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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
More than I bargained for,
By Roadshow1 (Granbury, TX USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: When the Light Goes: A Novel (Hardcover)
I liked this book for several reasons. Texasville was the first novel I ever read in my life. I was nine years old. I have since read that one probably fifteen times or maybe more. I thought Duane's Depressed was the saddest book I have ever read. I am a huge fan of Larry McMurtry, and therefore probably biased. I would also strongly recommend reading the other three books in this series before this one. His last few books have been (to most people's ire) shorter ones that he was writing twenty years ago. To me, he is saying more with fewer words, and he is doing it very well. This book says a lot more than any other 195 page book that I have ever read. That is because it had three other books to set the stage for it. It is interesting that in Duane's Depressed and The Evening Star, Mr. McMurtry mentions Proust. Mostly what he says about Remembrance of Things Past in those two books is how daunting it is to try to get through it, the main reason being that it is so long. Mr. McMurtry always seems to be way ahead of the rest of the literary field with ideas that make good novels. I think with the last few he has put out (Telegraph Days, each of the Berrybender novels, Loop Group, the Boone's Lick, and the non-fiction stuff like Roads, Paradise, and Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen) he has been looking for a way for the words to pack more of a punch, therefore making the need for one thousand page epics not so great.
It has also been a great debate over his career about whether he is regional, local, national, worldwide, or whatever. One way to look at it is to say that even though anyone can read a Larry McMurtry book and enjoy it, people who are from or have been around Texas very much can REALLY identify with his writing. More so than any other Texas author. When the Light Goes and the other three novels in this series each capture perfectly the attitudes and nuances of small Texas oilpatch towns over a span of a fifty year period. I can't think of anything I have read that comes close to that sort of thing except maybe Updike's Rabbit. My view, being a Texan, is that Larry McMurtry is an international talent and an absolute Texas treasure.
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Survivor Duane,
By
This review is from: When the Light Goes: A Novel (Hardcover)
What a great book! Just when you think McMurtry can't pull anything out of his bag of tricks, here comes a slim wonderful volume about starrin Duane Moore. McMurtry presents Moore with a new dilemma, told with his signature sympathy and compassion that makes him one of our best storytellers writing today. Many contemporary writers can take lessons from McMurtry on sheer storytelling genius.
The only flaw in this story was the detailed sex sequences, though at the same time you get a character that is reacting to the current influence of telling everyone way too many details about their private lives. Long live Duane and long live the writing genius of McMurtry. McMurtry is one of our national treasures, pure storytelling bliss!
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Don't forget the appetizers!,
By
This review is from: When the Light Goes: A Novel (Hardcover)
Disclaimer: If there is a bigger McMurtry fan on the planet, I haven't met him or her. That said, whether in conversation or a written review like this one, I'll ordinarily start with five stars and challenge the world to prove otherwise. But in this book's case, there's a simple explanation for my one-star demerit: I just have a hard time seeing how it can stand on its own.
"When the Light Goes" MUST be read in the context of its prequels, "The Last Picture Show," "Texasville," and especially "Duane's Depressed." Otherwise, it comes off as a lazy effort with cheap dialog, crude descriptions and gratuitous sex, and readers will soon find themselves wondering if they're missing some ingenious literary device - if they care enough to wonder at all. That's a shame, because this book has so many wonderful attributes. There's McMurtry's classic ability to tell a story, deliver timely humor, pace the events, and develop a rich setting with barely an adjective. If fact, short story writers should (and can) eat this compact book for breakfast, thanks to McMurtry's skills with metaphor which time after time provide nearly all the atmosphere needed. In the publisher's blurbs on the dust cover, much is made of how Duane is ultimately "saved" by sex. I'm not so sure. It may help sell a few more books, but I think the more powerful undercurrents in this book include the fleshing out of fringe characters from previous novels, the town of Thalia and its oldest inhabitants moving in opposite directions, and especially the spontaneity of things like passage on a freighter from Egypt, Duane's abandonment of the little cabin he just as spontaneously moved into despite his wealth, and other unfathomable episodes. Sometimes I judge a book by how much I'd enjoy reading it a second time. This is a very enjoyable book, but it wouldn't make that cut. I will say this much, though: it will be a long time before I forget that opening paragraph.
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