I just read McMurtry's, "In a Narrow Grave," a collection of essays on Texas, published in 1968, long before most of his most noted works, including "Lonesome Dove." All in all, a pretty good use of time. Reading them gives you both a greater sense of McMurtry and a better understanding of who he is and why he may write or think the way he does. Doesn't change the fact that he's both immensely talented and an asshole. Some interesting stuff including his take on the filming of "Hud" which was based on his novel, "Horseman Pass By," his views on various parts of the state, including South Texas, East Texas, Houston and Dallas, and most notably North Texas and the Panhandle where his family settled. McMurtry was a small, introspective, bookish kid raised around cowboys and fairly rugged individuals and he understands both himself and a little bit about them. Further, though written over forty years ago, the book holds up reasonably well which is a tribute to McMurtry's sense of history and perspective.
4 comments:
Ashamed to say that I have never read McMurtry. It is, however, on my literary bucket list. Got a few books ahead of it, but would you recommend this one as a good starter?
I believe that Joyce's Ulysses, Tolstoy's War and Peace, and Rand's Atlas Shrugged should all be ahead of anything by McMurtry.
Existential zeitgeist galore. There surely is no better use of a fall Saturday afternoon.
I wouldn't recommend it right off the bat. If you're going to read one McMurtry book, read "Lonesome Dove." You'll be hard pressed to find a more engrossing and enjoyable novel--it's really outstanding. Allegedly, McMurtry wrote it first as a screenplay as a vehicle for John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart to play the lead roles of Augustus McRae and Woodrow Call. He put it away for years before sitting down and expanding it into a novel. McMurtry hated that people liked the book for what he considered the wrong reasons so he then wrote a sequal ("Streets of Laredo") in order to destroy all of the things that the unwashed masses liked about it. Asshole. Don't read that one. Read one of the prequals he later wrote, "Commanche Moon" if you're in the mood which takes up McRae and Call as young rangers.
Damn, used W&P to shore up the southeast corner of my foundation, and what's left of Atlas Shrugged (enough to get me through next winter, I believe) sits next to my fireplace. I use folded-up pages from Ulysses as coasters under my Guinness as I watch college football. Works real well and adds just that perfect touch of intellectual "uppityness" to the atmosphere, if you know what I mean. You know, like sittin' in Hooters and cheering for Rice.
Never did get around to readin' none of 'em. Shame...
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