When the Light Goes

By Larry McMurtry

Book Overview

In this masterful and often surprising sequel to the acclaimed Duane's Depressed, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lonesome Dove has written a haunting, elegiac, and occasionally erotic novel about one of his most beloved characters.

Back from a two-week trip to Egypt, Duane finds he cannot readjust to life in Thalia, the small, dusty West Texas hometown in which he has spent all of his life. In the short time he was away, it seems that everything has changed alarmingly. His office barely has a reason to exist now that his son Dickie is running the company from Wichita Falls, his lifelong friends seem to have suddenly grown old, his familiar hangout--once a good old-fashioned convenience store--has been transformed into an "Asian Wonder Deli," his daughters seem to have taken leave of their senses and moved on to new and strange lives, and his own health is at serious risk.

It's as if Duane cannot find any solace or familiarity in Thalia and cannot even bring himself to revisit the house he shared for decades with his late wife, Karla, and their children and grandchildren. He spends his days aimlessly riding his bicycle (already a sign of serious eccentricity in West Texas) and living in his cabin outside town. The more he tries to get back to the rhythm of his old life, the more he realizes that he should have left Thalia long ago--indeed everybody he cared for seems to have moved on without him, to new lives or to death.

The only consolation is meeting the young, attractive geologist, Annie Cameron, whom Dickie has hired to work out of the Thalia office. Annie is brazenly seductive, yet oddly cold, young enough to be Duane's daughter, or worse, and Duane hasn't a clue how to handle her. He's also in love with his psychiatrist, Honor Carmichael, who after years of rebuffing him, has decided to undertake what she feels is Duane's very necessary sex reeducation, opening him up to some major, life-changing surprises.

When the Light Goes reminds everyone that where there's life, there is indeed hope. At once realistic and life-loving, often hilariously funny, and always moving, Larry McMurtry has written one of his finest and most compelling novels to date, doing for Duane what he did so triumphantly for Aurora in Terms of Endearment.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 141653427X
• ISBN13: 9781416534273
• Release Date: March 2008
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.43 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

When The Light Goes

All of these books in this series have been very enjoyable. Last Picture Show,Texasville, Duane's Depressed and now When The Light Goes gives an interesting view of people my age. If you question your purpose in life, read this series.

When The Light Goes

Once again, L.M. views life with a gentle, perceptive realism that marks all his fiction. He is, is my humble unscholarly opinion, one of the best true storytellers of our time--able to have you laugh out loud and shed a sentimental tear, both while reading the same page. Only complaint on this one: TOO SHORT. Steve in Mechanicsburg, PA

More than I bargained for

I liked this book for several reasons. Texasville was the first novel I ever read in my life. I was nine years old. I have since read that one probably fifteen times or maybe more. I thought Duane's Depressed was the saddest book I have ever read. I am a huge fan of Larry McMurtry, and therefore probably biased. I would also strongly recommend reading the other three books in this series before this one. His last few books have been (to most people's ire) shorter ones that he was writing twenty years ago. To me, he is saying more with fewer words, and he is doing it very well. This book says a lot more than any other 195 page book that I have ever read. That is because it had three other books to set the stage for it. It is interesting that in Duane's Depressed and The Evening Star, Mr. McMurtry mentions Proust. Mostly what he says about Remembrance of Things Past in those two books is how daunting it is to try to get through it, the main reason being that it is so long. Mr. McMurtry always seems to be way ahead of the rest of the literary field with ideas that make good novels. I think with the last few he has put out (Telegraph Days, each of the Berrybender novels, Loop Group, the Boone's Lick, and the non-fiction stuff like Roads, Paradise, and Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen) he has been looking for a way for the words to pack more of a punch, therefore making the need for one thousand page epics not so great. It has also been a great debate over his career about whether he is regional, local, national, worldwide, or whatever. One way to look at it is to say that even though anyone can read a Larry McMurtry book and enjoy it, people who are from or have been around Texas very much can REALLY identify with his writing. More so than any other Texas author. When the Light Goes and the other three novels in this series each capture perfectly the attitudes and nuances of small Texas oilpatch towns over a span of a fifty year period. I can't think of anything I have read that comes close to that sort of thing except maybe Updike's Rabbit. My view, being a Texan, is that Larry McMurtry is an international talent and an absolute Texas treasure.

So that's how someone ends up retired in Patagonia!

This is the fourth book following Duane from The Last Picture Show" in 1966,220 pages;followed by "Texasville" in 1987,542pages; followed again by "Duane's Depressed" in 1999,431 pages;and now "When the light Goes" in 2007,195 pages. It is a great read,but all too short by any standard. The book isn't even really 195 pages.The novel has been broken up into 48 chapters,many only a couple of pages,each starting half way down the page,many half pages of print, and 27 blank pages.When this is all taken into account,the novel is only really about 140 pages long.I won't try to summarize the story since the reviewer ahead of me has already done a good job of that.This little novel reminds me of a couple of things. In my youth,I spent a lot of time in the local Pool Hall.There was an expression that was very often thrown out when a "novice" was on the losing end of a game; "The lesson, you paid for; the experience is free." In this novel ,I guess the appropriate line might be; "The story,you paid for;the sex lesson is free." The second thing that this book reminded me of was a birding trip I took to Arizona a few years ago.Patagonia is one of the most famous "birding hot spots" in North America. While I found the birding super there,I wondered why anyone would want to retire to such a remote place. Duane sure seemed to find a reason. What else can I say,it may even be McMurtry at his best; but much,much,too short. What do you think? Could it be made into a movie? Now there's a challenge for you;if there ever was one!

Survivor Duane

What a great book! Just when you think McMurtry can't pull anything out of his bag of tricks, here comes a slim wonderful volume about starrin Duane Moore. McMurtry presents Moore with a new dilemma, told with his signature sympathy and compassion that makes him one of our best storytellers writing today. Many contemporary writers can take lessons from McMurtry on sheer storytelling genius. The only flaw in this story was the detailed sex sequences, though at the same time you get a character that is reacting to the current influence of telling everyone way too many details about their private lives. Long live Duane and long live the writing genius of McMurtry. McMurtry is one of our national treasures, pure storytelling bliss!