As one of the most acclaimed authors of the 20th century, Larry McMurtry had a gift for capturing life in the midwest. While best known for his western "Lonesome Dove," he has done more contemporary stories, though they might as well be set in the old west. "The Last Picture Show" takes place in Thalia, which is a town that is on the verge of becoming a ghost town and those who stay behind may waste away into obscurity. The story follows a group of teenagers who not only try to make the most of their small community, but it's also one about trying to get out and enjoy the best of life. It's full of humor and intimacy, capturing youth in all its acne-scarred glory. While it may be a bit meandering and lacking when compared to the Peter Bogdanovich film, it still manages to capture small-town life in a way that's unique and powerful at its best moments.
The town of Thalia doesn't have a lot going on. Outside of school, the teenagers pass the time by either working, playing pool, or attending parties that get rather risque. It's a simple life in part because there is nothing there to distract from these things. Thalia is a town where dirt roads are more common than flashing lights and big city theatrics. The only thing that ties them to normalcy is the theater, which is where they spend their weekends, often making out in the back rows while thinking naively of their futures. There are so many small moments in McMurtry's prose that pop because it feels like he has lived these events. Such ideas as a football game that is highly rebellious and slapstick feels like an event that has happened to him thanks to the intricacies by which the humor is played out.
While most people likely don't live in a town like Thalia, there's still a lot to relate to the teenage experience within this novel. To some extent, McMurtry's story is first and foremost a story that follows in the tradition of teenage farce. There's constant awkwardness regarding sex as the characters explore what it means to be intimate with someone. The third act, in particular, gets highly sexual for long stretches that work to build the closeness of the characters, though it also stalls out the story's momentum. While it's true that there are other plots that include a memorable shotgun wedding that goes wrong, the story feels more obsessed with the feeling of discovering identity through these types of exploration. The world outside almost exists solely as gossip as people wonder who is dating who and what their plans for the future are. It's a decent text but feels subpar when compared to the inundation of teenage romances that have come in the decades since.
However, McMurty's ending is a reminder of what makes this story a promising look into youth. It's one where characters are separated by maturity, where joining the military creates uncertainty for their future. It's in the last night together that the story begins to show its vulnerability, where everything feels like the mundane moments matter again. Thalia may be a boring town, but it has given them a chance to bond in significant ways. It's only in self-reflection that the moments of playing football, dating, and driving around aimlessly begins to feel like something grander. For all of the faults in McMurtry's prose up to the ending, he manages to create a thought-provoking conclusion that can't help but swell with emotion and give a sense of what this story is at best.
"The Last Picture Show" may not be a great novel, but its ability to create an authentic look at youth helps to make it an engrossing read. It's full of moments that feel like personal odes to a life that the author lived, managing to make every back road feel familiar and the back row of a theater feel like the most important place in the world. It's nostalgic for a simpler time without relying too heavily on sentimentality. Even if it focuses too much on sexuality as it progresses, it still manages to find truth in intimacy that makes the emotional arcs feel more powerful. It's a solid book with plenty of memorable moments and characters, but there has to be more to the story to warrant sequels and expand on these characters. Hopefully they're better, even if there hasn't been an adaptation on par with Bogdanovich's made of these characters yet.
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