What is Larry McMurtry's second best novel?

Question

Everyone agrees that Lonesome Dove is his masterpiece. But what is his second best? And why? I've read many (he is my favorite author) so I have my own opinion, but maybe I've missed one along the way.

Answer 1

Lonesome Dove is indeed great.

After reading Leaving Cheyenne and seeing characters that I think meta-morphed into Call, Gus, and Lorena, the characters haunted me for weeks. McMurtry has a way of creating characters that take hold and latch on to me. Each one of them and the novel's landscape still claim a part of me. Because of their choices and their location, they are without hope. I felt I knew each one, and as I watched their doomed choices unfold in Leaving Cheyenne, I felt I lost friends or family.

Horseman Pass By has similar power, but it is so dark. These are people you don't want to know but you do and you are mesmerized by them. It's similar to reading or watching crime drama. Tantalizing but sickening.

When McMurtry is on, his characters tug at the reader's soul as few other authors' creations do. They compel us to keep reading even when we know they and we are unredeemed.

Answer 2

I'd probably have to go with The Last Picture Show. Maybe an obvious choice, but it totally captures life in a dying small town. I used to live in Texas and I've known Duane and Sonny and Jacy, or versions anyway. They ring true and then we get to follow them up in the two later novels.

At the other end of the spectrum, I also loved Moving On. It is LONG, but if you like getting totally immersed in a novel, this one will do it for you. The main character Patsy, is a riot, and I also really liked the grad student - forget his name - and the Houston settings. But I don't think I've read a McMurtry book I didn't like.