"Texasville"

(Reviewed by Judi Clark FEB 3, 1998)

I'd forgotten how funny Texasville was until I picked up a copy for my sister Lori while shopping at a Goodwill.  She has quoted so many passages from this book that now I have to re-read it!  

Texasville takes place in Thalia, Texas in the 1980s post oil boom. Middle-aged Duane Moore finds himself in some fairly sticky situations, such as a 12 million dollar debt. As funny as it is, I suspect this book rings true for this time period. Texasville is the sequel to The Last Picture Show (which I never read) and is most recently followed up with Duane's Depressed (which I've picked up and and have to say it feels like going home after a long absence - they look older but you know who everyone is).

• Amazon reader rating: from 24 reviews

Note: On a whim, I rented the video Texasville and thought it was done well. Rent it to get refreshed before picking up Duane's Depressed.

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"Cadillac Jack"

(Reviewed by Judi Clark FEB 3, 1998)

Cadillac Jack is another of my favorites.  Cadillac Jack is a rodeo cowboy turned antique scout whose nomadic, womanizing life is centered on his classic pearl-colored Cadillac.   He wanders from Texas to Washington DC and back again and meets up with all kinds of characters.  Boog Miller is a bad dressing millionaire good old boy with political muscle, pushy Washington reporter Khaki Descartes, under cover CIA agent Freddy Fu and of course Jean Arber the antique owner and mother of two who can't figure out if she will marry him. Great social satire. 

• Amazon reader rating: from 7 reviews

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Bibliography: (with links to Amazon.com)

• Horseman Pass By (1961)
• Leaving Cheyenne (1963)
• Moving On (1970)
• All My Friends Are Going to be Strangers (1972)
• Somebody's Darling (1978)
• Cadillac Jack (1982)
• The Desert Rose (1983)
• Anything for Billy (1988) >> read excerpt
• Some Can Whistle (1989)
• Buffalo Girls (1990)
• The Late Child (1995)
• Boone's Lick (November 2000)
• Loop Group (December 2004)
• Telegraph Days (May 2006)

The Last Picture Show Series:

• The Last Picture Show (1966)
• Texasville (1987)
• Duane's Depressed: A Novel (1999)
• When the Lights Goes (March 2007)

The Terms of Endearment Series:

• Terms of Endearment (1975)
• The Evening Star (1992)

The Lonesome Dove Series:

• Lonesome Dove (1985)
• Streets of Laredo (1995)
• Dead Man's Walk (1996)
• Comanche Moon (1997)

The Barrybender Narratives:

• Sin Killer (May 2002)
• The Wandering Hill (May 2003)
• By Sorrow's River (November 2003)
• Folly and Glory (May 2004)

Written with Diane Ossana:

• Pretty Boyd Floyd (1994)
• Zeke and Ned (1997)

Non-Fiction:

• In a Narrow Grave (1968)
• Film Flam: Essays on Hollywood (1987)
• Crazy Horse (1999) (a biography)
• Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen (Nov. 1999)
• Roads: Driving America's Great Highways (June 2000)
• Paradise (May 2001) 
• Sacagawea's Nickname: Essays on the American West (November 2001)
• The Colonel and Little Missie: Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley, and the Beginnings of Superstardom in America (June 2005)
• Oh, What a Slaughter: Massacres in the American West: 1846-1890 (December 2005)
  

Movies from books:

• Hud (1963)
• Texasville  (1990)
• Lonesome Dove   (1990)
• Return to Lonesome Dove (1993)
• Streets of Laredo  (1995)
• Dead Man's Walk (1997)

 

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Book Marks:

• Mostly Fictions's other Larry McMurtry page..
• TheBookHaven.net review of The Last Picture Show
• TheBookHaven.net review of Texasville
• TheBookHaven.net review of Duane's Depressed
• The New York Times® review of Duane's Depressed
• Janaury Magazine review Boone's Lick
• Houston Chronicle review of Boone's Lick
• BookPage review of Boone's Lick
• Austin Chronicle review of Boone's Lick
• Christian Science Monitor review of Boone's Lick

 

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About the Author:

Larry McMurtry was born in Wichita Falls,Texas in 1936. His father and eight uncles were all ranchers.  He graduated with honors from Archer City High School, received his B.A. from North Texas State College. He earned a masters degree from Rice University in 1960 then quickly rose to international fame as a premier American writer. McMurtry served a two-year term as president of P.E.N. American Center in New York City and operates antiquarian bookstores in Washington, D.C., Texas, and Arizona. He lives in Texas.