Horseman, Pass By

 

Horseman, Pass By – Larry McMurtry

Larry McMurtry’s first novel.  I hate to say it, but it shows.  This book felt more like a high school/college project than a serious novel.  McMurtry grew up in rural Texas, so it shouldn’t be surprising that many of his works had such a location as a backdrop.  I’m not sure how autobiographical this novel is, but it’s a very boring mundane account.  Now, it’s quite possible that McMurtry himself had a very boring mundane youth.  I mean, what else is there to do in rural Texas in the 1950s?

Lonnie Bannon is the protagonist. My guess is he’s about 18-years-old. He lives on a farm with his grandparents and other various hired hands.  This novel follows his lifeless escapades.  Every now and then he’ll do something exciting like travel to the big town of Thalia (The same town of ‘The Last Picture Show’), but other than that, there’s a lot of nothing.

There’s something of a story where his grandfather’s cattle get some sort of disease, and they’re worried that they’ll have to eliminate the entire herd before this disease spreads anywhere else.  Other than that, not much of anything.

Interesting tidbit: There’s a young step-Uncle named Hud who is a bit of a rabble-rouser hellraiser.  We really don’t read much about Hud; he’s a minor character.  The interesting this is that Hollywood made a movie around the character Hud a few years later.  In other words, Hollywood gutted this boring narrative of a novel, found a somewhat interesting character between the pages, and decided to focus on him instead.   Not a bad move. From what I understand, many liked the movie.  A bit sad, though, when it was decided most of the story featured here simply wasn’t worth the effort.

Maybe if you grew up in such an environment, you would enjoy this thing better than I did.  The only good thing I can really say is that the book was somewhat short.  Nowhere near the grandeur of his more famous works. 

I guess everyone needs to start somewhere.