Loop Group by Larry McMurtry
September 5, 2007
I started reading Loop Group by Larry McMurtry and I am nearly finished with the book. I picked it up for $1 at the Borders Clearance Sale and since I have enjoyed Lonesome Dove, Streets of Laredo, Terms of Endearment, Boone’s Lick, Buffalo Girls, Comanche Moon, and Dead Man’s Walk I thought that chances were good that I would like this book. The answer is an overwhelming no. This is another book from the female perspective (like Terms of Endearment) but he does an absolutely terrible job. Essentially, the book is about a 60 year old sex-crazed woman who lives in Hollywood and runs a loop group full of drug addicts. She has three bratty and selfish daughters all over 30 and they have all have very shallow relationships with each other. None of these women can have a normal relationship and the men they are married to are all idiots. Also, all the women in the story seem to be sex-crazed. The 60 year old “protagonist” has the hots for her 80+ year old psychiatrist who is apparently into S&M - complete with descriptions which I could have gone my whole life without reading. I can only surmise that this book is the writing of a man who overdosed on Viagra because I can come up with no other reason why McMurtry would have written this horrible book.
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You know that I like McMurtry, too. Recently, I read The Last Picture Show and I enjoyed it immensely, although I think it’s really a book for men, because it’s really about teenage boy fantasies coming true. Well, when I finished reading it, I noticed that it was the precursor to Texasville. So, great, I thought, I’ll read and enjoy it too. Well, no, I’m struggling through it, and I’m trying to decide whether to quit or continue. Why he chose the second lead in the precursor to be the main character in the Texasville book I’ll never understand, because the main character in Last Picture Show was so much more likeable and interesting. I guess that even the best writers can’t write a Lonesome Dove everytime.
comment by Pa — September 5, 2007 @ 5:17 pm
I think McMurtry writes Texas really well but he obviously has a ridiculous view of other locales. I actually had heard that Last Picture Show and Texasville were good. It seems that Loop Group is the lowest rated book he’s written (according to Amazon). Is Texasville boring or implausible or something else?
comment by katy — September 5, 2007 @ 7:30 pm
It’s hard to say it’s boring, although I could care less about the planning and preparation of a centenial pageant. It’s not so much boring as tedious. I think he’s trying really hard to make this one funny, and it’s not. It’s almost like he’s trying to write a Rounders with a dog instead of a horse, and fails. I suppose that the last half of the book could get good, but I don’t know if I’ll hang around long enough to find out.
comment by Pa — September 5, 2007 @ 9:21 pm
You aren’t making me want to read Texasville!
I was planning on reading the Last Picture Show after I finish Loop Group - which I am creeping through since I don’t care for it. With Loop Group, one of the things he does best (journeys) he just glazes over in the book and it is supposed to be important but it’s really not - totally bizarre book, really. Rounders with a dog would just be a bad book!
comment by katy — September 6, 2007 @ 9:53 am