Northrop Frye writes in Anatomy of Criticism, "Of all fictions, the marvellous journey is the one formula that is never exhausted." I would add that the aimless journey, wandering, is also a timeless formula and one with a relatively constant meaning. This archetypal structure, the journey, variously pervades and controls the novels of Larry McMurtry and extends their import beyond the limits of a regional commentary.

McMurtry's five novels have not generally been considered in relation to archetypes but rather in relation to the more limited patterns afforded by their Texas setting and its distinctive heritage. Regarded in regional terms, the novels show considerable variation, as the impulse to mythicize the forebears and to assess present life by its departure from their model, evident in Horseman, Pass By and Leaving Cheyenne, yields, in The Last Picture Show, to a virtually unrelieved distaste for the moribund small-town life which...