Like Author Like Sonny?

The story of Sonny, Duane, and Jacy is one filled with raw teenage emotion and gritty dialogue. For the entirety of the book, the reader is inexplicably drawn into their lives, as though by a magnet. When reading, one cannot help but wonder at how it all seems so real. It’s coarse and harsh and unforgiving—but that’s how life is supposed to be. While most books skim over life’s cruel realties, The Last Picture Show does not. And it’s because of Larry McMurtry’s genuine and relatable writing style that we are able to dive in so deep.

McMurtry was born in Wichita Falls, Texas in the middle of the Great Depression. His descriptions of his home and the cattle ranch he grew up on may seem familiar to the reader, probably because the fictional town of Thalia was based heavily upon McMurtry’s hometown of Archer City. When the reader makes such a deep connection with the desolation that Sonny feels at the beginning and end of the book, it’s not just because McMurtry is such a talented writer. It’s because everything he’s describing—every emotion and feeling and thought—is absolutely real, and based on McMurtry’s childhood.

McMurtry was much like Duane in high school: the popular star athlete. But he was also very intelligent, and had an early appreciation for reading and writing. In such a small city (and especially at that point in history), people were bound to disapprove of McMurtry’s talent and zest for writing. He was encouraged to work on his father’s ranch until his mid-twenties, causing him to see the disagreeable side of small town life. He was always looking for something more, mimicking Sonny’s wishes to get out of the Thalia and make something of himself.

McMurtry continued to write after college, and opened several successful bookstores. He then became an English professor at Rice University, and shortly thereafter published his first novel. The Last Picture Show was published in 1966, establishing McMurtry as a serious writer. He continued to write for over three decades, even adapting the screenplays for Brokeback Mountain and his own Terms of Endearment. Though most of his work was focused on the Old West, McMurtry has enriched the lives of people everywhere with his focus on human behavior.