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5.0 out of 5 stars
Looking for love in Thalia, Texas. . ., Jun 4 2004
The melancholy at the heart of this novel is heartbreaking. And if you know the movie, you have a really good idea of the characters, setting and storyline of McMurtry's novel. Like the movie, the novel itself is in black and white. A handful of likable characters are surrounded by small-town ignorance and trapped by circumstance or their own limited understanding of the world. Meanwhile, much of the story takes place in the bitter cold, colorless months of north Texas winter.A year passes, from one football season to the next, and during those twelve months, the central characters, Sonny and Duane, graduate from high school and have a number of adventures, as much as two single young men can have in a small rural community. Duane is obsessed with Jacy, the richest, prettiest girl in school. Sonny, who has the more tender heart, befriends the coach's 40-year-old wife, Ruth. And their story is a sweet contrast to the generally coarse, unfeeling or blighted relationships among the rest of those in the town. Of the very few in town who seem to feel something like full-hearted love, McMurtry only gives us glimpses and dwells instead on what is to be lamented in the rest of his characters' unlived lives. Like the R-rated movie, this is an R-rated book, with somewhat more graphic detail. Meanwhile, the inner lives of his characters, as McMurtry reveals them, give the reader a great deal more of their shifting moods, ironies and nuances of attitude and emotion. With Sonny as the most central character in the novel, you get a much deeper and more sympathetic portrayal of him. And finally the book is worth reading for the scenes that did not make it into the movie. Like his two earlier books, "Leaving Cheyenne" and "Horseman, Pass By," this is a finely imagined novel, with strong, memorable characters, and a mood that ranges between the farcical and the profoundly sad. I'm happy to recommend all three.
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