The LAST PICTURE SHOW : A Novel

The Last Picture Show is one of Larry McMurtry's most powerful, memorable novels -- the basis for the enormously popular movie of the same name. Set in a small, dusty, Texas town, The Last Picture Show introduced the characters of Jacy, Duane, and Sonny: teenagers stumbling toward adulthood, discovering the beguiling mysteries of sex and the even more baffling mysteries of love. Populated by a wonderful cast of eccentrics and animated by McMurtry's wry and raucous humor, The Last Picture Show is wild, heartbreaking, and poignant -- a coming-of-age novel that resonates with the magical passion of youth.

In The Last Picture Show Larry McMurtry introduced characters who would show up again in later novels, Texasville and Duane's Depressed. This first volume of the trilogy drops the reader into the one-stoplight town of Thalia, Texas, where Duane Moore, his buddy Sonny, and his girlfriend Jacy are all stumbling along the rocky road to adulthood. Duane wants nothing more than to marry Jacy; Sonny wants what Duane has; and Jacy wants to get the hell out of Thalia any way she can. This is not a novel of big ideas or defining moments; over the course of a year Duane and Jacy make up and break up, Sonny begins an affair with his high-school football coach's wife, and the only movie house in town closes its doors forever. Yet it is out of these small-town experiences--a nude swimming party in Wichita, a failed sexual encounter during a senior trip, a botched elopement, an enlistment--that McMurtry builds his tale and reveals his characters' hearts. No epiphanies here, just a lot of hard-won experience that leaves none of his protagonists particularly wiser, though they're all a little sadder by the end. --Alix Wilber

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The Last Picture Show (Books) Literary Fiction - Private lives and secret transgressions in a small Texas town in the traditions of J.D. Salinger...	Barnes & Noble	$14 $10.08 Coupon 3 coupons available Code:No Code Required Detail: Free Shipping on orders of $25 at Barnes & Noble Expires:Jun-30-2010 Restriction:see site for more details Code: Detail: GET FREE SHIPPING ON ORDERS OF $25 OR MORE at Barnes and Noble Expires:Dec-31-2009 Restriction:Unknow Code:J7M3C9V Detail: 20% off single item when you use Master card at Barnes & Noble Expires:Dec-31-2009 Restriction:Unknow	See it
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Recent Reviews

5/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Feb-11-2009; For Those Who Came of Age In a Small Town......And for Those Who Love Them; I have read this novel many times over the years. Having come of age in small-town Texas, where there was only one movie theater for entertainment (we called it "The Show" and it's gone now)I completely relate to this book. We even...; read full review | report as inappropriate

2/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Oct-24-2008; Not exactly my kind of coming of age journey; I was less than swept away by this book. In fact, I didn't finish it, because I just couldn't stomach it. I guess playing pool, drunken Saturday nights, baiting the disabled, sex with heifers, infidelity and other gems are not my cuppa....; read full review | report as inappropriate

5/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Apr-03-2008; True to Life; The movie version of this story is my favorite film, because it transports me to a very special place and time: my own days as a teenager in the 50s in a small town not far from Archer City, the author's hometown. I felt that McMurtry...; read full review | report as inappropriate

4/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Nov-15-2007; Being young in 1950's Texas; There has been no shortage of coming of age stories in modern American literature. J. D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye is merely the most famous and probably widely known of the genre. Here Larry McMurtry gives us his take on growing up...; read full review | report as inappropriate

Selected Reviews

5/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Feb-11-2009; For Those Who Came of Age In a Small Town......And for Those Who Love Them; I have read this novel many times over the years. Having come of age in small-town Texas, where there was only one movie theater for entertainment (we called it "The Show" and it's gone now)I completely relate to this book. We even...; read full review | report as inappropriate

3/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Apr-12-2006; An Average Book; This is the third Larry McMurtry book I have read. I read Lonesome Dove and Streets of Laredo and this is my least favorite out of the three. I love Larry McMurtry's writing style. This book was funny at times. It was an entertaining...; read full review | report as inappropriate

2/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Oct-24-2008; Not exactly my kind of coming of age journey; I was less than swept away by this book. In fact, I didn't finish it, because I just couldn't stomach it. I guess playing pool, drunken Saturday nights, baiting the disabled, sex with heifers, infidelity and other gems are not my cuppa....; read full review | report as inappropriate