4.5 stars. “When he passed the city limits signs he stopped a minute. The gray pastures and the distant brown ridges looked too empty. He himself felt too empty. As empty as he felt and as empty as the country looked it was too risky going out into it - he might be blow around for days like a groomed in the wind.”

I watched The Last Picture Show for the first time about a year ago, and it became an instant favorite…much like the novel. Literally nothing happens, and yet SO much happens, in this thoughtful, nostalgic, smutty, heart-achingly beautiful coming-of-age story. This is also my first Larry McMurtry novel (still waiting to tackle Lonesome Dove), and I loved that his writing was deep and straightforward at the same time. He is a masterful user of metaphor, and the town of Thalia is a perfect example.

His characters are interesting and complex, simply because they’re human beings…frustrating, selfish, and filled with regrets and wonder and hope, making you hate them and then love them (or at least empathize with them) at so many turns. Jacy and Lois have to be one of the most detestable, fascinating mother/daughter pairs in anything I’ve read. Yet they’re essential to the story for what they represent about small-town life and the bitterness of dreams left unrealized. Literally every character in Picture Show encapsulates so much about every stage and pathway of life, and it’s a rare novel that gives you so much to consider in such a subtle, unassuming way. I loved this!