SOURCE: A Review of Texasville, in Western American Literature, Vol. 22, Winter, 1998, pp. 373-74.

In the review below, Ronald, a professor at the University of Nevada, argues that Texasville does not measure up to earlier novels in the series such as The Last Picture Show.

Few literary sequels live up to their critics' expectations. Still, we had high hopes for Larry McMurtry's Texasville. Its acclaimed predecessor, The Last Picture Show, gave us a rural Thalia in a '50s Texas setting, overlaid with nostalgia and populated by a variety of winsome people. Texasville gives us Thalia and her inhabitants thirty years later. The '80s haven't been kind, and the Thalians haven't aged well.

McMurtry's premise has potential. Texas, with oil dictating its economic ups and downs, has changed mightily during the past three decades. Thalia's citizens made fortunes. By the time of Texasville, however, the price of oil...