From time to time one of our folks will request book suggestions. This is doing it bassackwards but give me a moment to tell you about a book I just finished, In a Narrow Grave by Larry McMurtry. This book was actually first published in 1968 but republished this year. The subtitle tells it all, Essays on Texas. For the uninitiated, McMurtry grew up on a ranch in Archer County which had been in his family since the 1880's. Though he caught the literary bug at an early age and went off to Rice (forgive him) west Texas never left his soul and if you have ever read his fiction or seen his movies you know that to be true.
I started reading the book one early afternoon as I was convalescing from a recent procedure and would have read it straight through had the bride not taken me by the ear and put me in bed. So if you are more than a bit aware of places like Archer City, Aspermont, Claude, Goodnight, Clarendon and Muleshoe, and if you were ever a teenager growing up and trying to lose your virginity with much effort and little success, if you ever wondered off to the City and could never get the country out of your soul, if you have ever shed a tear when you drive through the small towns off-the-Cap and wonder where everyone went, you are not alone. The last essay left me in tears as he recounts a family reunion in which his Uncle Johnny stands by his car, everyone out to say good bye as he is heading home, knowing he will never see his family again as he returns home to let his cancer finish him off.
Do yourself a favor pick this book up and give it a read. Now I apologize to those who might feel this was not the best forum for a book review, but I could not think of another where it is more apt.
I started reading the book one early afternoon as I was convalescing from a recent procedure and would have read it straight through had the bride not taken me by the ear and put me in bed. So if you are more than a bit aware of places like Archer City, Aspermont, Claude, Goodnight, Clarendon and Muleshoe, and if you were ever a teenager growing up and trying to lose your virginity with much effort and little success, if you ever wondered off to the City and could never get the country out of your soul, if you have ever shed a tear when you drive through the small towns off-the-Cap and wonder where everyone went, you are not alone. The last essay left me in tears as he recounts a family reunion in which his Uncle Johnny stands by his car, everyone out to say good bye as he is heading home, knowing he will never see his family again as he returns home to let his cancer finish him off.
Do yourself a favor pick this book up and give it a read. Now I apologize to those who might feel this was not the best forum for a book review, but I could not think of another where it is more apt.
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