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Lonesome Dove

August 31st, 2010 | Author: xakigecira

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Lonesome Dove A Classic American Western! – Klaus Eifert – Pinneberg
Das Buch fängt zwar etwas langsam an, aber nach einigen Seiten kann man es einfach nicht mehr hinlegen. Besonders das Ende fande ich spitze. Ein tolles Western.
: Larry McMurtry, in books like The Last Picture Show, has depicted the modern degeneration of the myth of the American West. The subject of Lonesome Dove, cowboys herding cattle on a great trail-drive, seems like the very stuff of that cliched myth, but McMurtry bravely tackles the task of creating meaningful literature out of it. At first the novel seems the kind of anti-mythic, anti-heroic story one might expect: the main protagonists are a drunken and inarticulate pair of former Texas Rangers turned horse rustlers. Yet when the trail begins, the story picks up an energy and a drive that makes heroes of these men. Their mission may be historically insignificant, or pointless–McMurtry is smart enough to address both possibilities–but there is an undoubted valor in their lives. The result is a historically aware, intelligent, romantic novel of the mythic west that won the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
Lonesome Dove

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Literary Life: A Second Memoir

May 27th, 2010 | Author: xakigecira

Literary Life: A Second Memoir A huge disappointment – W. Paul Blakey – Sechelt, BC Canada
This is a terrible book. If you are looking for information about McMurtry relating to writing … go to Wikipedia, you are more likely to find it there than from this horse’s mouth.

Horse’s ass more likely.

I lost count of the number of times he mentioned that he would tell more about (fill in the blank) at a later date. Especially the big Hollywood memoir …

The only good thing I can say is that I got the book from the library – didn’t waste any money on it.
Casual approach to McMurtry’s “Life” yields hazy results – Clare Quilty – a little pad in hawaii
Author, essayist and screenwriter Larry McMurtry has led a full life — some of his three dozen novels formed the basis for such classic films as “Hud,” “Terms of Endearment” and “The Last Picture Show”; he won an Academy award for scripting “Brokeback Mountain”; and his epic Western “Lonesome Dove” netted him a Pulitzer prize.

He’s also a well-traveled book dealer who survived a heart attack that led to quadruple bypass surgery and subsequent months of serious depression.

In fact, he’s been so busy he divided his memoirs into three volumes: One about rare book scouting; another recounting his career as a novelist; and a third devoted to working in Hollywood.

So it’s a shame “Literary Life,” the second and latest installment is kind of a drag.

In a series of short chapters, he tosses out stories and anecdotes like a man pitching cards at an upturned hat — some go in and some don’t.

A number of McMurtry’s famous friends drift through the tales, including authors Ken Kesey and Susan Sontag, editor Michael Korda, director Peter Bogdanovich and literary agent Irving “Swifty” Lazar, but they remain, for the most part, ill-defined wisps.

To use a “Lonesome Dove” analogy: “Life” is as laid-back as Gus McCrae but ultimately as dry as Woodrow Call.

The first volume of this series, simply called “Books,” is a far better crafted discussion that, unfortunately, focuses on a subject with a much smaller range of interest.

Hopefully by the time McMurtry gets around to volume three and his adventures in the screen trade, he will have regained enough wind to give his memoirs the spark and feeling that makes his fiction writing so rich.
: “I had expected to be thrilled when I received my first copy of my first book, but when I opened the package and held the first copy in my hand, I found that I just felt sort of flat,” writes Larry McMurtry in Literary Life. “I learned then and have relearned many times since, that the best part of a writer’s life is actually doing it, making up characters, filling the blank page, creating scenes that readers in distant places might connect to. The thrill lies in the rush of sentences, the gradual arrival of characters who at once seem to have their own life.”

McMurtry is that rarest of artists, a prolific and genre-transcending writer as popular with reviewers as he is with his readers. The author of more than forty books — including essay collections, memoirs, and novels ranging from the Duane Moore series that began with The Last Picture Show to the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lonesome Dove — McMurtry has delighted generations with his witty and elegant prose. In Literary Life, the sequel to Books, McMurtry expounds on life on the private side: the trials and triumphs of being a writer.

From his earliest inkling of his future career while at Rice University, to his tenure as a Wallace Stegner fellow at Stanford with Ken Kesey in 1960, to his incredible triumphs as a bestselling author, Literary Life retains all the intimacy and charm of McMurtry’s previous autobiographical works. Replete with literary anecdotes and packed with memorable observations about writing, writers, and the author himself, the book provides a rare glimpse into the life and intellect of a brilliantly insightful man. It is a work that will be cherished not only by McMurtry’s admirers, but by the innumerable aspiring writers who seek to make their own mark on American literature.
Literary Life: A Second Memoir

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