- Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books (1 Oct 1979)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140052216
- ISBN-13: 978-0140052213
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.4 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,085,928 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
"The Houston Post" What an imagination he has! When it comes to spinning a good yarn, few writers do it better than McMurtry.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
From the author of STREETS OF LAREDO, DEAD MAN'S WALK and COMANCHE MOON, a western which focuses on the lives of three Texan characters who follow the sundown trail.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
When I woke up Dad was standing by the bed shaking my foot. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
When I woke up Dad was standing by the bed shaking my foot. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Here, from What's Become of Waring, by Anthony Powell, a writer whom McMurtry dislikes, is a disdainful put-down of a certain type of American novel. Two publishers are talking:
"By the way, here is that American novel I told you about. Let me know what you think of it."
"Anything special?"
"I don't feel happy about the chapter where Irving and Wayne listen to the whip-poor-will."
Powell's title is Lot's Hometown.
I love McMurtry's best books, Lonesome Dove, Streets of Laredo, nearly all the Thalia sequence, All of My Friends are Going to be Strangers; and some of the done-by-numbers Westerns, without being great novels, hit the spot precisely. But this is clunky. It fails in the same way as Moving On seems to me to fail. It's over-literary, and literary in a way that is second hand. It's almost as if, in spite of the Texan location and the Texan language he was trying to write a European novel.
As others have noted, the story is narrated by the three main characters, in their own voices. Not surprisingly these are Texan voices with Texan turns of phrase and Texan rhythms. This is underlined by the spelling. `Every' usually becomes `ever', for example. But what are the characters supposed to be doing? Are they writing down their recollections? Surely not, and if they were, being barely literate, they wouldn't be using semi-colons. Are they talking to us? If so they don't need their spelling mangled. `Ever' is simply the way that `every' is routinely pronounced there.
And what`s the point of `wisht"? How is it pronounced differently from `wished'? It's like the way lazy and snobbish English writers indicate members of the working class by making them say `wot', which of course is pronounced exactly the same way as `what'.
These things actually matter because they indicate a failure of imagination.
And yes, I waited for the appearance of the whip-poor-will, and there, on cue, just before the end, it was.
"By the way, here is that American novel I told you about. Let me know what you think of it."
"Anything special?"
"I don't feel happy about the chapter where Irving and Wayne listen to the whip-poor-will."
Powell's title is Lot's Hometown.
I love McMurtry's best books, Lonesome Dove, Streets of Laredo, nearly all the Thalia sequence, All of My Friends are Going to be Strangers; and some of the done-by-numbers Westerns, without being great novels, hit the spot precisely. But this is clunky. It fails in the same way as Moving On seems to me to fail. It's over-literary, and literary in a way that is second hand. It's almost as if, in spite of the Texan location and the Texan language he was trying to write a European novel.
As others have noted, the story is narrated by the three main characters, in their own voices. Not surprisingly these are Texan voices with Texan turns of phrase and Texan rhythms. This is underlined by the spelling. `Every' usually becomes `ever', for example. But what are the characters supposed to be doing? Are they writing down their recollections? Surely not, and if they were, being barely literate, they wouldn't be using semi-colons. Are they talking to us? If so they don't need their spelling mangled. `Ever' is simply the way that `every' is routinely pronounced there.
And what`s the point of `wisht"? How is it pronounced differently from `wished'? It's like the way lazy and snobbish English writers indicate members of the working class by making them say `wot', which of course is pronounced exactly the same way as `what'.
These things actually matter because they indicate a failure of imagination.
And yes, I waited for the appearance of the whip-poor-will, and there, on cue, just before the end, it was.
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read this book when it came out in the early 60's and loved it. I just re-read it to see if it would still have the same effect on me. I am pleased to report that it retains its wonderful writing, innocence, fine descriptions of nature,and that it opened my heart once again.
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Leaving Cheyenne is my all time favorite. The three lives of the characters come to life and the reader is transposed into their lives. I laughed and cried, because of the actual likeness of the characters to people I knew. Two words: Must Read
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