When we last left Thalia, Texas, Duane had joined the military. Jacy left town to go to college. Sonny had inherited several small businesses from Sam the Lion and stayed on in Thalia to run them.
This is the end of The Last Picture Show, by Larry McMurtry. In the story, we learned about Duane, Sonny and Jacy in 1954. Thalia wasn't much of a town back then. There was virtually no economy, very few businesses and a lot of people with nothing better to do than gossip about each other.
Fast forward to the mid-80's and the beginning of Texasville. Thanks to a big oil boom a few years back, Thalia has received its share of instant millionaires. Before there were trailers and small homes, now there are mansions and acres of rigs. One of these mansions belongs to Duane Moore. He once left Thalia to forget his troubles, but he came back and married Karla. Now they have four kids, two grandchildren and 12 million dollars in debt.
Yes, the oil boom has come and gone. Duane has lost control over his finances, his family and his life. His eldest son Dickie is the town drug dealer. He gets by on his good looks and sexual charm. The middle-aged women love him. Duane's eldest daughter Nellie has been married three times and produced two children by her current age of nineteen. Bringing up the rear are Jack and Julie, the wildest set of pre-teen twins in Texas.
Texasville wouldn't be the same without mentioning Jacy Farrow d'Olonne. She's a movie actress in France now. She's come back to Thalia to reclusively mourn the loss of her young son. She rarely ventures out of the mansion in which she is staying.
Sonny is still around, too. He never got rich or poor from the oil boom, yet he runs the local convenience store, the car wash and the video arcade in town. He's gotten along with one eye just fine since Duane knocked out the other one 30 years ago. Currently, he's suffering from strange blackouts in which he remembers nothing when he returns.
Also in the cast of characters are Ruth Popper and Lester Marlow. Ruth, who was Sonny's older lover in high school, is now a happily widowed woman who runs Duane's failing oil business. Lester runs the town bank, and is about to be charged with fraud.
It's just business as usual in Thalia. The flings, affairs and scandals are the same, however they are out in the open in this day and age. Thalia was, is and always will be a stage for its residents. Townsfolk now meet at the Dairy Queen to gossip about each other. Some things never change.
The big event in town is the county's centennial celebration. Though the town has little money of its own thanks to low oil prices, its residents still plan an extravagant party. Yes, Thalia is the stage, and the centennial is the setting. It's all about excess and outdoing each other in the freewheeling 80's.
As a sequel, Texasville doesn't seem to match its predecessor. It's all dialogue, whereas the earlier work reads like poetry. In The Last Picture Show, there is little use for conversation, as McMurtry's own thoughts tell the story.
In a book review from the New York Times, Louise Eldrich says that Texasville "often reads like a movie script, all dialogue and situation." This is exactly how I felt while I was reading the book and I am relieved to see that someone else feels the same way.
It is a movie script, darnit. That's why I didn't feel anything for the characters. They were simply there, reciting their lines. As readers, we are supposed to watch the story unfold as these crazy characters try and put on a centennial celebration. That festival is the event around which we see the townsfolk relive their glory days as a means to escape what lies ahead.
Basically, what I expected from Texasville is not what I received. The characters are the same, but everything else is different including the author who invented it all in the first place. The Last Picture Show seemed to be nostalgic in my eyes. Perhaps it was a look back at McMurtry's youth. Texasville completely changes in tone and sort of mocks Thalia, the very place modeled after the author's hometown of Archer City.
I've read more than on opinion on the book discussing the humor in the work. Yes, there are funny parts, but apparently I just don't get the joke. These characters that were interesting in The Last Picture Show were just sort of sad and pathetic in Texasville.
For example, Duane has a girlfriend who is pregnant with another man's child. Duane now likes another woman who is actually in love with Duane's son Dickie who is married to another woman. Perhaps this was funny literature back in 1987. However, since Jerry Springer came on the scene, these situations are par for the course are far from shocking. I didn't even blink twice.
I can only recommend Texasville to fans of Larry McMurtry. The book will give you greater enjoyment if you read The Last Picture Show first so you can understand the lives of the characters. However, be prepared for a letdown from original to sequel, just like most movies that have a Part II.
There is a final book in the Thalia trilogy titled Duane's Depressed. Loyal fans of McMurtry and the Thalia trilogy may want to consider reading it as a sense of closure of the lives of these characters. While it is no Last Picture Show, it is an improvement on Texasville.
If you really want to read more about Pulitzer Prize winning author Larry McMurtry, I suggest you check out his semi-autobiographical work titled Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen. It's non-fiction and it gives a glimpse into exactly what makes the author tick.
