TEXASVILLE : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining sequel
Review: This sequel to "The Last Picture Show" focuses on the residents of Thalia, Texas 32 years later, as they prepare to celebrate the county's centennial. The focus shifts from Sonny, who is now a secondary character, to Duane Moore, who is having an emotional breakdown as he watches his business and his family unravel. It's an episodic book, much richer in character than in plot, but still it is very entertaining. Fans of "The Last Picture Show" may not find "Texasville" to be an ideal sequel as its tone is very different from the first book's. It is much lighter, often veering into farce, not always successfully. Some of the episodes go over the top and are so lacking in credibility that you feel McMurtry must have been influenced by the surrealistic novels of Latin America. An episode in a psychiatrist's office, in particular, is poorly conceived and written. But there is such a wealth of colorful characters (enough to populate a Dickens novel) that you can't help enjoying every chapter. My main reservation is that the book cannot quite sustain its length--it begins to feel repetitious before it reaches its rather arbitrary ending. I am very eager to read McMurtry's new sequel, "Duane's Depressed" (which I just bought from Amazon), to see where he takes this saga.