All my Friends Are Going to Be Strangers / Terms of Endearment

Houston #2-3

by Larry McMurtry

Ranging from Texas to California on a young writer's journey in a car he calls El Chevy, All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers is one of Larry McMurtry's most vital and entertaining novels. Danny Deck is on the verge of success as an author when he flees Houston and hurtles unexpectedly into the hearts of three a girlfriend who makes him happy but who won't stay, a neighbor as generous as she is lusty, and his pal Emma Horton. It's a wild ride toward literary fame and an uncharted country...beyond everyone he deeply loves. All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers is a wonderful display of Larry McMurtry's unique his ability to re-create the subtle textures of feelings, the claims of passing time and familiar place, and the rich interlocking swirl of people's lives.

Genres: Fiction

410 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1989

About the author

Larry Jeff McMurtry was an American novelist, essayist, and screenwriter whose work was predominantly set in either the Old West or contemporary Texas. His novels included Horseman, Pass By (1962), The Last Picture Show (1966), and Terms of Endearment (1975), which were adapted into films. Films adapted from McMurtry's works earned 34 Oscar nominations (13 wins). He was also a prominent book collector and bookseller.
His 1985 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Lonesome Dove was adapted into a television miniseries that earned 18 Emmy Award nominations (seven wins). The subsequent three novels in his Lonesome Dove series were adapted as three more miniseries, earning eight more Emmy nominations. McMurtry and co-writer Diana Ossana adapted the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain (2005), which earned eight Academy Award nominations with three wins, including McMurtry and Ossana for Best Adapted Screenplay. In 2014, McMurtry received the National Humanities Medal.
In Tracy Daugherty's 2023 biography of McMurtry, the biographer quotes critic Dave Hickey as saying about McMurtry: "Larry is a writer, and it's kind of like being a critter. If you leave a cow alone, he'll eat grass. If you leave Larry alone, he'll write books. When he's in public, he may say hello and goodbye, but otherwise he is just resting, getting ready to go write."

Reviews

[Sherrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Winning a Pulitzer Prize for fiction really raises the bar for an author, and in this case, McMurtry didn't make the cut. I've enjoyed so much of his work that I was surprised not to care for these two. The books dragged, the characters were unlikable (to be sure, plenty of unlikable characters reside in great books, but those characters had a zing that I didn't find here) and truthfully, these books didn't age very well. 45 years years ago was a different world, and the plot relied a lot on it being the 1970s.

2.5 stars for All My Friends, 3 stars for Terms.

[Amanda Maregente · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn’t really enjoy this one. From the beginning Godwin annoyed me.

Maybe I’ve read all the good McMurtry books already…

[Mike Reuther · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite Larry McMurtry book. Danny Deck is a young writer who has just had his first novel published. But he's not happy. His marriage to a beautiful, but vapid and selfish woman doesn't work out and Danny is adrift - from Texas to California and back. This book is about alienation and trying to come to grips with sudden success and elusive happiness. Like many McMurtry books, the story is driven by characters. And what a cast of characters the author gives us. Among them are Godwin Lloyd-Jons, a college professor and former lover of Danny's wife who attaches himself to the couple early on. He's erudite, lusty, and an oddball but not without his wisdom. His advice to Danny that his wife will break his heart proves true. The scenes with Godwin are among the most hilarious in the book. Unfortunately, Godwin disappears from the story early on. At one point Danny ends up in Hollywood to prepare to write the screenplay for his book. Here, he meets Jill Peel, an Oscar-winning artist who is probably more unhappy than Danny. The two briefly become lovers. However, their affair seems more desperate than anything, two people hanging on for dear life to shield themselves from everything that is bad. Plenty of people come in and out of Danny's life throughout this story. Among the most admirable and grounded is Emma, his friend back in Houston. Emma is married to Flap, an old college chum of Danny's. The couple may be the closest thing to a family Danny has. Danny doesn't seem to know what he really wants, and as the story winds down, he finds himself up against mounting odds. Danny's story is youthful longing taken to a new level - one man's desperate search to uncover meaning. McMurtry's descriptions of the flat and arid West Texas landscape that Danny traverses are a haunting reminder of how meaningless his own life and those around him have become.

[Joanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, I didn't read Terms of Endearment, I read All My Friends are Going to be Strangers as a stand alone book, which GoodReads apparently doesn't recognize. Anyway it was a great book, hilariously funny in parts and then sad or even tragic in other parts, and the ending was subject to interpretation. Definitely worth a read.

[Whitney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Re: All My Friends...

McMurtry IS good. This story was just a little too sad and a little too close to home for me to really enjoy it. I mean, I need any story about a Rice student trying to survive in San Francisco to be a little more cheery these days, ya know?

[Barbara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yeah, shouldn't have been so quick to put this on my "currently reading" list. After an evening of trying to get into this, I had to bag it. Too many other good books to read. McMurtry is amazing, but this one just didn't hold me. I guess I'm not into "coming of age" stories. Who cares?