Larry McMurtry's work is marked by his imaginative connections with the American West. Drawn to place, McMurtry demonstrates in his work the mythic pattern of escape and return to his "blood's country," his homeland. After garnering initial celebrity by writing about the passing of the Southwest known to the cowboy, McMurtry soon scorned the work his critics praised and praised the work his critics scorned--urban novels cut off from the old Southwest. In the 1980s McMurtry returned to the settings and themes he had rejected, and the critical fame he previously had enjoyed came back as well. In fact, McMurtry's novels and his life both demonstrate that traveling is an axiomatic part of both. Throughout much of his life, McMurtry has found his home territory an awkward, uneasy place. Growing up in Texas created productive tension between his love for the land that nourished him and an equally...