Texasville (Tie-in)

by Larry McMurtry

Texasville

by
Larry McMurtry

book data

747 ratings, 3.47 average rating, 47 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		19%
4		31%
3		34%
2		11%
1		2%

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published

September 1st 1990 by Pocket (first published 1987)

details

Paperback

isbn

0671724746 (isbn13: 9780671724740)

description

With Texasville, Larry McMurtry returns to the unforgettable Texas town and characters of one of his best-loved books, The Last Picture Show. This is …more

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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 892)

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Feb 24, 2008

Emily rated it:

(review of isbn 0684857502)

Lonesome Dove is one of my Top Five. I've tried since then to read other books by McMurtry but if it seems that I'm just not a fan if it's not about cowboys and indians. I will say, though, that The Last Picture show was much better than this sequel.

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Jan 17, 2009

Craig rated it:

(review of isbn 0684857502)

This is sequel to the great Last Picture Show. It was an ok read but not nearly up to first book. The whole dark tone of Last Picture Show is lost.

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Dec 16, 2009

Tom rated it:

(review of isbn 0684857502)

Read in December, 2004

This is a Texas-sized story brimming with home truths of the heart, and men and women we recognize, believe in, and care about deeply. Set in the post-oil-boom 1980s, Texasville brings us up to date with Duane, who's got an adoring dog, a sassy wife, a twelve-million-dollar debt, and a hot tub by the pool; Jacy, who's finished playing "Jungla" in Italian movies and who's returned to Thalia; and Sonny -- Duane's teenage rival for Jacy's affections -- who owns the car wash, the Kwik-Sack...more

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Nov 17, 2009

Mackay rated it:

(review of isbn 0684857502)

Read in November, 2009

Turgid, slow, and irritating. I didn't believe any of the characters, especially the women. They were all so arbitrarily mean and mercurical, nasty to each other without cause, uniformly depressed and sex-obsessed. None of the continuing characters seemed at all like the very interesting people in The Last Picture Show, the first-class novel to which this is a "sequel."

I loved Larry McMurtry's books up to and through Lonesome Dove (one of the best American novels), but p...more

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Sep 06, 2008

Nikki rated it:

(review of isbn 0684857502)

Read in September, 2008

I enjoyed following the perils of Duane's life. Since I read this series completely out of order, I had many questins as to how Duane had ended up with Karla and why his relationship with Sonny had more or less fizzled out. Duane, as a middle-aged man, felt more sorry for himself than for those around him. The characters in the book treated him mainly with disdain. I suppose I understand why they would but I still felt sorry for him. Additionally, his children were so wild! He never seemed...more

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Dec 24, 2007

Dixie Diamond rated it:

(review of isbn 0684857502)

bookshelves: 1980s, fiction, texas

recommended to Dixie Diamond by: Carl
recommends it for: Texans

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

This book was a lot like Duane himself: Slow-moving, lacking direction, and subject to everyone else's whims.

I like Texasville better than I think it's actually a great book.

However, while I think this is a good book, I don't think it's a great book. It's too chatty and there are too many extraneous characters. Old characters resurrected from The Last Picture Show are not always well-integrated; Abilene's reappearance, in particular, feels like a gratuitous movie cameo....more This book was a lot like Duane himself: Slow-moving, lacking direction, and subject to everyone else's whims.

I like Texasville better than I think it's actually a great book.

However, while I think this is a good book, I don't think it's a great book. It's too chatty and there are too many extraneous characters. Old characters resurrected from The Last Picture Show are not always well-integrated; Abilene's reappearance, in particular, feels like a gratuitous movie cameo. It definitely feels like a sequel.

The intent, I assume, was to show both the havoc that the collapse of the oil industry wreaked, at a personal level, and the melodrama spawned by boredom in small, isolated towns. McMurtry's characters are never short on foibles and character flaws, which is fine, except that in this case the book is overpopulated with both.

Everyone, it seems, is shallow. Duane is shallow and ineffectual but likable. Karla is shallow, perverse, and self-centered. Their children are shallow, outrageously spoiled, and far too numerous; I rarely wish for characters to be killed off but I found myself praying that his sociopathic twins would finally be eaten by coyotes. The new Jacy may or may not be shallow but she is so vaguely written that it's hard to tell. Her grief over her dead child seems occasional and does not ring true; she spends most of her time ganging up with Karla to pick at Duane. Why Duane still loves Karla is pretty hard to say. She must have character traits beyond long legs and a perfect complexion that make up for her nagging, reckless spending, callous sense of humor, and un-parenting, but it's hard to tell what they might be. Suzie Nolan, who is apparently supposed to be a gentler, sweeter alternative to Karla, instead falls flat as a dumber, less sexually discerning, and, if possible, even shallower alternative to Karla.

On the other hand, such a crowded novel does effectively share with the reader Duane's feelings of beleaguerment; we wish we could get away from his insecure girlfriends and obnoxious family, too. By chapter 75 or so, I was sort of hoping Duane would opt for life in a monastery.

Overall, it felt as though McMurtry got too big an idea and wrote one book where he might have better written two; say, one about Thalia's locals 30 years later, and one about Jacy's return. It feels overwritten and uneven; in 97 chapters, it introduces too many new characters as temporary plot-movers and pays scant attention to old ones (Sonny? Sonny? Helloooooo . . . ?).

However, I still like the writing and, on the whole, the book is effective enough in its own right. I will probably also read Duane's Depressed when I'm done here.(less)

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Feb 17, 2009

Kelly rated it:

(review of isbn 0684857502)

I'm quitting this book around page 300 and counting it as "read". About 200 pages into the book I started wondering what the plot was, because nothing had really happened and up to the point that I stopped reading, no action appeared to be building. There are about a thousand characters and really nothing to distinguish one from another. It wasn't horrible to read, but with so many other books out there I can't devote any more time to this one.

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Feb 16, 2010

Aaron rated it:

(review of isbn 0684857502)

bookshelves: fiction

Owns a copy — Read in February, 1993

For my money, this is far and away the funniest McMurtry book available. I flew through the pages, laughing out loud almost every few minutes. Highly recommended.

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Dec 17, 2007

Joshua rated it:

(review of isbn 0684857502)

bookshelves: fiction

The sequel to The Last Picture Show, Texasville was an interesting read as a sequel if you wanted to know what became of the main characters in the prequel, but it fizzled a lot as a standalone book. I think this was because the author tried really hard to capture the feeling of the oil crash in the 1980s, the suddenly destitute millionaires who are in denial, the mindless consumption of the nouveau rich -- but he missed the mark and ended up making the characters and plot unbelievable and contr...more

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Mar 15, 2009

Lori rated it:

(review of isbn 0684857502)

bookshelves: books-i-gave-up-on, western

Read in April, 2009

I really liked THe Last Picture Show and was very anxious to read this and the other books in the Thalia Trilogy. I started this book and kept on and kept on; However, I have never stopped reading a book until this one. Everyone is having sex with everyone else besides their husbands and wives; even their childrens girlfriends. So I couldnt keep up with the love triangle, or octagaon or any other bigger shape that doesnt exist. I had to stop this book and find something better.

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Feb 19, 2009

Joe rated it:

(review of isbn 0684857502)

Read in October, 1996

Written with a hilarious dry wit, McMurty looks at the murkiest parts of our nature, and makes them murkier.

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Dec 29, 2009

K D rated it:

(review of isbn 0684857502)

Read in January, 1990

This seems autobiographical of a marriage falling apart. A waste of time.

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Oct 30, 2009

Bcoghill rated it:

(review of isbn 0684857502)

bookshelves: larry-mcmurtry

Read in January, 1987

This is one of my most favorite novels. I loved Karla. You will too.

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Feb 13, 2009

Jay Chalmers rated it:

(review of isbn 0684857502)

Read in July, 1994

Not up to Last Picture Show, but still enjoyed it.

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Mar 19, 2008

rytr_1 rated it:

(review of isbn 0684857502)

Read in March, 2008

This novel is at least 50 pages longer than it needs to be. That said, it's also a very funny, entertaining read. I remember very little about its prequel, The Last Picture Show, but there really isn't a need to as McMurtry provides just the right amount of background on his characters. There's a genuine laugh at least every other page, a chapter break about every third page, and a sweet moment maybe once every hundred pages. This is definitely not the kind of novel that changes you, nor is ...more

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