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Houston #5
Some Can Whistle
In his most moving and richly comic contemporary novel since Texasville, Larry McMurtry returns to the modern West he created so masterfully in The Last Picture Show and Terms of Endearment. SOME CAN WHISTLE spins a tale of Hollywood glitz and Texas grit; of an extraordinary young woman and a murderous young man; and a middle-aged millionaire running head-on into the longings, joys and pathos of real life.
348 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1989
58 people are currently reading
980 people want to read
About the author
Larry McMurtry
150 books4,039 followersLarry 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."
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."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 133 reviews
February 16, 2019
One day, when a 21-gun salute marks the death of the greatest Texan who ever told a story, a middle-aged woman in Boulder's going to wrap herself in a body-sized black veil and issue a death wail that will be heard in New Jersey.
In short, I love Larry McMurtry.
I love him so much, I'm one of the weird, lone crusaders who has set out on an odd journey to read all 6 books of his Houston series, in a year.
I am currently at page 2,210 of my goal, with only the last book remaining: The Evening Star.
Book #1, Moving On, and Book #3, Terms of Endearment, are two of Larry's finest novels.
Books #2, All My Friends Are Going to be Strangers, and Book #4, Somebody's Darling are slower moving, but still very worthy books.
But, this book, #5, Some Can Whistle should be. . .
Shipped to a bastard of an ex-lover (or your parents, if you hate them).
Burned at the stake.
Buried in the backyard.
Forgotten through hypnosis.
Larry, I love you, baby, but, WTF?
In short, I love Larry McMurtry.
I love him so much, I'm one of the weird, lone crusaders who has set out on an odd journey to read all 6 books of his Houston series, in a year.
I am currently at page 2,210 of my goal, with only the last book remaining: The Evening Star.
Book #1, Moving On, and Book #3, Terms of Endearment, are two of Larry's finest novels.
Books #2, All My Friends Are Going to be Strangers, and Book #4, Somebody's Darling are slower moving, but still very worthy books.
But, this book, #5, Some Can Whistle should be. . .
Shipped to a bastard of an ex-lover (or your parents, if you hate them).
Burned at the stake.
Buried in the backyard.
Forgotten through hypnosis.
Larry, I love you, baby, but, WTF?
July 27, 2023
The Many Forms of Love and Desire
As I was reading the final pages of Some Can Whistle, I still had no clue why McMurtry chose the title for this novel—and then I reached the book’s last sentence. I read that sentence over and over again. That final sentence is haunting and heartbreaking and hopeful all at the same time. And, of course, I won’t spoil the novel by telling you what it says.
I suspect that not many McMurtry fans ever read this novel. Publishers are secretive about their sales data, but checking around on this book’s publishing metrics, I suspect this novel might never have sold more than several thousand copies. It’s not one of the novels McMurtry chose to re-release in a deluxe paperback edition with one of his fresh prefaces in which he honestly tells what he thinks about the novel. That’s a shame, because those prefaces he wrote many years later are among the best parts of his books, today. I know because I’ve been on a mission to re-read all of his books, which I started when he died in 2021. This is my 12th book and, with this novel, I’m currently deep into what he called his “Houston series.”
For other McMurtry fans out there—and I’m especially referring to fans of his Thalia and Houston series—you will find that this book seems to leap out of nowhere. The rootless rogue Danny Deck, who became a one-hit wonder as a young novelist, was first penned by McMurtry as a secondary character in an earlier Houston novel, Moving On. Then, McMurtry gave Danny his own novel, All My Friends Are Going to be Strangers, which was written in a way that made readers think it was giving us the fullness and completion of Danny’s tale. But, no! Like Duane Moore from the Thalia series, McMurtry wasn’t done with this friend. In his various prefaces over the years, McMurtry explained that he continually kept remembering and re-evaluating all of his old fictional friends and sometimes, as he aged significantly himself, he decided to go back and let them age with him.
Whatever was going through McMurtry’s mind in this case—the result is this: The Danny Deck we thought we knew suddenly springs back into an entirely new kind of life! Once, he was a young Romeo whose mere presence melted women’s hearts. Now, Danny is both physically weather-worn and emotionally paralyzed after a startling success as the creator of a No. 1-rated TV sitcom. That’s not a spoiler, by the way. It’s the start of this story. After some years, that sitcom ended, and Danny retreated to a remote corner of Texas to mope around with little to do. What rouses him, finally, is a phone call revealing that his long-lost daughter wants to reconnect after more than 20 years. That all happens in the opening pages—in fact, in the book’s first sentence really.
The first half of this novel reads a lot like the quirky and often amusing scenes in Terms of Endearment. Once again, there’s a sassy, strong-willed housekeeper. Once again, there’s a half-crazy friend hanging around for comic relief. Once again, Danny’s adventure in trying to reconnect with his daughter ranges from heart-felt drama to slapstick comedy.
As I reached the second half of this novel, I was thinking that I could not possibly give this book more than 3 stars, because it seemed to be recycling not only characters, but even the feel and the tone of many scenes. The novel’s first half reads like a “TV rerun” of McMurtry’s earlier hits. However, when Danny finally meets his daughter, a second story arc emerges and amplifies and becomes something quite different from McMurtry’s other novels. By the time we reach his whirlwind final chapters, he has achieved a real masterpiece on multiple levels that I won’t describe that ending in any more detail so that I won’t spoil the adventure for other readers.
One more note for McMurtry fans: In this book, you will meet Duane Moore again and the tiny town of Thalia itself plays an unforgettable cameo appearance. You also will learn the rest of Jill Peel’s story after the end of “her novel,” Somebody’s Darling.
At this point in his career, it’s clear that McMurtry had a maturity and a bemused wonderment at the terrible beauty of life. And that sentence pretty much captures the feeling that will swell in your heart as you reach his final page. This novel definitely deserves 5 stars.
As I was reading the final pages of Some Can Whistle, I still had no clue why McMurtry chose the title for this novel—and then I reached the book’s last sentence. I read that sentence over and over again. That final sentence is haunting and heartbreaking and hopeful all at the same time. And, of course, I won’t spoil the novel by telling you what it says.
I suspect that not many McMurtry fans ever read this novel. Publishers are secretive about their sales data, but checking around on this book’s publishing metrics, I suspect this novel might never have sold more than several thousand copies. It’s not one of the novels McMurtry chose to re-release in a deluxe paperback edition with one of his fresh prefaces in which he honestly tells what he thinks about the novel. That’s a shame, because those prefaces he wrote many years later are among the best parts of his books, today. I know because I’ve been on a mission to re-read all of his books, which I started when he died in 2021. This is my 12th book and, with this novel, I’m currently deep into what he called his “Houston series.”
For other McMurtry fans out there—and I’m especially referring to fans of his Thalia and Houston series—you will find that this book seems to leap out of nowhere. The rootless rogue Danny Deck, who became a one-hit wonder as a young novelist, was first penned by McMurtry as a secondary character in an earlier Houston novel, Moving On. Then, McMurtry gave Danny his own novel, All My Friends Are Going to be Strangers, which was written in a way that made readers think it was giving us the fullness and completion of Danny’s tale. But, no! Like Duane Moore from the Thalia series, McMurtry wasn’t done with this friend. In his various prefaces over the years, McMurtry explained that he continually kept remembering and re-evaluating all of his old fictional friends and sometimes, as he aged significantly himself, he decided to go back and let them age with him.
Whatever was going through McMurtry’s mind in this case—the result is this: The Danny Deck we thought we knew suddenly springs back into an entirely new kind of life! Once, he was a young Romeo whose mere presence melted women’s hearts. Now, Danny is both physically weather-worn and emotionally paralyzed after a startling success as the creator of a No. 1-rated TV sitcom. That’s not a spoiler, by the way. It’s the start of this story. After some years, that sitcom ended, and Danny retreated to a remote corner of Texas to mope around with little to do. What rouses him, finally, is a phone call revealing that his long-lost daughter wants to reconnect after more than 20 years. That all happens in the opening pages—in fact, in the book’s first sentence really.
The first half of this novel reads a lot like the quirky and often amusing scenes in Terms of Endearment. Once again, there’s a sassy, strong-willed housekeeper. Once again, there’s a half-crazy friend hanging around for comic relief. Once again, Danny’s adventure in trying to reconnect with his daughter ranges from heart-felt drama to slapstick comedy.
As I reached the second half of this novel, I was thinking that I could not possibly give this book more than 3 stars, because it seemed to be recycling not only characters, but even the feel and the tone of many scenes. The novel’s first half reads like a “TV rerun” of McMurtry’s earlier hits. However, when Danny finally meets his daughter, a second story arc emerges and amplifies and becomes something quite different from McMurtry’s other novels. By the time we reach his whirlwind final chapters, he has achieved a real masterpiece on multiple levels that I won’t describe that ending in any more detail so that I won’t spoil the adventure for other readers.
One more note for McMurtry fans: In this book, you will meet Duane Moore again and the tiny town of Thalia itself plays an unforgettable cameo appearance. You also will learn the rest of Jill Peel’s story after the end of “her novel,” Somebody’s Darling.
At this point in his career, it’s clear that McMurtry had a maturity and a bemused wonderment at the terrible beauty of life. And that sentence pretty much captures the feeling that will swell in your heart as you reach his final page. This novel definitely deserves 5 stars.
January 26, 2008
Probably the most under - rated and under - read of Larry's books. It is a shame because this is a GREAT book. I loved it.
October 24, 2014
This book made me laugh and cry and ultimately broke my heart. Larry McMurty is definitely an acquired taste, but once you've come to appreciate him, you can't get enough of his books. Filled with quirky characters and the messy reality of real life
January 25, 2021
How do you write a page-turner of a novel from the opening line? Well, if you are Larry McMurtry, you have a youthful, furious, female voice say on the phone: “Mr. Deck, are you my stinkin’ Daddy?” And then you have Danny Deck, the recipient of the phone call turn out, indeed, to be the stinkin’ Daddy in question.
At age 51, Danny Deck is on the wrong side of middle age. He spends a good deal of his 20s and 30s falling in and out of love with just about every female he encounters, whimsically marries one, only to be bounced out of hospital by his in-laws just as his daughter is being born. For various reasons, he doesn’t see, or is allowed to have contact with this daughter for 22 years—when she makes that momentous phone call. It is a life-changing phone call for Danny, his daughter Tyler Rose (or TR), and a host of minor characters that are signature McMurtry.
After being an indifferent novelist with even more indifferent success in the movie industry, Danny writes a one-hit-wonder TV series called “Al and Sal,” which runs for nine years and a couple of hundred episodes. The show resonates with all the Al’s and Sal’s of America, of which there are more than anyone imagined, and allows Danny to retire to his sprawling Texas home in Thalia with only the bisexual, drug-addicted, erudite Godwin Lloyd-Jons and a jaded housekeeper for company. The only women in Danny’s life are a handful of movie starlets—some real, some fantasized—with whom he exchanges periodic phone conversations.
TR changes all that. Like a Texas tornado, she swirls into his life with two children, Bo and Jesse (so Danny is also an instant grandparent), fathered respectively by homicidal Earl Dee, currently doing time, and Muddy Box, a petty criminal with an abiding penchant for AK-47s. TR has a zest and appetite for life that turns Danny’s solitude upside down. She becomes adept at spending Danny’s hundreds of millions of dollars on the most outrageous, whimsical items for herself and her oddball entourage.
Nevertheless, through a series of TR-generated impromptu escapades, Danny is charmed by his instant family, and by TR in particular. He begins to pour out 22 years’ worth of fatherly love for his tornadic daughter, and comes alive himself. Danny and TR grow into fatherhood and daughterhood in some powerfully touching scenes, and they both find their new family status a good fit. Danny’s imagination knows no limits for what the future can bring, forever changing his solitary life of solitude to one filled with bewitching family drama.
But Some Can Whistle is classic McMurtry, containing equal parts madcap comedy and sudden tragedy. Will the future, indeed, give a stinkin’ daddy the opportunity to redeem himself? Will TR and her children, who have been living on the seamier side of town find all their needs and wants rapidly fulfilled by a doting father and grandfather? McMurtry has readers happily guessing right until the end of a thoroughly satisfying read of almost 300 pages.
At age 51, Danny Deck is on the wrong side of middle age. He spends a good deal of his 20s and 30s falling in and out of love with just about every female he encounters, whimsically marries one, only to be bounced out of hospital by his in-laws just as his daughter is being born. For various reasons, he doesn’t see, or is allowed to have contact with this daughter for 22 years—when she makes that momentous phone call. It is a life-changing phone call for Danny, his daughter Tyler Rose (or TR), and a host of minor characters that are signature McMurtry.
After being an indifferent novelist with even more indifferent success in the movie industry, Danny writes a one-hit-wonder TV series called “Al and Sal,” which runs for nine years and a couple of hundred episodes. The show resonates with all the Al’s and Sal’s of America, of which there are more than anyone imagined, and allows Danny to retire to his sprawling Texas home in Thalia with only the bisexual, drug-addicted, erudite Godwin Lloyd-Jons and a jaded housekeeper for company. The only women in Danny’s life are a handful of movie starlets—some real, some fantasized—with whom he exchanges periodic phone conversations.
TR changes all that. Like a Texas tornado, she swirls into his life with two children, Bo and Jesse (so Danny is also an instant grandparent), fathered respectively by homicidal Earl Dee, currently doing time, and Muddy Box, a petty criminal with an abiding penchant for AK-47s. TR has a zest and appetite for life that turns Danny’s solitude upside down. She becomes adept at spending Danny’s hundreds of millions of dollars on the most outrageous, whimsical items for herself and her oddball entourage.
Nevertheless, through a series of TR-generated impromptu escapades, Danny is charmed by his instant family, and by TR in particular. He begins to pour out 22 years’ worth of fatherly love for his tornadic daughter, and comes alive himself. Danny and TR grow into fatherhood and daughterhood in some powerfully touching scenes, and they both find their new family status a good fit. Danny’s imagination knows no limits for what the future can bring, forever changing his solitary life of solitude to one filled with bewitching family drama.
But Some Can Whistle is classic McMurtry, containing equal parts madcap comedy and sudden tragedy. Will the future, indeed, give a stinkin’ daddy the opportunity to redeem himself? Will TR and her children, who have been living on the seamier side of town find all their needs and wants rapidly fulfilled by a doting father and grandfather? McMurtry has readers happily guessing right until the end of a thoroughly satisfying read of almost 300 pages.
January 16, 2025
Was surprised how fantastic this was considering some reviews that I read. I can’t get enough of McMur, and you can read any of the Houston books in any order, my personal ranking would be as follows [the order in which I read them are in brackets] (publication order in rounded brackets)
1. Moving On [4] (1) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
2. Terms of Endearment [1] (3)⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
3. All My Friends Are Going To Be Strangers [2] (2)⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
4. Evening Star [3] (6)⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
5. Somebody’s Darling [5] (4)⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
6. Some Can Whistle [6] (5)⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
McMurtry is the greatest author of all time. Lonesome Dove is the greatest book of all time. Everyone should read some McMur.
1. Moving On [4] (1) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
2. Terms of Endearment [1] (3)⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
3. All My Friends Are Going To Be Strangers [2] (2)⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
4. Evening Star [3] (6)⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
5. Somebody’s Darling [5] (4)⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
6. Some Can Whistle [6] (5)⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
McMurtry is the greatest author of all time. Lonesome Dove is the greatest book of all time. Everyone should read some McMur.
January 5, 2025
Larry McMurtry writes characters like no other. Not on the same level as Lonesome Dove of course, but I did experience every range of emotions just that same. Truly incredible author.
February 10, 2020
Danny Deck is not my favorite of McMurtry's menagerie and this insipid sequel, in which the protagonist worries openly about lapsing into the seemingly inevitable self-parody of middle-age, reads like a ham-fisted burlesque of "the Lone Star Flaubert"s vital early work. I ultimately could not hate it but after several increasingly flabby offerings (but also, to be fair, Lonesome freakin' Dove) this is by my estimation his first truly bad book.
September 6, 2021
A story of a TV media celebrity who is suddenly connected with his daughter. She comes into his life and changes it. Quite to his liking - and a welcome change from his life with so many other women.
The ending was a bit tragic I thought. An interesting introduction to Larry McMurtry. Lots of perspective here.
Hope to read his other works.
The ending was a bit tragic I thought. An interesting introduction to Larry McMurtry. Lots of perspective here.
Hope to read his other works.
August 24, 2009
As “All My Friends are Going to be Strangers,” the predecessor to “Some Can Whistle,” is punctuated by constant movement and restlessness, stagnation and resignation characterizes the second book in the series.
Just like some people have the genes to roll their tongue and some don’t, some people have the ability and capacity to live life, and some don’t. Danny Deck doesn’t have it, his daughter, T.R., does. He can’t connect to anyone, and she seems to haphazardly connect to everyone, even if it leads her down many wrong paths.
As a character, Danny Deck is still obtusely lovable. He stands in awe of working class, visceral women, such as a nurse Danny’s friend, Godwin, unsuccessfully hits on by suggesting a book. She declines the offer by explaining she doesn’t like to read because it leaves her with the feeling she’s missing out. Deck says he, too, feels that way and develops a budding affection for the nurse.
He has many faults, however, one of which is his self-inflicted imprisonment. Several times he brings up the fact that his past loves have complained to him about his monotone indifference. But he just can’t change the fact that no matter where you go or who you’re with, turn around and there you are. He is who is, and that’s someone that doesn’t need to become a hermit to write a book about solitude.
The book’s story, however, is essentially as empty as Deck’s Los Dolores house. T.R. is Deck’s heart-of-hearts woman of choice, low-class and unstable. But as a character, there’s not much to like about her, and if there had been more to her story, she’d likely prove to be unbearable and possibly become estranged from her father after finding some way to squeeze him dry.
So many extra details, like Deck’s excruciating migraines, and characters, like members of T.R.’s posse, are added at whim that if this was supposed to be a father-daughter tale, it’s not apparent. Rather, this book serves as a closing chapter on Danny Deck and adds to the Thalia-and-its-hinterlands-world (even Duane Moore makes a cameo). Frankly, Danny deserved a better ending.
Just like some people have the genes to roll their tongue and some don’t, some people have the ability and capacity to live life, and some don’t. Danny Deck doesn’t have it, his daughter, T.R., does. He can’t connect to anyone, and she seems to haphazardly connect to everyone, even if it leads her down many wrong paths.
As a character, Danny Deck is still obtusely lovable. He stands in awe of working class, visceral women, such as a nurse Danny’s friend, Godwin, unsuccessfully hits on by suggesting a book. She declines the offer by explaining she doesn’t like to read because it leaves her with the feeling she’s missing out. Deck says he, too, feels that way and develops a budding affection for the nurse.
He has many faults, however, one of which is his self-inflicted imprisonment. Several times he brings up the fact that his past loves have complained to him about his monotone indifference. But he just can’t change the fact that no matter where you go or who you’re with, turn around and there you are. He is who is, and that’s someone that doesn’t need to become a hermit to write a book about solitude.
The book’s story, however, is essentially as empty as Deck’s Los Dolores house. T.R. is Deck’s heart-of-hearts woman of choice, low-class and unstable. But as a character, there’s not much to like about her, and if there had been more to her story, she’d likely prove to be unbearable and possibly become estranged from her father after finding some way to squeeze him dry.
So many extra details, like Deck’s excruciating migraines, and characters, like members of T.R.’s posse, are added at whim that if this was supposed to be a father-daughter tale, it’s not apparent. Rather, this book serves as a closing chapter on Danny Deck and adds to the Thalia-and-its-hinterlands-world (even Duane Moore makes a cameo). Frankly, Danny deserved a better ending.
June 8, 2020
Having enjoyed all the other of his works to such a high degree i was expecting to find at least one i didnt love. This one was tough and a little nuts, possibly a little too much of "something". For now im calling it quits but i fully intended to read it again and see how i feel. Sometimes i might not enjoy a book because its the wrong time to read it and thats what im assuming the issue is here.
April 7, 2012
On the surface, this is not a book for a deep thinker. However, there does come a point where the storyline takes your breath away and you catch your breath. Broke my heart. I got drawn into the storyline and am thankful I read this book. Grippingly real and overwhelmingly heart wrenching.
November 1, 2007
And to think this is the same author that wrote LoneSome Dove!
November 25, 2017
Not McMurtry's best novel by any means. I liked the first half but I just wanted to skim the last to see what happened.
April 23, 2019
Hands down the best character writer there is. I’m gutted after this one
September 19, 2022
A 20 year later sequel to All My Friends Are Going To Be Strangers, for a lot of its length Some Can Whistle felt a little unnecessary. At first I wasn’t convinced it was doing justice to the story of Danny Deck and his estranged daughter T.R.. But there was something vaguely charming about catching up with Danny and Godwin, and seeing how Danny adjusted to being an active father for the first time for his 22 year old daughter. It was a bit quirky, a bit slapstick, and a bit meandering. Then, like he did with Terms of Endearment, McMurtry takes a light comedy and turns it into the most convincingly heartbreaking tragedy he can muster. I won’t spoil specifics, but suffice to say the comedy of the book’s first 300 pages is a Trojan Horse for the sadness and loss of the final 40 pages. I felt utterly blindsided (unlike in Terms, where I and most everyone these days knew what was coming), and the way McMurtry articulates the characters’ grief and explores their futures is masterful. I don’t know why I ever doubted him.
As a general note, having read a few McMurtry novels now, I admire his ability to end a book. Every single one has had a perfect ending so far, and that’s no easy task.
As a general note, having read a few McMurtry novels now, I admire his ability to end a book. Every single one has had a perfect ending so far, and that’s no easy task.
December 14, 2024
Maybe three is a little harsh, but I didn’t quite *get* this novel?
I did think it was interesting how his female characters are sensitive and thoughtful and volatile, yet at the end, they’re the most reliable. They’re the ones that pick up the pieces and hold the family/friend relationships together.
I also did not see the ending coming at all and was quite thrown off by it. Why did I think it would be happy? I don’t know, but I fully believed they would go to France and live happily ever after. Or she would decide to leave her dad and take everyone with her. I just certainly wasn’t expecting her to die.
I did think it was interesting how his female characters are sensitive and thoughtful and volatile, yet at the end, they’re the most reliable. They’re the ones that pick up the pieces and hold the family/friend relationships together.
I also did not see the ending coming at all and was quite thrown off by it. Why did I think it would be happy? I don’t know, but I fully believed they would go to France and live happily ever after. Or she would decide to leave her dad and take everyone with her. I just certainly wasn’t expecting her to die.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 22, 2025
This book has so many different emotions. Very well told & very close to home.
Thank you Larry McMurtry
Thank you Larry McMurtry
June 28, 2021
not his best, but still damn entertaining
April 15, 2024
I can’t believe how this ends. Sad and beautiful.
November 16, 2020
.
Some Can Whistle
By Larry McMurtry, published 1989, over 300 pages.
In brief:
"In a furious phone call from T. R. [22 year-old Tyler Rose], the daughter he's never met, Daniel "Danny" Deck gets the jolt of his life. A [moneyed] TV writer [& producer] who's retired to his Texas mansion, Danny [age 51 & going to fat] spends his days talking to the answering machines of his ex-lovers from New York to Paris and [he is stuck on the first sentence of a novel he's trying to write--the first in many years]. But suddenly, a hurricane called T. R. is storming into his life. . .
Some Can Whistle spins a tale of Hollywood glitz and Texas grit; of an extraordinary young woman and a murderous young man; and of a middle-aged millionaire running head-on into the longings, joys, and pathos [sorrow] of real life."
.
The author, McMurtry, has set the story in his familiar region of West Texas with nearby Wichita Falls and the small town of Thalia, home to Duane Moore (a 5 book series) and other novels. Duane the oilman makes a brief appearance in this book. The protagonist Danny envied his pal Jack McGriff, a traveling antiques and collectibles scout. Jack is also a character from another McMurtry book Cadillac Jack.
The time period seems to be the early 1980s, maybe 1981 or a bit later since there's a mention of President Reagan (1981 thru 1988), answering machines have just become popular and house phones and telephone booths are the primary method for placing calls.
The story begins with Danny at his remote hilltop adobe mansion (a house on the bluff of a long hill with great plains stretching north & knobby hills south). Godwin Lloyd-Jons (aka L.J.) is a retired professor (an ex-lover of Danny's former wife, Sally) and he's now living a pampered life in Danny's guest house. Godwin is variously described as a sex maniac, toothless "...an idiot, a drug addict, and an orgiast," often wearing little or nothing at all. About 5 years ago Danny saw the distraught, libidinous professor at the airport and offered him a place to stay for a few days and Godwin never left. He drives a dilapidated Volkswagen, has numerous trysts, fathered nine children on his continental travels and is writing a book about the Rolling Stones.
Gladys is Danny's "faithful cook", a chatty and opinionated friend and housekeeper. Pedro, a little old man Danny picked up hitchhiking, ended up staying on as gardner, living in an adobe hut he built for himself on the edge of the estate. Years ago Danny had been a nobody and a failed writer until his idea for a sitcom became a long-running hit TV show, making him millions in the process. He has since sold his production company and still earns a fortune from the syndicated show.
On this particular day Danny receives several surprise phone calls from a woman claiming to be his daughter T.R. (collect calls from a phone booth in a sketchy neighborhood), each call abruptly ending when she'd hang up on him. T.R. asks about his wealth, having read that he's "the richest writer in the world." About herself, she claims to be a struggling single parent with 2 kids (Bo not yet 3 & his younger sis Jesse not yet 2) and working at a burger joint.
At this point in the story we're told Danny has never seen his daughter, never knew her name, because the in-laws, his wife's parents, prevented him from seeing his newborn at the hospital. We don't yet know why nor what happened to his wife Sally.
T.R. won't say, but Danny thinks she's calling from Houston (his old stomping grounds) and believes he recognizes her voice as very much like Sally's. He's overly anxious to meet his daughter and grandkids and to bring them to live here in his huge mansion, Los Dolores. His plan is to leave immediately, driving his fairly new Mercedes, but since it's been sitting unused in the garage for 6 months it won't start. Disgusted and not wanting to bother with the garage down the road, he lets a very grateful Gladys have his car in exchange for acting as nanny to his grandkids. Danny immediately phones in an order for a brand new Cadillac, to be delivered right now. Soon he's on the road in his new maroon caddy, lovin it as he hastens toward his only descendants (T.R., Bo & Jesse).
As the story progresses Danny mentions various details about his Al & Sal sitcom that ended about 4 years ago and how his storyline decisions affected the show. A decision to degrade one of the popular characters quickly led to the shows decline. Danny also spends time musing over his love interests, the eccentrics he often encounters and other subjects. He even has dreams about his old show, the actors and staff etc. [This particular pondering of the past, the girlfriends, Al & Sal etc, can be somewhat boring.]
T.R. and her dad Danny meet for the very first time outside her job, Mr. Burger where he also meets the 2 kids, each "...a little cyclone of energy." Bo (age 2) seems to be "...just mean, like his daddy," Earl Dee, a vile sort serving time in the Huntsville State pen. Earl has also threatened to kill T.R. if she took up with any other guys and of course she has. Muddy Box is the father of little Jesse--still nursing. Muddy is "sweet as pie," but he's also in jail--being a habitual thief, stealing T.R.'s meager possessions and having "walked off the dope farm." Earl may be getting out soon, so T.R. wants to be long gone from Houston when he does, and that's why, after all these years, she called her filthy rich, absent daddy.
It seems 22 years ago Danny and wife Sally lived in San Francisco. She got pregnant and left him, returning to her home in Texas. When the blessed day arrived, Danny rushed back to Houston from Frisco for the birth of his baby girl. Outside the Hospital he was confronted by Sally's dad (Lloyd Bynum, aka Big Pa) who beat up Danny, while Mrs Bynum berated him as unfit for their Sally, let alone a baby. He's a struggling writer, now exhausted and a bit broken, so Danny just walked away. As he procrastinated, it got harder to return and Sally excluded Danny from her life--hanging up when ever he'd call and never letting him see the baby. [Who's to blame is ambiguous, the details not explained.]
T.R. at first doesn't trust her absentee father, but she also learns her mom (Sally) refused all the birthday and Christmas gifts etc that Danny sent for T.R. over the years. The gifts have been accumulating in a closet at the mansion. Danny learns Sally died of cancer when T.R. was just 12 years old and her grandparents (Big Ma and Big Pa) were crooks, Pa a car thief, dope dealer and con man. T.R. had been arrested for transporting drugs and that's how she met Earl Dee, he also did jobs for Big Pa.
T.R. doesn't want to abandon her equally cash-strapped roommates, so Danny agrees to take her whole gang. With the trunk full of their few possessions, Danny hits the road in his Cadillac with 7 passengers: T.R. & her tots Bo & Jesse, Dew, Sue Lin and her fuzzy-brained Granny Lin and their pregnant pal Elena. Before leaving town they make a stop at the local jail so jailbird Muddy can visit with his daughter Jesse. [Apparently the Houston jail of the 1980s is so laxed they allow Muddy & T.R. to go outside, unaccompanied, for a family visit on the front steps - yeah totally believable.] T.R.'s real plan is escape. She convinces Muddy to squeeze into dad's Cadillac and hideout up north at Danny's mansion.
On the long drive back home Danny has one of his periodic migraines (a bad one) likely brought on by the dope-smoking crowd in the car, screaming kids & Bo incessantly driving his little toy car "Vroom, Vroom!" across Danny's head. So, they hole up at a motel for a few days and Danny gives T.R. his pocket cash (a few thousand in hundred dollar bills) to enjoy a spending spree & to treat the kids to the local water park etc. T.R. ends up spending it all (Muddy's cowboy boots alone cost $600), she discovers her friends are just greedy and Muddy gives her a black eye--not so sweet after all.
Back on the road, minus Elena who took the bus back to Houston, they're soon at the mansion where T.R. complains there's no yard and "This stupid house looks as if it was made of mud pies." The gang all wonder what they'll do for excitement "way out in the country." [No mention of how they hauled all that new stuff in the Cadillac's trunk that was already nearly full--a bicycle and toys, TV sets, ghetto blasters, an AK-47 with ammo box, clothes and sundries galore.]
Soon Dew & Sue Lin head back to Houston, but Granny Lin hits it off with old Pedro; the two "silent and inscrutable" seniors now living in Pedro's little house. Earl Dee has been released, so they hire security to protect T.R., but Danny and the guard think it unlikely the felon would actually show up. Turns out it's a false alarm, Earl is locked up for a couple more months. They make plans to travel, maybe to France, but T.R. is on probation and Muddy is an escapee, so getting passports seems unlikely.
There are a number of scenes that seem to portray Danny's unusual forbearance. He puts up with Bo, the two-year-old brat that T.R. fails to adequately discipline; puts up with his 22 year-old daughter who is a reckless, volatile, boozing, brat; visits Muddy in the hospital after he shot Danny's oilfield storage tanks, causing them to explode, destroying a month's supply from the oil wells. [Highly unlikely that an AK-47 round could actually do that.]
Bo was on the diving board, 12 feet above the empty pool. Being a shity mother, T.R. demands her 50 year-old, overweight dad go get the kid before he falls. T.R. ordered her dad to stay with Muddy at the hospital while she and her gal pal tour the area looking for a city with "old sleazy dance halls." She trashes the Cadillac and explains it away as "living people have been using it." - and much more.
Danny enjoyed his solitude, living mostly alone for several years. He does have a housekeeper (Gladys) and LJ (Godwin) lives in the mansion's guest house, but visitors are rare and he travels infrequently. Now that his daughter is in his life, Danny's willing to put up with a great deal in order to keep her. He "...had quickly grown to love her so much that the thought of being without her again was intolerable."
Then tragedy...
It's another mistake, Earl is out of Huntsville, but being held by the County Sheriff on new charges. He's way too close for comfort & T.R. is panicked. The whole gang plans to head out in a new van, immediately. T.R., Godwin, Bo and Buddy the bodyguard take the Cadillac for a quick trip to the store for supplies, while Danny and the others (Muddy, Gladys & little Jesse) pack up the van. At the Thaila gas station Earl Dee, somehow on the loose again, takes his revenge: Buddy is shot dead, T.R. is shot in the head and Godwin is hit serval times, but returns fire with the guards gun. Earl escapes with his kid, Bo, but not for long. After shooting a patrolman, Earl surrenders and Bo is recovered unharmed.
In the final section, part 4, Danny narrates a summary of the next 20 years or so, giving details on various characters and adding some new ones that entered his life. Muddy is a long time in recovering from blaming himself for failing to protect his love. He eventually attends college and becomes successful, but is killed in a traffic mishap. The author doesn't mention how Muddy's criminal past was resolved.
Bo grows up a continuing menace, on his way to a life of crime. Danny paid for pilot training and a Cessna which Bo excelled at and flew to Mexico, mostly disappearing from their lives.
For better schooling and the grandkid's formative years Danny moves them to the West Coast, Santa Monica area. After Jesse graduates Danny moves back to his Texas mansion. Jesse attends various colleges, has many beaus and travels the world. She seems to settle in France and calls her grandpa frequently.
..
Mostly well done and entertaining, but Danny's indecisiveness and ruminating, especially about his canceled TV show and former loves, gets tedious. If you don't know it's coming the grievous end to the daughter can be alarming.
There's some very minor Army Navy Surplus & firearm nonsense indicative of the anti-second Amendment crowd and authors who don't bother with fact-checkers. As usual the author portrays ministers and church people as criminals and hypocrites. It's a minor event in the story, but it's purposely placed there.
Larry McMurtry's Houston Book Series
1. Moving On (1970)
2. All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers (1972)
3. Terms of Endearment (1975)
4. Somebody's Darling (1987)
5. • Some Can Whistle (1989)
6. The Evening Star (1992)
..
Some Can Whistle
By Larry McMurtry, published 1989, over 300 pages.
In brief:
"In a furious phone call from T. R. [22 year-old Tyler Rose], the daughter he's never met, Daniel "Danny" Deck gets the jolt of his life. A [moneyed] TV writer [& producer] who's retired to his Texas mansion, Danny [age 51 & going to fat] spends his days talking to the answering machines of his ex-lovers from New York to Paris and [he is stuck on the first sentence of a novel he's trying to write--the first in many years]. But suddenly, a hurricane called T. R. is storming into his life. . .
Some Can Whistle spins a tale of Hollywood glitz and Texas grit; of an extraordinary young woman and a murderous young man; and of a middle-aged millionaire running head-on into the longings, joys, and pathos [sorrow] of real life."
.
The author, McMurtry, has set the story in his familiar region of West Texas with nearby Wichita Falls and the small town of Thalia, home to Duane Moore (a 5 book series) and other novels. Duane the oilman makes a brief appearance in this book. The protagonist Danny envied his pal Jack McGriff, a traveling antiques and collectibles scout. Jack is also a character from another McMurtry book Cadillac Jack.
The time period seems to be the early 1980s, maybe 1981 or a bit later since there's a mention of President Reagan (1981 thru 1988), answering machines have just become popular and house phones and telephone booths are the primary method for placing calls.
The story begins with Danny at his remote hilltop adobe mansion (a house on the bluff of a long hill with great plains stretching north & knobby hills south). Godwin Lloyd-Jons (aka L.J.) is a retired professor (an ex-lover of Danny's former wife, Sally) and he's now living a pampered life in Danny's guest house. Godwin is variously described as a sex maniac, toothless "...an idiot, a drug addict, and an orgiast," often wearing little or nothing at all. About 5 years ago Danny saw the distraught, libidinous professor at the airport and offered him a place to stay for a few days and Godwin never left. He drives a dilapidated Volkswagen, has numerous trysts, fathered nine children on his continental travels and is writing a book about the Rolling Stones.
Gladys is Danny's "faithful cook", a chatty and opinionated friend and housekeeper. Pedro, a little old man Danny picked up hitchhiking, ended up staying on as gardner, living in an adobe hut he built for himself on the edge of the estate. Years ago Danny had been a nobody and a failed writer until his idea for a sitcom became a long-running hit TV show, making him millions in the process. He has since sold his production company and still earns a fortune from the syndicated show.
On this particular day Danny receives several surprise phone calls from a woman claiming to be his daughter T.R. (collect calls from a phone booth in a sketchy neighborhood), each call abruptly ending when she'd hang up on him. T.R. asks about his wealth, having read that he's "the richest writer in the world." About herself, she claims to be a struggling single parent with 2 kids (Bo not yet 3 & his younger sis Jesse not yet 2) and working at a burger joint.
At this point in the story we're told Danny has never seen his daughter, never knew her name, because the in-laws, his wife's parents, prevented him from seeing his newborn at the hospital. We don't yet know why nor what happened to his wife Sally.
T.R. won't say, but Danny thinks she's calling from Houston (his old stomping grounds) and believes he recognizes her voice as very much like Sally's. He's overly anxious to meet his daughter and grandkids and to bring them to live here in his huge mansion, Los Dolores. His plan is to leave immediately, driving his fairly new Mercedes, but since it's been sitting unused in the garage for 6 months it won't start. Disgusted and not wanting to bother with the garage down the road, he lets a very grateful Gladys have his car in exchange for acting as nanny to his grandkids. Danny immediately phones in an order for a brand new Cadillac, to be delivered right now. Soon he's on the road in his new maroon caddy, lovin it as he hastens toward his only descendants (T.R., Bo & Jesse).
As the story progresses Danny mentions various details about his Al & Sal sitcom that ended about 4 years ago and how his storyline decisions affected the show. A decision to degrade one of the popular characters quickly led to the shows decline. Danny also spends time musing over his love interests, the eccentrics he often encounters and other subjects. He even has dreams about his old show, the actors and staff etc. [This particular pondering of the past, the girlfriends, Al & Sal etc, can be somewhat boring.]
T.R. and her dad Danny meet for the very first time outside her job, Mr. Burger where he also meets the 2 kids, each "...a little cyclone of energy." Bo (age 2) seems to be "...just mean, like his daddy," Earl Dee, a vile sort serving time in the Huntsville State pen. Earl has also threatened to kill T.R. if she took up with any other guys and of course she has. Muddy Box is the father of little Jesse--still nursing. Muddy is "sweet as pie," but he's also in jail--being a habitual thief, stealing T.R.'s meager possessions and having "walked off the dope farm." Earl may be getting out soon, so T.R. wants to be long gone from Houston when he does, and that's why, after all these years, she called her filthy rich, absent daddy.
It seems 22 years ago Danny and wife Sally lived in San Francisco. She got pregnant and left him, returning to her home in Texas. When the blessed day arrived, Danny rushed back to Houston from Frisco for the birth of his baby girl. Outside the Hospital he was confronted by Sally's dad (Lloyd Bynum, aka Big Pa) who beat up Danny, while Mrs Bynum berated him as unfit for their Sally, let alone a baby. He's a struggling writer, now exhausted and a bit broken, so Danny just walked away. As he procrastinated, it got harder to return and Sally excluded Danny from her life--hanging up when ever he'd call and never letting him see the baby. [Who's to blame is ambiguous, the details not explained.]
T.R. at first doesn't trust her absentee father, but she also learns her mom (Sally) refused all the birthday and Christmas gifts etc that Danny sent for T.R. over the years. The gifts have been accumulating in a closet at the mansion. Danny learns Sally died of cancer when T.R. was just 12 years old and her grandparents (Big Ma and Big Pa) were crooks, Pa a car thief, dope dealer and con man. T.R. had been arrested for transporting drugs and that's how she met Earl Dee, he also did jobs for Big Pa.
T.R. doesn't want to abandon her equally cash-strapped roommates, so Danny agrees to take her whole gang. With the trunk full of their few possessions, Danny hits the road in his Cadillac with 7 passengers: T.R. & her tots Bo & Jesse, Dew, Sue Lin and her fuzzy-brained Granny Lin and their pregnant pal Elena. Before leaving town they make a stop at the local jail so jailbird Muddy can visit with his daughter Jesse. [Apparently the Houston jail of the 1980s is so laxed they allow Muddy & T.R. to go outside, unaccompanied, for a family visit on the front steps - yeah totally believable.] T.R.'s real plan is escape. She convinces Muddy to squeeze into dad's Cadillac and hideout up north at Danny's mansion.
On the long drive back home Danny has one of his periodic migraines (a bad one) likely brought on by the dope-smoking crowd in the car, screaming kids & Bo incessantly driving his little toy car "Vroom, Vroom!" across Danny's head. So, they hole up at a motel for a few days and Danny gives T.R. his pocket cash (a few thousand in hundred dollar bills) to enjoy a spending spree & to treat the kids to the local water park etc. T.R. ends up spending it all (Muddy's cowboy boots alone cost $600), she discovers her friends are just greedy and Muddy gives her a black eye--not so sweet after all.
Back on the road, minus Elena who took the bus back to Houston, they're soon at the mansion where T.R. complains there's no yard and "This stupid house looks as if it was made of mud pies." The gang all wonder what they'll do for excitement "way out in the country." [No mention of how they hauled all that new stuff in the Cadillac's trunk that was already nearly full--a bicycle and toys, TV sets, ghetto blasters, an AK-47 with ammo box, clothes and sundries galore.]
Soon Dew & Sue Lin head back to Houston, but Granny Lin hits it off with old Pedro; the two "silent and inscrutable" seniors now living in Pedro's little house. Earl Dee has been released, so they hire security to protect T.R., but Danny and the guard think it unlikely the felon would actually show up. Turns out it's a false alarm, Earl is locked up for a couple more months. They make plans to travel, maybe to France, but T.R. is on probation and Muddy is an escapee, so getting passports seems unlikely.
There are a number of scenes that seem to portray Danny's unusual forbearance. He puts up with Bo, the two-year-old brat that T.R. fails to adequately discipline; puts up with his 22 year-old daughter who is a reckless, volatile, boozing, brat; visits Muddy in the hospital after he shot Danny's oilfield storage tanks, causing them to explode, destroying a month's supply from the oil wells. [Highly unlikely that an AK-47 round could actually do that.]
Bo was on the diving board, 12 feet above the empty pool. Being a shity mother, T.R. demands her 50 year-old, overweight dad go get the kid before he falls. T.R. ordered her dad to stay with Muddy at the hospital while she and her gal pal tour the area looking for a city with "old sleazy dance halls." She trashes the Cadillac and explains it away as "living people have been using it." - and much more.
Danny enjoyed his solitude, living mostly alone for several years. He does have a housekeeper (Gladys) and LJ (Godwin) lives in the mansion's guest house, but visitors are rare and he travels infrequently. Now that his daughter is in his life, Danny's willing to put up with a great deal in order to keep her. He "...had quickly grown to love her so much that the thought of being without her again was intolerable."
Then tragedy...
It's another mistake, Earl is out of Huntsville, but being held by the County Sheriff on new charges. He's way too close for comfort & T.R. is panicked. The whole gang plans to head out in a new van, immediately. T.R., Godwin, Bo and Buddy the bodyguard take the Cadillac for a quick trip to the store for supplies, while Danny and the others (Muddy, Gladys & little Jesse) pack up the van. At the Thaila gas station Earl Dee, somehow on the loose again, takes his revenge: Buddy is shot dead, T.R. is shot in the head and Godwin is hit serval times, but returns fire with the guards gun. Earl escapes with his kid, Bo, but not for long. After shooting a patrolman, Earl surrenders and Bo is recovered unharmed.
In the final section, part 4, Danny narrates a summary of the next 20 years or so, giving details on various characters and adding some new ones that entered his life. Muddy is a long time in recovering from blaming himself for failing to protect his love. He eventually attends college and becomes successful, but is killed in a traffic mishap. The author doesn't mention how Muddy's criminal past was resolved.
Bo grows up a continuing menace, on his way to a life of crime. Danny paid for pilot training and a Cessna which Bo excelled at and flew to Mexico, mostly disappearing from their lives.
For better schooling and the grandkid's formative years Danny moves them to the West Coast, Santa Monica area. After Jesse graduates Danny moves back to his Texas mansion. Jesse attends various colleges, has many beaus and travels the world. She seems to settle in France and calls her grandpa frequently.
..
Mostly well done and entertaining, but Danny's indecisiveness and ruminating, especially about his canceled TV show and former loves, gets tedious. If you don't know it's coming the grievous end to the daughter can be alarming.
There's some very minor Army Navy Surplus & firearm nonsense indicative of the anti-second Amendment crowd and authors who don't bother with fact-checkers. As usual the author portrays ministers and church people as criminals and hypocrites. It's a minor event in the story, but it's purposely placed there.
Larry McMurtry's Houston Book Series
1. Moving On (1970)
2. All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers (1972)
3. Terms of Endearment (1975)
4. Somebody's Darling (1987)
5. • Some Can Whistle (1989)
6. The Evening Star (1992)
..
May 22, 2018
The only reason I gave this book 2 stars because I'm persisting in my liking This author. The story is both simple and stupid in the idea that he could simply drive to Houston and run into his adult kid is ridiculous. Fast food workers have career paths of about 90 minutes. She drinks too much, she's not very smart and she sleeps around with very bad boys. And on top of all that even though he pays voluntary child support he has a lame excuse for failure to make contact in 22 years. Despite occasional poetic language, the story drags and the ending really really really sucks. It made no sense and rambled on for another 50 pages anyway. The girl was simply not very likable and by the end of the book neither was the dad. But McMurtry can fine-tune a sentence if not a plot.
January 25, 2013
The premise of this book is the failure of this book.
"Some Can Whistle" is a sequel to Larry McMurtry's "All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers," that time capsule novel of the 1960's. Danny Deck now is late middle-aged, retired, ill, and depressed. It goes down hill from there.
"Some Can Whistle" would likely have been richer with a newly imagined protagonist. Danny Deck's final image from "All My Friends..." should have remained his final image.
"Some Can Whistle" is a sequel to Larry McMurtry's "All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers," that time capsule novel of the 1960's. Danny Deck now is late middle-aged, retired, ill, and depressed. It goes down hill from there.
"Some Can Whistle" would likely have been richer with a newly imagined protagonist. Danny Deck's final image from "All My Friends..." should have remained his final image.
May 19, 2016
Danny Deck, a retired TV writer of the most successful show in modern history (198 episodes), faces phone calls from someone posing as his daughter. Problem is, she is his daughter. He meets her and her posse in Houston and they go on a riotous ride through Texas back to his mansion. The dialogue in this novel is sometimes so heartfelt and other times so ridiculous it's hard to make out where the characters really stand. I enjoy Larry McMurtry books a lot - I have most of them, but this one is just so over the top and ridiculous at the end that I couldn't possibly give it more than three stars!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 3, 2020
Larry McMurtry wrote "Lonesome Dove" arguably one of the great American novels. I love that book and have read it at least twice.
I have read many of McMurtry's novels and really enjoyed them so I figured "Some Can Whistle" was an easy choice when I saw it at an estate sale. Well, even I can be wrong.
I don't even know why he wrote this book. For most of the book I couldn't figure out the "why" of the story or why I should care about any of the characters. Then he has the big reveal and it seems to me that McMurtry really just wanted to write the last few chapters and needed a book to precede them.
Quite honestly, I read it so you don't have to.
I have read many of McMurtry's novels and really enjoyed them so I figured "Some Can Whistle" was an easy choice when I saw it at an estate sale. Well, even I can be wrong.
I don't even know why he wrote this book. For most of the book I couldn't figure out the "why" of the story or why I should care about any of the characters. Then he has the big reveal and it seems to me that McMurtry really just wanted to write the last few chapters and needed a book to precede them.
Quite honestly, I read it so you don't have to.
October 23, 2022
Not one of McMurtry's best. I thought the story bordered on being unrealistic and contrived and the characters acted stupid too often. I also found a dramatic event late in the story to be extremely jarring given the generally light and comic mood of the overall story. Nevertheless, I cared about what happened and the story because it finished the story of several characters he had written about in earlier stories. The novel is part of the Houston series McMurtry wrote, linking to Terms of Endearment and six other novels. If you are a McMurtry fan, this is worth reading after you have read his major work. If not, skip it.
June 24, 2012
Danny Deck, rich and lonely, years after the events in All My Friends are Going to be Strangers. I'd read this novel before All My Friends, after a co-worker gave it to me, telling me how much he hated it. "It's about a guy up to his neck in a cesspool, and the levels just keep rising. It's miserable from beginning to end."
It's sad, and moving. Read All My Friends first, and it will make more sense. On its own it's still pretty good.
It's sad, and moving. Read All My Friends first, and it will make more sense. On its own it's still pretty good.
November 25, 2022
My second McMurtry after Comanche Moon. And really taken by it. It pulled me in from the first sentence, being a stinkin’ 50 something daddy myself I guess. Reading took me awhile because of my tendency to look into every writer book movie an author mentions. On page 49 he names a few European actresses among which actress Marisa Mell who he erroneously names Melissa. All these real world details almost made me Google T.R. Damn this man can tell a story.
Next up, Lonesome Dove.
Next up, Lonesome Dove.
July 25, 2018
Difficult to believe this is from the same author that gave us Lonesome Dove and The Last Picture Show.
September 6, 2023
Because it was McMurtry, I went in with expectations. This book was a stretch. The characters were outlandish and unlikable, and the plot itself felt forced and wandering. The most meaningful part of the writing was the last twenty-five or so pages.
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