Loop Group: A Novel

By Larry McMurtry

Book Overview

Loop Group is Larry McMurtry at his contemporary best, a novel that can best be described as Thelma and Louise meets Terms of Endearment, in which two aging ladies set out on a road trip that will... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743250796
• ISBN13: 9780739449691
• Release Date: November 2004
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.08 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.8" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

Loop Group

First let me say that McMurtry is one of my favorite authors, besides, Wilber Smith, Ken Follett. He is a great author and this book well written, but you know what, he writes it so good that when I finished reading this book it was depressing. Maybe that's what he wanted to enstil in us, I don't know. Fast book to read, lots of details.

A hoot

Larry McMurtry -- God bless him -- has given us a wealth of great books, near-great books and, yes, a few duds. Thankfully, this joyride falls into the near-great category, and most every page is pure pleasure. Yet I think some people will dislike it because of what it isn't more than what it is. This is not another western or one of his Archer City-based autobiographical tales. It's a woman's story and falls into the realm of "Moving On," "Terms of Endearment" and the underrated "The Desert Child." The dust jacket offers too much of a plot synopsis to repeat here, but plot isn't what makes McMurtry worth reading. The characters are all important, and he creates another memorable gallery of folks who will stay with us long after the final page.

Return of the real McMurtry

Just like an old Hollywood western where the hero is bushwhacked and left for dead but returns to save the day, Larry McMurtry has eluded literal and literary death and galloped back from the sunset with his best novel since ... well, maybe since his 1986 Pulitzer Prize-winning "Lonesome Dove." And even though America's most heralded western author never really left, it's good to have him back. In "Loop Group," McMurtry exhibits the character depth and sensual texture that mar-bled his three greatest novels (out of 27): "Lonesome Dove," "Terms of Endearment," and "The Last Picture Show." In some ways, it blends the best of each. But this contemporary novel set in familiar McMurtry locales - Texas and Hollywood -- also represents his long-awaited reawakening from such execrable recent western night-mares as his four-volume Berrybender Narratives (which was three volumes too long.) The breathless advance publicity for "Loop Group" describes it as "`Thelma and Louise' with an upbeat ending." Oh, relax. That's how they talk in Hollywood, but McMurtry's novel much better than the movie, and far more complex. Maybe more like "Sunset Boulevard" with a road trip, or "On The Road" with sexy senior citizens. Together, Maggie and Connie are more than the sum of McMurtry's greatest characters: Aurora Green-way, Gus McCrae and Sam the Lion - with a whole lot of Jacy Farrow. They are good-looking, irascible older gals who embrace their baser impulses and need more than they've gotten. They simply don't know exactly what it is they need. So they hit the road in search of one last great adventure. Armed with a .38-caliber pistol, Gucci luggage and similarly unsatisfied libidos, they embark on a road trip to visit Maggie's legendary Aunt Cooney, a quirky grand dame who ranches near Electric City, Texas. Along the way, they encounter the "kookiest, sorriest cross-section of humanity you'll ever hope to meet" -- or at least the sorriest cross-section of humanity since Gus McCrae passed this way. But their headlong journey to Texas isn't all a set piece with cameo appearances by a bunch of sideshow freaks who all seem to have walked off a gritty Richard Avedon photo shoot. Maggie and Connie are also followed by their pasts, their losses and loves, and ultimately, tragedy. Somewhere out there on Larry McMurtry's beloved open road, com-edy and tragedy collide. Life and death are fused. And the sun sets again. "Loop Group" comprises familiar McMurtry themes in a familiar McMurtry landscape. He's written before about sunset ladies ("Terms of Endearment"), growing old ("Last Picture Show") and getting on with life ("Lonesome Dove.") What's new is the vitality and humor we haven't seen in McMurtry's writing in almost 20 years. McMurtry, now 68, knows the landscape of depression, age, redemption and Texas as well as anyone. He has already sorted out to his own satisfaction what life is about. In his memoir-ish "Roads," he said it all boiled down to two questions