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Rating: 
Summary: Not Especially Realistic, but his best.
Review: A modern day son in conflict with a father who clings to the "old ways" of the West in this gripping story of life set a small Texas town and a nearby ranch during the last days of the Old West still held only in a father's memories,now sets the mood and tone of the book. A "true-to-life" event that has occurred more than once in a changing Texas for many of us who can attest to these changes having been reared in Texas with roots and ties to such folks. A great read!
Evelyn Horan - teacher/counselor/author
Jeannie, A Texas Frontier Girl, Books One - Three
Rating:
Summary: Not Especially Realistic, but his best.
Review: As my title indicates, if this book were realistic, the kid would have shot the s.o.b. Hud when he caught him in a rape. The book would have ended there. It follows that although the rape was pure Hud, the kid, whom McMurtry didn't really intend to be a chicken, stepped out of character. A fatal defect. This book takes a lot of suspension of belief. It beats hell out of Lonesome Dove in which two Texas rangers, retired after twenty years service in the Rangers (as of the year they were officially formed) are cavoting along the Rio Grande at the little burg of Lonesome Dove, and there is not a tree to be found for twenty miles. Where was that along the Rio Grande? Today, of course, there are places where there's no water to be found for twenty miles. Is Larry kidding? I think so in every book he's written. An avid fan I ain't.
Rating: 
Summary: Enthralling Narrative
Review: I recently discovered this 'early' Larry McMurtry novel having read many of his later works. this rites of passage story is intriguing and disturbing. The narrator Lonnie and his family come to life in a series of illuminating episodes which are both nostalgic and contemporary. The character of Hud is unscrupulous and without any redeeming features save perhaps for his final actions which leave you wondering about his real motive. A colourful picture of Texas which is a graphic reminder of the Old West and its values, HORSEMAN PASS BY is unsettling and at the same time compulsive reading. Search it out now, you won't be disappointed. Oh, and forget the movie HUD - this is the real thing - and much better on the printed page.
Rating:
Summary: Evocative but nebulous
Review: Larry McMurtry does an excellent job in the presentation of cattle country in 1950's Texas. You can literally see all the dust, smell the sweat of the cowhands, and sense the rising panic of cattle about to be dispatched to their deaths. The book is narrated by 17 year old Lonnie, a sensitive young man on the verge of manhood and who has, unbeknownst to himself, reached a turning point in his life. His granddad, Homer, whom Lonnie dearly loves, is an aged cattle rancher of long standing. Homer is a hardworking, honest, fair and decent man, who through circumstances beyond his control, experiences a great loss that changes his life and livelihood forever. Homer also has to contend with Hud, who though charming to women, is one of the most evil characters ever presented in a work of literature. My main problem with the novel is that Hud's motivations for his various acts are never clearly presented. Although Hud threatens Homer from time to time to sell off his land, it appears that more than just greed is at work here. Without any warning, McMurtry allows Hud to swoop down on his perceived prey to do as much damage as he can. Hud makes no attempts to excuse or explain his actions, but just walks away practically unchallenged. On the whole, despite McMurtry's very colorful writing, I found reading this seemingly unfinished book a rather unsatisfying experience.
Rating: 
Summary: A sign of great things to come
Review: McMurtry's first novel is a spare, eloquent evocation of thepassing of the Old West. In its description of the decline and deathof an old rancher, it paints a vivid picture of life on a Texas cattle ranch in the '50s; in his narrator, the teenage grandson of the old rancher, McMurtry captures a voice that gains wisdom with each turn of the page. The novel inspired the Hollywood film "Hud," but McMurtry's work is much the more resonant and disturbing. Woven into the fabric of the novel is the theme of racism, which the movie skirted. Also missing from the film is the sense of melancholy that pervades the book. In the old rancher, Homer Bannon, and in Jesse, the cowboy with wanderlust, McMurtry paints portraits of good, hardworking men who know that their time has passed, to be usurped by the violent Hud, a new kind of Western businessman whose main goal is to make a buck in any way possible. Lonnie's longing to see the world that lies outside the boundary of his grandfather's ranch creates another strain of sadness in the book. McMurtry's descriptions of the wide, open prairies and the ache that these vistas create in the young man are superbly drawn and leanly poetic. McMurtry's economy of language is accompanied by dozens of sharp-eyed observations of rural and small-town life. And in the black maid Halmea, he creates a genuinely sympathetic character who also helps to expose the conflicts within the narrator. While Lonnie likes Halmea immensely, he can not help but see her also as a sexual object. While at times his late adolescent longings are amusing, the conflict comes into sharp relief when Halmea is sexually attacked by Hud, an act observed by Lonnie. In Hud's brutal sexual gratification, Lonnie recognizes a piece of himself. This is a great American novel, one that presaged the many later successes of McMurtry, one of the great contributors to the literature of the modern West.
Rating:
Summary: No Lonesome Dove...
Review: Next to "Lonesome Dove", "Horseman, Pass by" is another book by McMurtry I truly enjoyed. Engrossing and poignant, it tells of the growing pains of a teenager in a small town and his need to find his own path in life and make his own decisions. In so doing, he has to face up to his family ties, his responsibilities, his fascination with a character who is less than decent, and ultimately, himself. This quiet, honest, and sensitive coming-of-age novel is a contrast from the dramatic "Lonesome Dove", but proves to be just as enduring.
Rating:
Summary: Evocative classic
Review: This book was my introduction to Larry McMurtry, and I intend to read many more of his books based on this classic. The book was made into the movie "Hud," starring Paul Newman and Patricia Neal. The movie was brilliant, but different from the book in several notable ways. The stars of this book are teenager Lonnie and the evocative Texas setting. However, it is not simply another sensitive coming of age story. Instead it explores such varied topics as race relations and the death of the Old West. Look for the town and some of the same characters in McMurtry's "The Last Picture Show," another beautiful novel.
Rating:
Summary: Evocative classic
Review: This book was my introduction to Larry McMurtry, and I intend to read many more of his books based on this classic. The book was made into the movie "Hud," starring Paul Newman and Patricia Neal. The movie was brilliant, but different from the book in several notable ways. The stars of this book are teenager Lonnie and the evocative Texas setting. However, it is not simply another sensitive coming of age story. Instead it explores such varied topics as race relations and the death of the Old West. Look for the town and some of the same characters in McMurtry's "The Last Picture Show," another beautiful novel.
Rating:
Summary: Not the movie, but equally good. . .
Review: This was Larry McMurtry's first novel, published in 1961, long before "Lonesome Dove." It's also his first of several books set in and around the small Texas town of Thalia. The story was quickly transformed into a Paul Newman film "Hud" in 1963, which is the version of the story most people know. In spirit, the two stories are similar - they are both anti-westerns, in which code of the West is subverted and corrupted by failure of moral character. But McMurtry's novel tells a story with a darker vision. At the center is Lonnie, the teenager growing up on his grandfather's ranch, and it's through his eyes that we see the cold, self-serving indifference of his uncle Hud. Still a boy, unschooled in much of anything besides the dawn-to-dusk labor of ranch work, Lonnie is no moral center, following his grandfather's example. In many ways, he accepts Hud's violent behavior, his disrespect for the old man, and his ruthless use of women as a kind of norm. In the end, as he leaves the ranch, he takes the first steps toward a life that may well be no more rewarding or purposeful than that of the regretful hired hand Jesse, who gets too drunk to ride his cutting horse in the rodeo. To streamline the story, the film has scaled back or eliminated interesting key characters like Jesse, another ranch hand Lonzo, a neighbor Hank, and a friend Hermy, who is badly injured trying to ride a bull. Also, by casting a white woman in the role of the black cook Halmea (Patricia Neal's Alma), the film sidesteps a racial dimension that the novel brings to the story. So for readers who know and like the film, this is a very different telling of the story and well worth reading. As usual in McMurtry's early novels, there is a richly detailed capturing of character, speech, and setting. He knows these people inside and out, how they think, talk, and behave. He also totally deromanticizes ranch work, representing it as mercilessly hot, dusty, and exhausting. The small-town rodeo, with its drinking, womanizing cowboys, fares little better. I heartily recommend this novel for anyone interested in the rural West and ranching, along with McMurtry's more melancholy but less bleak "Leaving Cheyenne."
Rating:
Summary: Not the movie, but equally good. . .
Review: This was Larry McMurtry's first novel, published in 1961, long before "Lonesome Dove." It's also his first of several books set in and around the small Texas town of Thalia. The story was quickly transformed into a Paul Newman film "Hud" in 1963, which is the version of the story most people know. In spirit, the two stories are similar - they are both anti-westerns, in which code of the West is subverted and corrupted by failure of moral character. But McMurtry's novel tells a story with a darker vision. At the center is Lonnie, the teenager growing up on his grandfather's ranch, and it's through his eyes that we see the cold, self-serving indifference of his uncle Hud. Still a boy, unschooled in much of anything besides the dawn-to-dusk labor of ranch work, Lonnie is no moral center, following his grandfather's example. In many ways, he accepts Hud's violent behavior, his disrespect for the old man, and his ruthless use of women as a kind of norm. In the end, as he leaves the ranch, he takes the first steps toward a life that may well be no more rewarding or purposeful than that of the regretful hired hand Jesse, who gets too drunk to ride his cutting horse in the rodeo. To streamline the story, the film has scaled back or eliminated interesting key characters like Jesse, another ranch hand Lonzo, a neighbor Hank, and a friend Hermy, who is badly injured trying to ride a bull. Also, by casting a white woman in the role of the black cook Halmea (Patricia Neal's Alma), the film sidesteps a racial dimension that the novel brings to the story. So for readers who know and like the film, this is a very different telling of the story and well worth reading. As usual in McMurtry's early novels, there is a richly detailed capturing of character, speech, and setting. He knows these people inside and out, how they think, talk, and behave. He also totally deromanticizes ranch work, representing it as mercilessly hot, dusty, and exhausting. The small-town rodeo, with its drinking, womanizing cowboys, fares little better. I heartily recommend this novel for anyone interested in the rural West and ranching, along with McMurtry's more melancholy but less bleak "Leaving Cheyenne."
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