November 8, 2004
In his 28th novel, Pulitzer-winner McMurtry again displays his knack for compelling characters and plots, this time as two women of a certain age take a road trip through Texas. Sixty-year-old widow Maggie Clary hasn't felt like herself since her hysterectomy; though her Hollywood company, Prime Loops, is doing well—they dub in the grunts and groans for movie soundtracks—she secretly wonders if she's going "bats." Maggie's three well-intentioned daughters have appeared on her doorstep for a Sunday morning "intervention." Though Maggie's diminutive Sicilian psychiatrist has improved her mood (thanks, in part, to their mid-session sex), she decides to follows the advice of a flirtatious waiter and try a change of scenery. Maggie invites fellow "looper" and best friend Connie (the two have been inseparable—and boy crazy—since they were 14), to join her on a drive to her octogenarian Aunt Cooney's Texas chicken ranch. Despite family troubles that threaten to sabotage their trip, the two stay the course on a road rife with reprobates, from a relentless "professional" hitchhiker to a mild-mannered car thief forever violating his parole. Aunt Cooney's brief appearance is among the high points of McMurtry's life-affirming tale: sporting an "old mashed-up" cowboy hat and an abundance of rouge, the gregarious granny greets her city slicker niece by yanking a pistol out of her pocket and firing shots into the sky. Agent, Andrew Wylie.
February 7, 2005
In this somewhat scattered narrative, 60-year-old Maggie Clary wonders if she will ever truly feel like herself again, now that she's had a hysterectomy. True, she still runs a successful company that dubs grunts and voices for low-budget Hollywood movies, and the operation certainly hasn't affected her sex life. She owns her own home in the heart of Hollywood, and knows how to have a good time smoking pot and cleaning her pool. Even the fact that she can count on the support of three relatively stable adult daughters and her best friend, Connie, doesn't stop Maggie from experiencing great doses of existential angst. Narrator Critt successfully captures this bunch of at-ends characters. Each of Maggie's daughters speaks with her own slightly different Valley Girl accent when agonizing with or about their mother. Connie sounds more like a petulant teenager than a mature woman, which, given her lifestyle and concerns over men and booze, accurately represents her character. But Critt's particular strength is her handling of Maggie's slightly fusty middle-aged inflections, endowed as they are with a sparkle that conveys the spirit of a woman who is at once depressed but still very much grappling with life, Hollywood-style. Simultaneous release with the S&S hardcover (Forecasts, Nov. 8, 2004).