Larry McMurtry

[jlhoots]

Larry McMurtry has passed on. I've always been a fan. 

[mjazzg]

Which novel would you recommend to someone who hasn't read anything by him?

'Lonesome Dove' was the one most popular in my library working days.

[jlhoots]

1 hour ago, mjazzg said:

Which novel would you recommend to someone who hasn't read anything by him?

'Lonesome Dove' was the one most popular in my library working days.

Lonesome Dove, The Last Picture Show, Comanche Moon, Leaving Cheyenne

[mjazzg]

34 minutes ago, jlhoots said:

Lonesome Dove, The Last Picture Show, Comanche Moon, Leaving Cheyenne

Thanks

[Dave Garrett]

I've always been partial to Moving On and All My Friends Are Going To Be Strangers, but how much those "grab" you may be at least in part a function of how familiar you are with Houston. 

Some years before he established his much larger, multi-building bookstore complex in Archer City, he owned a used and rare bookshop that used the same name (Booked Up) in Houston, and could frequently be seen working the counter there when he was in town.

I just saw that longtime newspaperman/author Leon Hale has died at the age of 99. It's been a bad couple of days for venerable Texas writers. 

[JSngry]

RIP to both Larry McMurtry and Leon Hale,

who I recall reading as a pre-teen in the Houston Post, 1965-66. something about his picture in his columns that caught my eye, he looked Houston Goofy, if that makes any sense to a post-Space Race reality paradigm, and he wrote with such color and simplicity, yet deep interest, that even a kid couldn't help but get pulled into it.

Those were a better breed of Texans, those were.

[ghost of miles]

14 hours ago, Dave Garrett said:

I've always been partial to Moving On and All My Friends Are Going To Be Strangers 

All My Friends Are Going To Be Strangers is the only McMurtry I’ve ever read, many years ago upon the recommendation of a friend, and I loved it. Still have my paperback copy and have thought about revisiting it at some point. 

[clifford_thornton]

Love love love Lonesome Dove. Need to read more, however. 

RIP.

[kh1958]

Lonesome Dove is great. Might as well start there if you haven't read his books.

[Joe]

All of McMurtry's books about "modern Texas" — MOVING ON, the aforementioned ALL MY FRIENDS..., TERMS OF ENDEARMENT, SOME CAN WHISTLE, etc. — are both historically significant works and highly readable/enjoyable novels. 

His essays are also essential reading for anyone interested in understanding Texas's relationship to its own mythology. IN A NARROW GRAVE is a good place to start.

I would not say he and my father were friends, but they did trade books back in the day. And McMurtry inscribed many first editions for my father. My brother kept that copy of THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, in part, because the inscription read: "You'd better not sell this one." 

 

[clifford_thornton]

^ Awesome.

[Chuck Nessa]

Yes!

[GregK]

Lonesome Dove and its prequel and sequels, All My Friends are Going To Be Strangers, Roads

[JSngry]

www.texasmonthly.com/arts-entertainment/larry-mcmurtry-death/amp/?amp_js_v=a6&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQHKAFQArABIA%3D%3D#aoh=16190425231717&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.texasmonthly.com%2Farts-entertainment%2Flarry-mcmurtry-death%2F