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Loop Group opens, we meet Maggie, whose three grown-up daughters have arrived at her Hollywood home to try and make her see sense about her life, which isn’t easy, first of all because their own lives are a mess, and secondly because as far as Maggie is concerned her own life makes perfect sense. She is self-supporting, running a successful "loop group" dubbing movies, she has a lover (admittedly he is married, and her psychoanalyst, and very old), and leads a busy life that intersects with lots of interesting?all right, bizarre?people.
Still, her daughters push her into having a few second thoughts about her life, and these are reinforced when her best friend, Connie seeks an escape from her own world of complex and difficult relationships with men. Since neither high-end nor low-end shopping seems to relieve their angst, and since a succession of sad events takes place that shakes Maggie to the core, she conceives the idea of driving to visit her Aunt Cooney’s ranch near Electric City, Texas, and the two women prepare for the trip by buying a .38 Special revolver (which leads to unexpected trouble along the way). This road trip will end by changing their lives.
Tangling along the way with Hopi Indians, with a bearded vagrant who turns out to be an old acquaintance, with the theft of their car (and their revolver), and with every possible variety of cardsharp, faker, charmer, and crook, the two women eventually proceed through the desert landscape to Electric City, and discover some home truths about life. When they return to Hollywood, they find that one of Maggie’s old friends, an ancient MGM producer, has left her a gift that enables her to make a new start to her life and to bring a new measure of sanity to her family and friends.
Alternately hilariously funny and profoundly sad-even tragic-Loop Group is a major Larry McMurtry novel and a joy to read.
Larry McMurtry is the author of twenty-nine novels, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lonesome Dove, three memoirs, two collections of essays, and more than thirty screenplays. He lives in Archer City, Texas.
Having worked on his father's Texas cattle ranch for a great deal of his early life, McMurtry had an inborn fascination with the West, both its fabled history and current state. However, he never saw himself as a life-long rancher and aspired to a more creative career. He achieved this at the age of 25 when he published his first novel. Horseman, Pass By was a wholly original take on the classic western. Humorous, heartbreaking, and utterly human, this story of a hedonistic cowboy in contemporary Texas was a huge hit for the young author and even spawned a major motion picture starring Paul Newman called Hud just two years after its 1961 publication. Extraordinarily, McMurtry was even allowed to write the script, a rare honor for such a novice.
With such an auspicious debut, it is hard to believe that McMurtry ever felt as though he'd been slighted by the public or marginalized as a minor talent. While all of his books may not have received equal attention, he did have a number of astounding successes early in his career. His third novel The Last Picture Show, a coming-of-age-in-the-southwest story, became a genuine classic, drawing comparisons to J. D. Salinger and James Jones. In 1971, Peter Bogdonovich's screen adaptation of the novel would score McMurtry his first Academy award for his screenplay. Three years later, he published Terms of Endearment, a critically lauded urban family drama that would become a hit movie starring Jack Nicholson and Shirley MacLaine in 1985.
That year, McMurtry published what many believe to be his definitive novel. An expansive epic sweeping through all the legends and characters that inhabited the old west, Lonesome Dove was a masterpiece. All of the elements that made McMurtry's writing so distinguished -- his skillful dialogue, richly drawn characters, and uncanny ability to establish a fully-realized setting -- convened in this Pulitzer winning story of two retired Texas rangers who venture from Texas to Montana. The novel was a tremendous critical and commercial favorite, and became a popular miniseries in 1989.
Following the massive success of Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry's prolificacy grew. He would publish at least one book nearly every year for the next twenty years, including Texasville, a gut-wrenching yet hilarious sequel to The Last Picture Show, Buffalo Girls, a fictionalized account of the later days of Calamity Jane, and several non-fiction titles, such as Crazy Horse.
Interestingly, McMurtry would receive his greatest notoriety in his late 60s as the co-screenwriter of Ang Lee's controversial film Brokeback Mountain. The movie would score the writer another Oscar and become one of the most critically heralded films of 2005. The following year he published his latest novel. Telegraph Days is a freewheeling comedic run-through of western folklore and surely one of McMurtry's most inventive stories and enjoyable reads. Not bad for a "minor regional novelist."
The first-printing of McMurtry's novel In a Narrow Grave is one of his most obscure for a rather obscure reason. The book was withdrawn because the word "skyscrapers" was misspelled as "skycrappers" on page 105.
McMurtry comes from a long line of farmers and ranchers. His father and eight of his uncles were all in the profession.
TwainFanTX
Posted June 2, 2010
I have read much of this man's published writing, and had enjoyed it all, until this one stumbled it's way into my reading list. Oh man. Yes, it truly is that bad. I was actually embarrassed for Mr. McMurtry.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted September 6, 2009
I purchased this book hoping for some light beach reading. I didn't expect 242 pages of trash. This book has no redeeming value unless you enjoy crude sex-crazed episodes of two middle-aged women. I gave it 'one star' only because there was no lower option.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.BonnieNH
Posted May 16, 2009
This 8 disc CD story lacked substance and was one of the slowest books I've ever listened to. It discussed a woman feeling sorry for herself for losing her uterus and for the whole story, it was her whining, whining, whining. Save you money and don't buy this one! It was hard to give it even one star.
The narrator's voice wasn't very good either.
Razcall
Posted May 9, 2009
What a complete waste of time. Give me the New York City phone book please; I need some better reading! Not only is there no plot, but the "story" just stops as if even Larry McMurtry got bored. I never stop reading any book. I always read cover to cover no matter what, because you never know when something will redeem itself. Unfortunately I've read toilet paper wrappers with more of a story line. I agree with someone else who reviewed, the characters are whiny, the plot is none existent and it's not even heavy enough for a door stop. Save your money and time!
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Former_English_Teacher
Posted April 6, 2009
I couldn't even finish this
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Debba
Posted March 3, 2009
Main character is whiney, her 3 daughters are whiney, the best friend is whiney, the rest of the loop groupers are whiney... The most interesting character was Dr. Tom - and he got killed off. Not a good book.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted December 1, 2005
I was so looking forward to a good book but couldn't get past the first 35 pages. It was maudlin and dreary. The professional reviewers made it sound great but I wish I had read some of the readers' reviews before I bought it. I can't believe that most readers like to read a book that uses a foul word so often. And a book about a woman who misses her womb? What was that all about?
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted July 26, 2005
I was anxious looking up the reviews of this book...what if the reviews were good?, I would have to hang up my reading glasses-but no, the 3 reviews posted by readers of The Loop Group felt the same way I did-it was a complete waste of time to read this book. I pulled it off the shelf at the library thinking Larry McMurtry-he is great, I loved Lonesome Dove-but I was wrong. His characters Maggie,Connie,the daughters, Dr. Tom were forced and not believable-his conversations were boring and he had no handle about their character development-you could not find anyone interesting or endearing, just whiny.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted March 2, 2005
What a waste of time!! I wish that I could retrieve the 10 hours that were spent listening to this piece of drivel. It's a wonder that I kept the car on the road. If this is an example of what a best-selling author can publish, then I should get started on own literary achievements right now!! Don't waste your time on this one!!!
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted February 5, 2005
I loved Terms of Endearment, so I was expecting to love this book. Forget it. It was such a waste of time.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted January 13, 2005
I think that Larry McMurtry should stick to writing his westerns. I loved Terms of Endearment but this one wasn't even worth finishing. I 'pulled the bookmark' at page 20.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted September 26, 2009
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted March 21, 2010
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Anonymous
Posted June 9, 2011
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Overview
In perhaps his finest "contemporary" novel since Terms of Endearment, Larry McMurtry, with his miraculously sure touch at creating instantly recognizable women characters, and his equally miraculous sharp eye for the absurdities of everyday life in the modern West, writes about two women, old friends, who set off on an adventure?with unpredictable and sometimes hilarious results.Loop Group opens, we meet Maggie, whose three grown-up daughters have arrived at her Hollywood home to try and make her see sense about her life, which isn’t easy, first of all because their own lives are a mess, and secondly because as far as Maggie is concerned her own life makes perfect sense. She is ...