moore, who is having an emotional breakdown as he watches his business and his family unravel. It's an episodic book, much richer in character than in plot, but still it is very entertaining. Fans of "The Last Picture Show" may not find "Texasville" to be an ideal sequel as its tone is very different from the first book's. It is much lighter, often veering into farce, not always successfully. Some of the episodes go over the top and are so lacking in credibility that you feel McMurtry must have been influenced by the surrealistic novels of Latin America. An episode in a psychiatrist's office, in particular, is poorly conceived and written. But there is such a wealth of colorful characters (enough to populate a Dickens novel) that you can't help enjoying every chapter. My main reservation is that the book cannot quite sustain its length--it begins to feel repetitious before it reaches its rather arbitrary ending. I am very eager to read McMurtry's new sequel, "Duane's Depressed" (which I just bought from Amazon), to see where he takes this saga.

I do so agree with Reader of Indiana who says that this is the funniest book s/he has read. I found a most battered copy of 'Texasville' in a hotel library in Malaysia and began reading it somewhat reluctantly. It is hilarious. It kept me totally occupied through several airports during which I could often be heard to laugh aloud. Delicious! Enjoy!

If you ever wondered what happened to the characters in the Last Picture Show, you have to read this book. Mr. McMurtry wisely chose the mid eighties post oil boom era to frame the second chapter of the Thalia trilogy. I live in this general area of Texas but was not born in the area. Two things. Locals generally do not care for Mr. McMurtry (hits a little to close to home)and secondly for those of you that think the characters are over the top, come live in this barren area for a while. The characters may have different names but they all have counterparts in my dusty little town. Like The Last Picture Show I could not put the book down. I can't wait to read the next installment.

This series by Larry McMurtry has to be read through, beginning to end, to be truly appreciated. It begins, of course, with "The Last Picture Show," and includes "Texasville," "Duane's Depressed," and "When the Light Goes." There's no point, really, in reviewing one without reviewing all because the story is incomplete without all the novels aligned. I will say this: I am a professional writer -- a fiction writer -- and my standards for excellent fiction are very high. I liked "The Last Picture Show;" the outrage it caused at the time of its premier seems quaint now, but the story holds up. It is the continuation of the story -- Duane Moore's story -- that builds a real relationship between the reader and the residents of Thalia, Texas. Duane's sense of humor matures, and his trip from teen to grandfather is rocky, filled with loss and laughter, and as vulnerable as that of any real person. That's the magic, isn't it? The ability to create characters and a place so very realistic that they feel like people you might know and streets that you have walked is a special gift, and it's one McMurtry explores fully in this series. Don't miss it. Read 'em all.

Here's my simple guide to telling the worth of a book. If I'm on the bus on my daily commute and I miss my stop because I'm engrossed in what I'm reading, it's a good book. When I miss my stop several days in a row, it's a great book.

Texasville is a great book! I was more engaged by the characters than I was in The Last Picture Show and I laughed out loud several times while I read it. Texasville is a sequel, but it can be enjoyed without prior knowledge of The Last PIcture Show. I might even suggest that you read Texasville first and then grab a copy of The Last Picture Show to see what that's like.

In some ways the Thalia books are McMurtry's version of Updike's Rabbit novels. But I sure don't recall laughing out loud at Rabbit's trials and I certainly didn't miss any stops while I was reading them.