Larry McMurtry

 [b:The Last Picture Show|25418971|The Last Picture Show|Larry McMurtry|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1429883635l/25418971.SY75.jpg|1069014] came out in 1966 and takes place in a small Texas town in 1951. If you've heard of it, it's probably because it was made into a successful movie by Peter Bogdanovich in 1971. It was in black and white, an uncommon choice for directors at that time, and is the movie that made Sybil Shepherd a star. (It was her film debut.)
 I'd guess there are people who dislike [a:Larry McMurtry|1055|Larry McMurtry|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1540995857p2/1055.jpg]'s work or, if not that, sniff at it as they would writing by [a:Stephen King|3389|Stephen King|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1362814142p2/3389.jpg] or [a:Elin Hilderbrand|88301|Elin Hilderbrand|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1365687944p2/88301.jpg]. As far as literary fiction goes, I'd put McMurtry above both of them. McMurtry was a story teller like the others. A hundred years from now people aren't going to be dissecting his work like they do that of writers like [a:James Joyce|5144|James Joyce|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1615569948p2/5144.jpg] and [a:Leo Tolstoy|128382|Leo Tolstoy|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1651443031p2/128382.jpg] in search of great philosophical content, but they might when wanting to show how people lived in a particular era and how post World War II authors told stories.
 In my case, McMurtry's books cast a spell over me and they're the kind of books that make me put off doing laundry or getting ready for bed because I simply want to keep reading them.
 Worth mentioning is that The Last Picture Show has a surprising amount of sex in it of the kind you would expect high school boys and girls to engage in (petting in movie theaters; going all the way on a school trip) and the kind most wouldn't expect (rural boys and farm animals). If it's in your high school's library, expect it to be banned soon, depending on where you live.
Excerpt:

 Jacy and Lester had not been gone from the dance ten minutes before word got around that they were going to a swimming party where everyone would be naked. The reason word got around so fast was that Lester told several of the younger kids about it just before he left. He told them he and Jacy were going to swim naked, just like everybody else. It was almost past belief, but when the kids saw him actually drive away with Jacy they instantly believed it and began to talk about it. Nothing wilder had ever been heard of in Thalia—it was even wilder than actually making out, because that was customarily done in the dark and nothing much could be seen.