Bridgman reviewed When the light goes by Larry McMurtry
Review of 'When the light goes' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
I'm a word-by-word reader but I finished this 2007 novel in a twenty-four hour period. Its fifty chapters are in a book just 195 pages long, with some chapters being less than a page. Not to complain. I like feeling like I'm devouring literature at the pace of a genius. I might have felt a little cheated if I had paid the original cover price of $24.00 instead of the fifteen cents my library sold it for, though.
I've felt like I should read something by [a:Larry McMurtry|1055|Larry McMurtry|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1540995857p2/1055.jpg] because he wrote The Last Picture Show, Terms of Endearment, and Lonesome Dove, all of which were adapted to film (television in Lonesome Dove's case). The two films won ten Academy Awards; Lonesome Dove won seven Emmys.
When the Light Goes isn't a stand alone novel. It's part of what's known as the Duane Moore series. Despite that, there was …
I'm a word-by-word reader but I finished this 2007 novel in a twenty-four hour period. Its fifty chapters are in a book just 195 pages long, with some chapters being less than a page. Not to complain. I like feeling like I'm devouring literature at the pace of a genius. I might have felt a little cheated if I had paid the original cover price of $24.00 instead of the fifteen cents my library sold it for, though.
I've felt like I should read something by [a:Larry McMurtry|1055|Larry McMurtry|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1540995857p2/1055.jpg] because he wrote The Last Picture Show, Terms of Endearment, and Lonesome Dove, all of which were adapted to film (television in Lonesome Dove's case). The two films won ten Academy Awards; Lonesome Dove won seven Emmys.
When the Light Goes isn't a stand alone novel. It's part of what's known as the Duane Moore series. Despite that, there was nothing in it that didn't make complete sense to me and the main character, the depressed, widowed, bicycle-riding Texas oilman Duane, is close enough to my age, sixtyish, that I got much out of it.
Warning: There are several steamy passages. This is not for the YA set, though it's not as if they read about anything they weren't familiar with already.
I've read that McMurtry is known for writing women's parts well. I agree.
Duane's destination was the Asia Wonder Deli. He thought he might just eat a spring roll or two. He had enjoyed his few minutes with his son, but depression settled in before he was out of sight of his own offices. Duane mostly ignored heat, as he ignored cold or any other weather short of tornadoes. Bue he had not gone more than a mile before he began to feel that the heat had become an element in his depression. The heat suddenly surrounded him—he felt as if he were riding through a furnace; he wanted to get out of the furnace, but there was no way out. The furnace wouldn't cool until sunset—perhaps wouldn't cool much even then. Soon the heat—or was it the depression—was affecting his breathing. Before he had gone three miles he knew that he had overmatched himself with the heat.