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mconnor26 's review for:
The Last Picture Show
by Larry McMurtry
The Last Picture Show is just about perfect. I knew I would like this because the movie adaptation is one of my favourites and I’ve enjoyed everything Larry McMurtry has written.
What I appreciate most about McMurtry is how he was able to convincingly step into the lives of people very unlike himself. He was clearly fascinated by people. Some authors are interested most in plots, world building, or just the satisfaction of writing a good sentence, but you get the sense that McMurtry cared most about getting a character right. It doesn’t matter if he’s writing about an impulsive teenage girl, a dying man reckoning with the end, or a lonely depressed housewife trying to hold on to one last bit of excitement and intimacy in her life, McMurtry makes them feel like real people. He seems to know more about other people than should be possible.
The characters of Sam the Lion and Ruth Popper kind of steal the movie and they do the same in the book. I always liked the story that Orson Welles lobbied Peter Bogdanovich to play Ben the Lion because he knew that whoever played the part would win an Oscar (turned out to be true). Cloris Leachman played Ruth and after filming her last scene in the movie in one take she asked Bogdanovich for another take because she felt she could do better and he told her “No, you can’t you just win the Oscar.” Bogdanovich was right because she did go on to win.
McMurtry wrote about these characters in Texasland and Duane’s Depressed and I’m looking forward to reading the sequels.
What I appreciate most about McMurtry is how he was able to convincingly step into the lives of people very unlike himself. He was clearly fascinated by people. Some authors are interested most in plots, world building, or just the satisfaction of writing a good sentence, but you get the sense that McMurtry cared most about getting a character right. It doesn’t matter if he’s writing about an impulsive teenage girl, a dying man reckoning with the end, or a lonely depressed housewife trying to hold on to one last bit of excitement and intimacy in her life, McMurtry makes them feel like real people. He seems to know more about other people than should be possible.
The characters of Sam the Lion and Ruth Popper kind of steal the movie and they do the same in the book. I always liked the story that Orson Welles lobbied Peter Bogdanovich to play Ben the Lion because he knew that whoever played the part would win an Oscar (turned out to be true). Cloris Leachman played Ruth and after filming her last scene in the movie in one take she asked Bogdanovich for another take because she felt she could do better and he told her “No, you can’t you just win the Oscar.” Bogdanovich was right because she did go on to win.
McMurtry wrote about these characters in Texasland and Duane’s Depressed and I’m looking forward to reading the sequels.