Larry McMurtry's New Book

[Shakesthecoffecan]

With Jack and Ennis right on the cover!

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/arts/index.ssf/2010/08/the_story_of_a_writing_legend.html



In “Hollywood: A Third Memoir,” Larry McMurtry is as highly idiosyncratic as he has been throughout his writing career — to great success. How much anyone will care about his book depends on how devoted they are to McMurtry and his major works.

“The Last Picture Show,” “Terms of Endearment,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning television series “Lonesome Dove” and most recently, “Brokeback Mountain” with his writing partner Diana Osanna, all warranted major acclaim. As did so many of his 29 novels and 40-plus screenplays. He deserves every measure of honor awarded him.

Still this book is for devotees only. In it, we circle Hollywood but don’t actually go there.

Unlike some other novelists, McMurtry found a genuine home in Hollywood. He wrote the novel that resulted in “Hud,” a Paul Newman and Patricia Neal classic. He spent a half-afternoon on the set. McMurtry spotted Newman at a distance and didn’t meet Neal until 30 years later.

“The fact that ‘Hud’ was made from my book had one extremely important effect: Somehow, through the illogic of show business, it enabled me to get work on scripts for no better reason than I was from the West — cowboy country.”

He describes Peter Bogdanovich as dour, and glosses over his leaving his wife and co-producer, Polly Platt, for Cybill Shepherd, the star of “The Last Picture Show.”

It was a mean drama that made you care. Let us talk about how hard you cried through the final scenes of “Terms of Endearment.” McMurtry famously refuses interviews. At 73, he is now telling us what he is willing to reveal. We have to be grateful.

Hollywood: A Third Memoir

Larry McMurtry Simon & Schuster, 160 pp., $24

Reviewed by Sherryl Connolly

Sherryl Connolly, who served as books editor for the New York Daily News for 18 years, lives in Bloomfield. She may be reached at [email protected].

[Monika]

great find, Tru!

[Brown Eyes]

Wow!  Thanks for sharing this!  It's definitely a book I'll be interested in reading. 

[SFEnnisSF]

With Jack and Ennis right on the cover!

Love it! 

[Shakesthecoffecan]

Having now read the book, I can say that it is very interesting. It is rather like a long rambling list of names to drop.

This is McMutry's third memoir and it would probably have been better had I read the first two. There are 40 or so short chapters, one in particular about there being short chapters which is probably the shortest. I learned many interesting tidbits, like the producer of the movie Raise the Titanic! bought the film rights to the book having not read it. Had he read it he might have realize is was a technical manual for how to possibly raise the Titanic, which at that time was still missing.

Much of his Brokeback expierence comes toward the end of the book, and he gives much credit to Diana Ossana for it getting made, and says she may tell her own story of that one day and he does not want to take away from that. He does have a short chapter in which he tells how Annie Proulx came to his book store and bought the bound newsletters of a Ft. Worth Company that specialized in industrial grease.

[Ellemeno]

Having now read the book, I can say that it is very interesting. It is rather like a long rambling list of names to drop.

This is McMutry's third memoir and it would probably have been better had I read the first two. There are 40 or so short chapters, one in particular about there being short chapters which is probably the shortest. I learned many interesting tidbits, like the producer of the movie Raise the Titanic! bought the film rights to the book having not read it. Had he read it he might have realize is was a technical manual for how to possibly raise the Titanic, which at that time was still missing.

Much of his Brokeback expierence comes toward the end of the book, and he gives much credit to Diana Ossana for it getting made, and says she may tell her own story of that one day and he does not want to take away from that. He does have a short chapter in which he tells how Annie Proulx came to his book store and bought the bound newsletters of a Ft. Worth Company that specialized in industrial grease.

I love your review.  I look forward to reading it too.