Book Review: The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry

I'm not sure why we like to read depressing books about depressing people living depressing lives in depressing towns--but we do. Or at least we do enough to keep authors writing them. They must sell well or they wouldn't be there, right?

Maybe it makes us feel better about our own lives--we are relieved NOT to be as messed up as these characters. Maybe watching a character's life totally unravel gives us some sort of "greater than though" feeling in that we clearly see where they messed up and know we wouldn't be so foolish. Maybe we just like looking into the lives of characters and seeing how they work things out.

I found LPS to be very dpressing. The writing was quite good--McMurtry is a very talented story teller who creates some pretty crazy characters (All My Friends are Going to be Strangers comes to mind) and LPS is no exception. The isolation and loneliness in the midst of small town Texas resonates pretty strongly with this small town Texas girl, which may be why it is such a depressing book for me.

My friend from California found the book to be really funny--all those crazy kids screwing anything they could (cows, pigs, whores were all fair game). But that aspect of the book I found sad and exemplary of the inability of the characters to find a way out of their miseries. Sex is the central theme of the book--it is almost as if "SEX" were a character in and of itself. Every character has some sexual experience that defines him/her. The sex is infertile, however. It does not generate life, or lead to the characters knowing themselves or anyone else any better. It does not lead to growth or development. Nor does it really form any strong healthy relationships between characters--it just feels like it is a naughty excuse to write a book: "how many ways can I make these people have sex without repeating it?"

There are some really nice scenes, however, that have significant literary weight--when Sonny tries to leave town at the end of the book but can't go past the city limit sign, so he turns around. Then he can't make himself drive back to town. Such a scene exemplifies how strong a hold Thalia really has on him even though it has nothing to offer him. He wants to leave but has no where to go, and the familiar is better than the unfamiliar.

Despite McMurty's talent, I find it difficult to understand the appeal of this book--especially knowing it was made into a movie.