Duane's Depressed (Hardcover)

by Larry McMurtry (Author) "TWO YEARS INTO HIS SIXTIES, Duane Moore-a man who had driven pickups for as long as he had been licensed to drive-parked his pickup in..." (more)
Key Phrases: biking garb, biking clothes, tardy bell, Bobby Lee, Honor Carmichael, Wichita Falls (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
At 62, ever-dependable oil man Duane Moore ditches his pickup and starts walking everywhere--deeply deviant behavior in one-stoplight Thalia, Texas. "It occurred to him one day--not in a flash, but through a process of seepage, a kind of gas leak into his consciousness--that most of his memories, from his first courtship to the lip of old age, involved the cabs of pickups," Larry McMurtry writes. Yet oddly enough, Duane's marriage, four children and nine grandchildren, his career highs and lows, all occurred when he was nowhere near his vehicle. Within days he has moved into his cabin on a hill, reacquired his dog, Shorty the Sixth ("an air of slight guilt was typical of all the Shortys"), and begun to think on these things. Of course, this brings on an additional problem: "He realized that for the first time in his life he had too much time to think; of course he had wanted more time to think, but that was probably because he hadn't realized how tricky thinking could be."

Luckily for readers, Duane's attempts to go off the grid are far from successful. Thus do we have the deep pleasures of his comical and complex encounters with his wife, Karla, and family, not to mention some of Thalia's singular citizens. As ever, McMurtry's dialogue and narration snaps and surprises. He makes his hero's solitude, and his increasing depression, infinitely intriguing. Will Duane's attempts to literally and figuratively cultivate his garden succeed? Will he forge his way through the three volumes of Proust that his attractive new psychiatrist has prescribed in lieu of Prozac? Will the catfish that has found its way into his waterbed survive? Answers to these and many other questions await you in Duane's Depressed, the final book of the marvelous trilogy McMurtry began with The Last Picture Show and Texasville. Let us pray that it turns into a quartet: we need far more of Duane and his family. For a start, his granddaughter Barbi--"a dark midge of a child"--merits a volume of her own. --Kerry Fried

From Publishers Weekly
Pulitzer Prize-winning author McMurtry (Lonesome Dove) offers the final volume in the trilogy that includes the memorable The Last Picture Show (1966) and Texasville (1987). Drawing inspiration from the small Texas town where he grew up, McMurtry limns a wryly comic and finely nuanced portrayal of oil-rich Duane Moore, 62, a leading citizen of small-town Thalia. Depressed for no obvious reason, Duane vexes and bewilders family and community alike when he suddenly parks his identity-defining pickup truck in his carport and starts hoofing it everywhere. His wife, Karla, their adult kids and the small mob of humorously foul-mouthed grandchildren living under his roof grow more confused as his unsettling behavior escalates, especially when he moves to a crude shack six miles out of town. After he turns the family oil business over to eldest son Dickie (newly out of an Arizona drug-rehab center), the delicate symbiosis of the eccentric little town threatens to break down. Duane's symptoms intensify as he consults a comely psychiatrist in Wichita Falls and buys a fancy bicycle. Sudden tragedy disrupts the hero's therapy just as he is starting to come out of his yearlong deep freeze and, with regret and befuddlement, take a long look at his life. Using barren landscapes and drab interiors to emphasize the subtle, potent drama of Duane's search for himself, McMurtry shines as he examines the issues of alienation, grief and the confrontation with personal mortality. Despite a curious distance imposed by limiting the third-person narration almost exclusively to Duane?which at times renders the voice essentially journalistic?this novel represents McMurtry at the top of his form. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club featured alternates. (Jan.) FYI: Scribner is reissuing The Last Picture Show and Texasville in trade paper editions to honor completion of the Thalia trilogy.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First Edition edition (January 14, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 068485497X
• ISBN-13: 978-0684854977
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (65 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,112,040 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Stick With It, May 18, 2005

By	Randy Keehn (Williston, ND United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Duane's Depressed (Last Picture Show Trilogy) (Mass Market Paperback)

One of my favorite books that I read in my teens was "The Last Picture Show" by Larry McMurtry. (It was a pretty good movie as well). It really turned me on to this then-promising young author. When the sequel, "Texasville", came out years later, I read that as well. It turned out to be one of the worst books I have read. McMurtry's style of writing changed after his heart attack and his writing really suffered since shortly after "Lonesome Dove" came out. Still, I found myself continuing to read most every book of his that came out and wanting to be there when the old McMurtry showed up again.

After my experience with "Texasville", I bought, but was reluctant to read, "Duane's Depressed; the sequel to "Texasville". As I started out with the book I thought to myself, "This is what's wrong with the post-angina McMurtry". The problem is the excessive abundance of boringly idiotic characters. They're like an influx simplistic and Americanized people out of a Fellini movie. What made me almost put the book down and quit it is the multitude of Duane's children and grandchildren who are nothing but out of control spoiled brats. If this was the only book that I encountered these type of characters, I wouldn't mind. However, they overflow in all of the modern McMurtry.

As I struggled through a cast of totally disinteresting characters, I reached a point (at about a fourth of the way into the book) where the book really started to take off. We lose the dysfunctional offspring and start focussing on Duane Moore. His is a character well-developed by an author that was showing he's still got it. I found myself drawn into Duane and his life and challenges. I found myself relating to a man who was facing many things similar to what I was dealing with in my life. For the duration of the book, I couldn't wait to find out what happened next. It was a truly endearing study of a man bewildered by his past, present and future. As Duane was struggling with his issues, I found myself wondering if McMurtry was being autobiographical. I know next to nothing about his private life. It wasn't until his 14th or 15th book that a picture of him was shown on any dust jacket and that's the same picture that has appeared on every book since. Maybe it's an analogy of how his life changed after his heart attack. Whatever it was, the character of Duane takes me back to the early talent of Larry McMurtry.

This is a very good book that just happens to start out poorly. It isn't up there with "The Last Picture Show", "Lonesome Dove", "Leaving Cheyenne", or "Horseman Pass By". However, it IS in the category of "Moving On", "All My Friends are Going to be Strangers", "Terms of Endearment" and several others. When McMurtry's good he is VERY good but when he is bad...

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful ending to a wonderful trilogy., February 1, 2001

By	mirope "mirope" (Seattle, Washington) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Duane's Depressed (Last Picture Show Trilogy) (Mass Market Paperback)

Picking up this book was like attending a family reunion. I had that same sense of visiting with people I hadn't seen in years but still cared about. You want to reminisce and catch up on what everyone's been up to. It's been years since I read Texasville and over a decade since I read The Last Picture Show. Nevertheless, I was immediately able to fall back into the rhythms of Thalia, Texas. "Duane's Depressed" picks up several years after Texasville and once again focuses on Duane Moore and his family. The book opens with Duane's decision to give up motorized vehicles, a move that shocks the entire town and throws Duane's wife into a panic. Pedestrians, you see, are unheard of in Thalia. Typical of McMurtry's novels, the dialogue is extremely funny and true to life. McMurtry has an amazing ability to point out the ridiculousness of most human behavior without demeaning his characters. And he thoroughly captures the eccentricities of small town life. Even though this is basically a story about regrets and missed oportunities, it never becomes melancholy or dismal. This is a stronger book that Texasville, but no less entertaining. I highly recommend this book for all McMurtry fans, especially if you've read the rest of the trilogy.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Read Everything Else First, January 1, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Duane's Depressed (Last Picture Show Trilogy) (Mass Market Paperback)

Lonesome Dove is one of my favorite books of all time and I have enjoyed all of his other books (Terms of Endearment, Comanche Moon, Buffalo Girls, Anything for Billy, Streets of Laredo, etc) however I had trouble finishing Duane's Depressed. The first half of the book rolled along but the second half became unbearably slow. I felt like I was reading a character study by James Joyce.

This book did not have the memorable characters characteristic of McMurtry novels. Imagine Lonesome Dove being a character study of Woodrow Call, it certainly would not win a Pulitzer. Maybe I prefer the Lonesome Dove saga better. I still recommend this book to those who love the Texasville series but for first time Larry McMurtry readers, try reading Lonesome Dove or Terms of Endearment before you read this book.