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Title: A gift for words with a preposterous plot.
Review: Although this is the first of McMurtry's books I have read, his name is familiar through films made from his books. His gift for verbal illustration is quite enjoyable and his descriptions are vivd. The problem with the book is that not one of the characters is likeable except for T.R.'s children and even that is questionable. I was actually happy when they were murdered by T.R.'s ex-lover. After her death and that of Godwin, the book spirals downward in a series of narratives of promising lives cut short as one after another of the characters dies. The narrator, Danny Deck, comes off as a spoiled and spoiling multi-millionaire without any sense of discipline for himself or the others. The entire narrative comes off as pointless and after finishing the book my feeling was one of time wasted.
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