The Last Picture Show [Large Print] (Hardcover)

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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This book is written in a clean direct style. Some may feel that in order to be termed "great literature" a book has to have a wordy and complex style. But to me, the greatest literature is that which most clearly cuts to the essence of what makes its characters human. Those are the characters we relate to in literature. And this book is loaded with them.

In fact it's almost frightening the way McMurtry gets inside the heads of these kids. If you remember anything about growing up you are bound to cringe at least once remembering the time you made the mistake of thinking exactly what one of these kids did.

I don't think this type of amazing story-telling is unique to this novel. Terms of Endearment is an incredible book and seems to have not been mentioned by most other reviewers. Of course Lonesome Dove is bound to have admirers as well.

In all, this is a great novel that is simple on the surface but has layers of complex undertones for those willing to explore them.

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