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Get Breaking News on your cellLarry McMurtry gets chatty at the Nasher Salon
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July 2008
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Up until this evening, when he and co-writer Diana Ossana spoke to a full house at the Nasher Salon, I'd not heard much that contradicted his reputation as a curmudgeon. But tonight, that side of the legendary Texan's personality made only the briefest of appearances. As a team, Mr. McMurtry and Ms. Ossana offered insights into writing for Hollywood. But most fascinating were the insights into their partnership, which began after his heart surgery in 1991, when he had been reduced to "just an outline of himself," she said, going into detail on her efforts that drew him back into writing. And if there wasn't a whole semester's worth of creative writing advice packed into that one hour, there was at least a small book's worth.
"I can't remember a single book, not even the Bible, in the family ranch house," he said. He was six years old when a cousin, on his way to enlist in World War II, dropped off a box of 19 children's books -- "and that was a really defining moment in my life. You hear a lot about defining moments, but from that time on I was devoted to books and became somehow or other a bookman ... 19 books, and now there are 350,000 of them in Archer City." Referencing his Archer City bookstore, he that "the neighbors aren't crazy about those books. There's not much they can do about it. They're there -- they're passive, they're not attacking anybody. And yet the neighbors feel a certain threat," he said, to laughter. Later, he affirmed his commitment to keeping the store open. "Cheap real estate," he noted. But he also had a grim view of its long-term prospects. "What I find unnerving about Archer City is six years ago, I was able to sell a million dollars' worth of books ... now it's more like a temple. People come in, they wanted me there, they draw repose from the books, and maybe hold one in their hand. They don't buy. They come to the temple of books and are satisfied spiritually, and then they go away." In a moment that offered a peek at how his mind works, he explained why he can enjoy writing essays, but not short stories. "An essay is something different. A short story is still in the realm of the creative and the unconscious. You're not necessarily understanding what you write as you write it. But an essay is something that you think along, sentence to sentence. Each sentence that you write has to have some relation to the sentence before it and the sentence after it. And I've always loved the essay." Perhaps surprisingly, he said he doesn't read fiction -- "I reviewed too much of it in my early years, and I burned out." He added, "I can't read fiction, I understand that I can't, except professionally. I can read a fiction book to review, or I can read one to turn it into a screenplay. But fiction is not what I read for pleasure. Nor is it what most novelists read for pleasure. You don't want to work in bond and then read in the same form at night. You want to read travel writing or sports writing or adventure stories or whatever." At 72, he acknowledges having lost energy and creativity. He thinks he could do a biography. "Something like that, I can do. I think I'm out of gas for fiction. "And why wouldn't I be? Twenty-eight novels. That's a lot of novels." (Thanks to Rick Barrick for the photo.) |
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Posted by george getschow @ 3:20 PM Tue, Jul 29, 2008
I just spent a week with Larry McMurtry and a group of young writers wanting to become storytellers like McMurtry. Most of the young writers are 50 years his junior. Yet all of them said they wished they had his energy, his drive. He told us, just like the folks at the Nasher Salon, that he's out of gas, out of stories to tell. But don't be so sure. He still rises at 6 a.m. each morning to hop on his writing saddle and harness his muse. He knocks out 10 pages a day, without fail. He's still buying books by the truckload for his book ranch in Archer City. And he just arranged for $10,000 he earned from a speech he gave in Los Angeles to go to the Archer City Public Library to replenish their supplies of new books. He's eager to nurish a new crop of young writers and readers to do what he does - read widely and write well. Even if he wanted to, he's not able to shove his highly-productive muse out of his life. He's worn out a half dozen Hermes typewriters. I suspect he'll wear out a few more before his writing life comes to a close.