Customer Reviews

When the Light Goes: A Novel

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

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.

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!

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.

I am roughly Duane's age in the book, and after hearing a brief description, I was looking forward to a story of re-awakening and perhaps passion for an old guy like me. Instead, I believe this is something McMurtry dashed off in an afternoon after waking up horny after a nap. There is barely a realistic character or situation in this very slim book. The sex scenes with his very unlikely partners seem right out of the trashy porno paperbacks that we secretly passed around as teenage boys so many decades ago. The non-sex events are usually described in a very detached way, leaving you to wonder if it was supposed to be humorous or existential, then you realize he just wanted to tick off the plot points quickly to get to the next (often curiously detached) sex scene. A great disappointment--despite McMurtry's great talents, I can't think of anything to recommend this book.

Larry McMurtry can turn out wonderfully written compelling fiction. However, he can also some pretty mediocre work. This book falls into the latter category. It's OK for an airplane book if there's nothing better to read, but only just. Don't encourage him. Re-read "Lonesome Dove". Larry, where's the sequel to "Sin Killer"?

Once again, L.M. views life with a gentle, perceptive realism that marks all his fiction. He is, is my humble unscholarly opinion, one of the best true storytellers of our time--able to have you laugh out loud and shed a sentimental tear, both while reading the same page. Only complaint on this one: TOO SHORT. Steve in Mechanicsburg, PA

Mr. McMurtry appears to have co-authored this 172 page pornography pamphlet with Larry Flynt of Hustler Magazine.

Our hero, Duane, has reached the age of 64. Duane realizes that the 26 year old virgin that works for him simply cannot wait to loose her virginity to him. First paragraph of page one: "WOW! LOOK AT THOSE TWO!" referring to her own stiffening nipples.

Our author, at age 72, is living his life vicariously through Duane and the sex scenes are of such graphic nature that they are simply an exercise in using the 'thirty' most dirty words in the English language over and over...... page after page.

Yes, Larry, all 26 year old virgins are hot hot hot after your body! Now do go and take a cold shower and GROW UP!

It's too bad that one of the best American authors has stepped onto the road of senility.

Duane's World, Part IV

I have recently fulsomely praised Larry McMurtry's The Last Picture Show trilogy (The Last Picture Show; Texasville: Duane's Depressed) a saga centered on the coming of age, mid-life crisis and struggle with mortality of one small town Texas oilman and good old boy Duane Moore. Frankly, I thought with the review of Duane's Depressed concerning Duane's struggle to find relevance in his life as he hovers around old age and faces the grim reaper that I was done with this series. Needless to say that was not the case. Although I wish it were so.

I mentioned in my review of The Last Picture Show that the coming of age story described there boiled down to what to do on high school Friday night-the search for sexual companionship. What to do on high school Saturday night-the search for sex- you get the drift. Apparently in his dotage Duane is hung up on that same aspect of the tragedy behind that human drive except he has included weekdays. That, however, is not enough to sustain this slim novel. Moreover, I believe that Mr. McMurtry knows that as he has tried to spruce up his plot and characters with every current sociological trend known to the American scene- the search for a trophy wife, daughter Nellie's gayness, daughter Julie's nunnery prospects, his lesbian psychiatrist's off-hand desire to throw away all her profession ethics for a chance to go to bed with Duane and the South Asian invasion of the mom and pop business marketplace, reliance on sexual aids, etc. Come on now, Larry this is not even Austin.

I once commented in a review of Howard Fast's Immigrant series set in California over a couple of generations that during the course of the work his characters intersected every possible leftist political impulse in pursue of filling out the story line. I mentioned, at some point well before the last book, that the series had run out of steam. That, sad to say, has happened to Mr. McMurtry here. His story has run out of steam. What is left? Duane as the "stud" at his Thalia (or Wichita Falls) assisted living facility. He deserves better. Larry, put out the light. Please.

I'm a big Larry McMurtry fan and I've read everything he wrote through "Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen" and much of his subsequent work. The first of his books that I read was "The Last Picture Show" which made a major impression on me as a college freshman. I think the first real disappointment I had with one of his books was the first TLPS sequel "Texasville".

After "The Evening Star" I noticed a definite decline in McMurtry's works. I later came to understand that this was probably a result of his heart attack that ocurred while writing "The Evening Star". I kept reading his books out of loyalty to his past achievements and occassionally found a diamond in the rough. One of those was the second sequel to TLPS, "Duane's Depressed". It starts out with the same ridiculous dialogue from ridiculous characters involved in ridiculous events and activities that plagues McMurtry's later works. However, it settles into a meaningful examination of a man who was contemplating the meaning and purpose of life from a "later in life" perspective. I was moved by "Duane's Depressed" in much the way I had been moved by "The Last Picture Show". I sensed that I was growing up with Duane (although I identified myself with Sonny much more than Duane). A few more attempts at futility while reading the first two Berrybender books and I just about gave up McMurtry for good. However, when I saw "When the Light Goes", I wanted to see what had happened to my old friend Duane.

"When the Light Goes" is a short novella. It lists as 195 pages but at least a dozen of those pages are blank. The rest of them are generally filled with the same old ridiculous characters saying ridiculous things and getting involved in ridiculous situations. What is relatively new to these sequels is an elaborate literary description of sex. This book could justify the classification of pornography and there isn't much justification for all this detail. I can sense a purpose for some discussion on the subject inasmuch as Duane is confronting the limits of his masculinilty after realizing his heart troubles. However, the details and frequency of them made me wonder why I was reading this. There ARE some aspects of Duane's continuing maturity. However, I noted that the last chapter (Capter 50 in a 195 page book!!!) covered, in five pages, more events than the previous 190 pages.

I know that the heart attack he suffered had a great effect on Larry McMurtry. I know because he told us in some of his later writings. I found much of his observations to be helpful in understanding people I know who have experienced the same life-changing event. I can't help but notice that McMurtry's books and chapters have shrunk greatly. Maybe he needs to pay the rent but it seems to me that he has lost his literary attention span. It's almost as though he gives us a rough sketch of an imagined plot and fills in all the dialogue. In my book, "When the Light Goes" is strictly for those who want to follow the saga of Duane Moore and perhaps, the saga of Larry McMurtry.

Kept thinking "at least it's short...." So sad to see a fabulous writer reduced to such cheap tricks. I actually was repulsed by McMurty's reducing all of his best traits as a writer into some kind of MAD magazine caricature of a McMurty book. Save your money and your pysche.