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squooshiebunny's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
spot_52's review against another edition
2.0
I liked the setting. The characters are realistic, and their lives have entertaining ups and downs. I just got hung up on the whole acceptable beastiality scene.
whitneyfi's review against another edition
2.0
This really should've been a four-star book.
There is so much that has stuck with me in the weeks since it's been read: Ruth's beautiful vulnerability, the depth of disparaging competitiveness between Jacy and her mother, the protective love of Sam the Lion for Billy, and Billy's sweeping through the town, like there exists some prayer of cleaning the place up. Even the town itself, its bleak streets, sucking the life out of anyone fool enough to live there...
What didn't stick with me about this book? The names (or an ounce of caring for that matter) of the main characters. Wait, I just looked them up: Sonny and Duane. That's right. I remember now.
Chronic hard-ons and complete lack of common sense really are a bad mix. Really. And after two hundred or so pages, it becomes laborious. Good thing this book was short. I know, I know Sonny does manage to pull out a few glaring moments of humanity, but because he rarely seems to do anything with what little heart he has, it just kinda makes him seem spineless.
So, because of this, I found myself between the forays into bovine gang-bangs and trysts with cheap prostitutes, thinking and wanting more of the ancillary characters. And that right there is the knife that cuts right to the crux of my feelings after reading this book: utter disappointment.
Damn you, Larry McMurtry. I wanted to like this so much.
There is so much that has stuck with me in the weeks since it's been read: Ruth's beautiful vulnerability, the depth of disparaging competitiveness between Jacy and her mother, the protective love of Sam the Lion for Billy, and Billy's sweeping through the town, like there exists some prayer of cleaning the place up. Even the town itself, its bleak streets, sucking the life out of anyone fool enough to live there...
What didn't stick with me about this book? The names (or an ounce of caring for that matter) of the main characters. Wait, I just looked them up: Sonny and Duane. That's right. I remember now.
Chronic hard-ons and complete lack of common sense really are a bad mix. Really. And after two hundred or so pages, it becomes laborious. Good thing this book was short. I know, I know Sonny does manage to pull out a few glaring moments of humanity, but because he rarely seems to do anything with what little heart he has, it just kinda makes him seem spineless.
So, because of this, I found myself between the forays into bovine gang-bangs and trysts with cheap prostitutes, thinking and wanting more of the ancillary characters. And that right there is the knife that cuts right to the crux of my feelings after reading this book: utter disappointment.
Damn you, Larry McMurtry. I wanted to like this so much.
lannylanny's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
gmadison's review against another edition
5.0
Chapter 8 centers around a cruel high school basketball game, which initially seems out of place on a horny and bleak tale of small town Texas. This had me laughing aloud on a crowded transatlantic flight:
"Whoever caught the throw-in after a Paducah score would immediately whirl and throw a full-court peg shot. The only one it didn’t work for was Leroy Malone: the big Paducah center anticipated him, caught the ball, and threw a ten-yard peg shot right at Leroy’s groin. It hurt so bad he later told Sonny he was unable to jack off for two weeks. The groin shot drew such sustained applause from the Paducah bleachers that Sonny was angered."
"Whoever caught the throw-in after a Paducah score would immediately whirl and throw a full-court peg shot. The only one it didn’t work for was Leroy Malone: the big Paducah center anticipated him, caught the ball, and threw a ten-yard peg shot right at Leroy’s groin. It hurt so bad he later told Sonny he was unable to jack off for two weeks. The groin shot drew such sustained applause from the Paducah bleachers that Sonny was angered."
cherese's review against another edition
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
rileymarcoplos's review against another edition
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
thedocument's review against another edition
dark
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
editrix's review against another edition
I liked the passages in which Sonny takes stock of what little life amounts to for most of the small-town West Texans around him (no one in this book is happy, and only a few have some hope that will change), but much of the rest was off-putting in a way that didn’t seem intentional. For instance, every woman is introduced either as fat or “too skinny,” and although it felt like the author was occasionally critical of *some* characters’ brands of misogyny (I’m looking at you, coach), he was perfectly comfortable with the prejudices/abuses of others, and seemed to want us to like those characters because we identified with it/them. (For the record, I did *not* identify. This felt like a Man’s Book for Men of a Certain Era.) Overall, I appreciated the story but I guess I wish it had been told in a different way? This is probably the horniest book I’ve ever read and I wanted to dump a bucket of ice water on pretty much every character.