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jeremyanderberg's review
4.0
“I know there’s a lot of times when a man is helpless—I’ve been in plenty of ‘em. But a man’s got to go on and do what he can, that’s the only way he’s got a finding out whether he’s helpless or not.”
Written when McMurtry was just 25 years old, his first published novel is a bit bleak (go figure). Yet, it’s so wonderfully written that I couldn’t help but enjoy it. Homer Bannon is an old-time cowboy; Lonnie and Hud are diametrically opposed new-timers; and a case of hoof-and-mouth sets off a series of changes that impacts just about everything and everyone in little Thalia, Texas. There are few happy moments, honestly, but the feeling McMurtry evokes, as would become his calling card, just can’t be replicated. Well worth the 170 pages and few hours of your attention.
Written when McMurtry was just 25 years old, his first published novel is a bit bleak (go figure). Yet, it’s so wonderfully written that I couldn’t help but enjoy it. Homer Bannon is an old-time cowboy; Lonnie and Hud are diametrically opposed new-timers; and a case of hoof-and-mouth sets off a series of changes that impacts just about everything and everyone in little Thalia, Texas. There are few happy moments, honestly, but the feeling McMurtry evokes, as would become his calling card, just can’t be replicated. Well worth the 170 pages and few hours of your attention.
stilldirty's review
4.0
I can’t put into words the way this book made me feel, and will make me feel, because now it’s over but also never over, and took place adjacently to ‘The Last Picture Show’, which might be my favorite book. Explaining aspects of the book seems like it would diminish their values. Initial impressions were a little slow, before the narrative voice really got my attention.
tasmanian_bibliophile's review
4.0
‘Granddad was an old man then, and he worked hard days.’
Set in the small ranch country of Texas in the 1950s, the narrator is seventeen-year-old Lonnie Bannon. Lonnie lives with his granddad Homer, his grandma Jewel (Homer’s second wife) and Jewel’s son Hud. Helmea is the housekeeper and cook, and there are a couple of hands who work on the ranch.
Times are already changing but things become worse for Homer Bannon and his family when one of his cattle dies of foot and mouth disease and the entire herd needs to be shot. Hud, a totally despicable character in the novel, is a heartless opportunist. Halmea, the centre of the household, leaves after a brutal assault. Jewel, the grandmother, fills the space she occupies with complaint and loud radio. Homer, overtaken by life and then betrayed, represents a way of life and a courtesy that is vanishing. And Lonnie? He sees and appreciates the land but is restless in the way all teenagers must be if they are to become adults.
I watched the movie ‘Hud’ a few nights ago, and then sought out a copy of this novel. I have read some (not all) of Mr McMurtry’s novels, but I had not previously heard of this one, which was his first.
The movie was held my attention, but the novel has crept into my mind.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Set in the small ranch country of Texas in the 1950s, the narrator is seventeen-year-old Lonnie Bannon. Lonnie lives with his granddad Homer, his grandma Jewel (Homer’s second wife) and Jewel’s son Hud. Helmea is the housekeeper and cook, and there are a couple of hands who work on the ranch.
Times are already changing but things become worse for Homer Bannon and his family when one of his cattle dies of foot and mouth disease and the entire herd needs to be shot. Hud, a totally despicable character in the novel, is a heartless opportunist. Halmea, the centre of the household, leaves after a brutal assault. Jewel, the grandmother, fills the space she occupies with complaint and loud radio. Homer, overtaken by life and then betrayed, represents a way of life and a courtesy that is vanishing. And Lonnie? He sees and appreciates the land but is restless in the way all teenagers must be if they are to become adults.
I watched the movie ‘Hud’ a few nights ago, and then sought out a copy of this novel. I have read some (not all) of Mr McMurtry’s novels, but I had not previously heard of this one, which was his first.
The movie was held my attention, but the novel has crept into my mind.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
srivalli's review
4.0
A different book from what I usually read, but a good one. A poetic and restless young narrator, vivid imagery (with graphic details), and a semi-sad philosophical ending- the book deals with quite a few themes in less than 200 pages.
Trigger warning: rape, animal killing
Trigger warning: rape, animal killing
quirkybibliophile's review
2.0
I read this alongside other books that I was reading and decided to read it a chapter a day just to get through it. The beginning was great and I loved how the cattle disease was inserted into the book. When I read the excerpt of the book it mentions a terrible cattle disease and instantly I was excited about reading this book. You see I love anything about viruses and diseases and when authors seamlessly use one to add to their plot I need to read it.
Larry McMurtry does a great job of giving you a picture of life on a Texas ranch back in the Old West. I loved how descriptive every paragraph was and how elaborate each scene was. Even though the chapters were short and the book is short it has a lot packed in.
What I failed to do was really connect with any of the characters. I was waiting for the moment that I would care for characters the way that I always have with everything that I read but that moment never came for me. In fact I wasn't even able to hate the character that did a lot of bad stuff because I didn't feel for the characters that his actions were affecting.
Not being able to connect with the characters made this a hard book to get through. I wish that there was some character development or a plot that I could follow past the cattle disease which is resolved half way through the book. It could also be that I wasn't able to relate to it and maybe people who grew up in Texas or on a ranch might have more of a connection to this book.
I do think that this was a good read when you take into consideration that this his McMurtry's first book and that the things he writes after this get better. I now need to get my hands on the film Hud so I can see if that might make me appreciate this book a little more.
Larry McMurtry does a great job of giving you a picture of life on a Texas ranch back in the Old West. I loved how descriptive every paragraph was and how elaborate each scene was. Even though the chapters were short and the book is short it has a lot packed in.
What I failed to do was really connect with any of the characters. I was waiting for the moment that I would care for characters the way that I always have with everything that I read but that moment never came for me. In fact I wasn't even able to hate the character that did a lot of bad stuff because I didn't feel for the characters that his actions were affecting.
Not being able to connect with the characters made this a hard book to get through. I wish that there was some character development or a plot that I could follow past the cattle disease which is resolved half way through the book. It could also be that I wasn't able to relate to it and maybe people who grew up in Texas or on a ranch might have more of a connection to this book.
I do think that this was a good read when you take into consideration that this his McMurtry's first book and that the things he writes after this get better. I now need to get my hands on the film Hud so I can see if that might make me appreciate this book a little more.
jessreadsbooks88's review
2.0
I'm don't usually read books about ranching and such, but I had to read this book for a literature class, and it was actually a pretty good read. It's quick--short and sweet. And I think it gives a pretty good view of what small town life was like in Texas during the 50s.
rlaferney's review
4.0
Horseman, Pass By is the first Western novel written by the recently deceased American writer Larry McMurtry. It was published when he was just 25 in 1961. This modern western portrays life on a cattle ranch from the perspective of young narrator Lonnie Bannon. Set in post-World War II Texas (1954), the Bannon ranch is owned by Lonnie's grandfather, Homer Bannon. Homer's ruthless stepson, Hud, stands as the primary antagonist of the novel, who desires to inherit the ranch from Homer by any means. The novel inspired the film Hud, starring Paul Newman as the title character.
This novel helped to elevate the western from it's pulp status to one of literature. Horseman, Pass By is about many things: toxic masculinity (in the character of Hud), the influence of modernity on an old way of life and making a living, and it's a warm yet melancholy coming of age tale. Lonnie, our 17 year old teenage narrator - grows up quick on the ranch between Hud's cruelty and his grandfather's old-school ways yet he longs to escape his situation, to escape the small town Thalia. His grandfather Homer is portrayed as an aging, stubborn rancher who is attached to his way of life and does not want to let go of his ranch, despite Hud's forceful insistence and his sickly cattle. Hud - is a womanizer, a drunk, and the threat to Homer's way of life. He is our villian - who is consumed by greed and lust. At the end of the novel we are supposed to view Homer - in one pivotal scene - as if he too was just one of the sickly cattle on the ranch. And it is suggested that it is the humane thing to out him of his misery. Homer's way of life is strong-and can only be killed violently - so it is a fitting end that he meets.
Horseman, Pass By is a beautiful, violent, melancholy, atmospheric novel. It's a tough, nostalgic narrative of a young man growing up in Texas.
It's pure poetry. Larry McMurtry was a master of his craft.
This novel helped to elevate the western from it's pulp status to one of literature. Horseman, Pass By is about many things: toxic masculinity (in the character of Hud), the influence of modernity on an old way of life and making a living, and it's a warm yet melancholy coming of age tale. Lonnie, our 17 year old teenage narrator - grows up quick on the ranch between Hud's cruelty and his grandfather's old-school ways yet he longs to escape his situation, to escape the small town Thalia. His grandfather Homer is portrayed as an aging, stubborn rancher who is attached to his way of life and does not want to let go of his ranch, despite Hud's forceful insistence and his sickly cattle. Hud - is a womanizer, a drunk, and the threat to Homer's way of life. He is our villian - who is consumed by greed and lust. At the end of the novel we are supposed to view Homer - in one pivotal scene - as if he too was just one of the sickly cattle on the ranch. And it is suggested that it is the humane thing to out him of his misery. Homer's way of life is strong-and can only be killed violently - so it is a fitting end that he meets.
Horseman, Pass By is a beautiful, violent, melancholy, atmospheric novel. It's a tough, nostalgic narrative of a young man growing up in Texas.
It's pure poetry. Larry McMurtry was a master of his craft.
larrys's review
4.0
Hud is one of my favourite films and I didn't even realise it had been based on Larry McMurtry's first novel until after I'd decided I loved Larry McMurtry novels, so I've been meaning to read this one for a while. I grew curious about how the screenwriters turned a novel into the screenplay.
It's an interesting case. One of the most disturbing things I heard about the film is that after test screenings, the producers learned that despite making Grandpa and Hud unambiguously good vs evil, audiences sided with Hud. Why did they do that? There's not a single redeeming quality to him. He'd sell diseased cattle, he's a rapist, he's mean and abusive...
1. Paul Newman was handsome, and that makes up for a lot
2. We see Hud through Lonnie's eyes, and in the film Lonnie looks up to him.
3. Audiences are like ducklings and tend to fall in love with the first character they see, or the character they see most of. And that'd be Hud.
4. Hud may be terrible but he is at least interesting.
I'm guessing that's it. Plus the more sobering fact that a tightwad (the granddad) is harder to forgive than a rapist. Because that's the culture we live in. And before you think well, that was a 1963 audience -- we'd be harder on a murdering rapist character now, I offer you Walter White as a case study for comparison. That said, Breaking Bad is 10 years old this week, and maybe after these women's marches things might start to change fictionally. Who the hell knows.
So how is Hud presented in the novel? He's both worse and better than Paul Newman's film version. The farm hands in the novel feature much more heavily. These farmhands are the men young Lonnie look up to, not Hud. They also get a lot of Hud's most sociopathic lines. But in the film the granddad dies of natural causes, whereas in the novel Hud finishes him off with a shotgun.
Another big difference between book and film: Black Halmea becomes White Alma in the film. This conflicts me. This amounts to the symbolic annihilation of Black women in Hollywood, but that's no damn surprise now. Conflicting because Patricia Neal makes for such a perfect Alma.
The book is more disturbing. In general. Lonnie is far less sympathetic than as acted in the film. In the film Lonnie is naive and can swing either way, pulled to the moral side by his grandfather and to the immoral side by his uncle (who in the book is his step-uncle). He ultimately chooses the good side. In the book he has left temporarily, but it looks like he's going to separate himself from his awful step-uncle. We see him hitching a ride to see his friend who was injured in the rodeo.
For comparison I am thinking of Annie Proulx's short story The Mud Below, in which the rodeo is used as a metaphor for toxic masculinity. I'm pretty sure that's what it stands in for here.
Lonnie's step-mother (Hud's real mother) is not dead in the novel. She gets some great lines as a cranky old hypochondriac battleax. But in the end she is another woman reduced to a cow -- for some reason she is degraded with her 'teats hanging out'. Women are routinely considered as heifers in this tale about toxic masculinity. Each one of them has her breasts exposed, and described in detail. Because Alma has agency in the film and is wise and world-weary, this misogyny is somehow easier to take in the adaptation.
It was interesting to see how McMurtry's writing started out -- he quickly dropped the phonetic spellings for Black dialect, which he uses here and dates the book terribly. The film on the other hand could've been made yesterday as a period piece. But McMurtry was a great stylist from the get-go, as this first novel attests.
If you love the film I wouldn't necessarily recommend the book. Horseman, Pass By was adapted for screen by two master screenwriters, who improved on a work from a first time novelist. They wanted to make something starring Paul Newman because they'd worked with him before and he drew huge audiences, but the novel stars the old man. Hence the change of title.
I'm sure it helped that one of the screenwriters was a woman, because I for one am glad a lot of the most confronting misogyny was dropped. It was still there all right, but if we'd seen it on the screen it would've been something else altogether. Unfortunately, with the way Hollywood works today, if this novel were adapted in 2018, all the rape and degrading female nudity would've been left in and then some added for good measure.
And a segment of the audience would still fall in love with a handsome, murdering rapist.
It's an interesting case. One of the most disturbing things I heard about the film is that after test screenings, the producers learned that despite making Grandpa and Hud unambiguously good vs evil, audiences sided with Hud. Why did they do that? There's not a single redeeming quality to him. He'd sell diseased cattle, he's a rapist, he's mean and abusive...
1. Paul Newman was handsome, and that makes up for a lot
2. We see Hud through Lonnie's eyes, and in the film Lonnie looks up to him.
3. Audiences are like ducklings and tend to fall in love with the first character they see, or the character they see most of. And that'd be Hud.
4. Hud may be terrible but he is at least interesting.
I'm guessing that's it. Plus the more sobering fact that a tightwad (the granddad) is harder to forgive than a rapist. Because that's the culture we live in. And before you think well, that was a 1963 audience -- we'd be harder on a murdering rapist character now, I offer you Walter White as a case study for comparison. That said, Breaking Bad is 10 years old this week, and maybe after these women's marches things might start to change fictionally. Who the hell knows.
So how is Hud presented in the novel? He's both worse and better than Paul Newman's film version. The farm hands in the novel feature much more heavily. These farmhands are the men young Lonnie look up to, not Hud. They also get a lot of Hud's most sociopathic lines. But in the film the granddad dies of natural causes, whereas in the novel Hud finishes him off with a shotgun.
Another big difference between book and film: Black Halmea becomes White Alma in the film. This conflicts me. This amounts to the symbolic annihilation of Black women in Hollywood, but that's no damn surprise now. Conflicting because Patricia Neal makes for such a perfect Alma.
The book is more disturbing. In general. Lonnie is far less sympathetic than as acted in the film. In the film Lonnie is naive and can swing either way, pulled to the moral side by his grandfather and to the immoral side by his uncle (who in the book is his step-uncle). He ultimately chooses the good side. In the book he has left temporarily, but it looks like he's going to separate himself from his awful step-uncle. We see him hitching a ride to see his friend who was injured in the rodeo.
For comparison I am thinking of Annie Proulx's short story The Mud Below, in which the rodeo is used as a metaphor for toxic masculinity. I'm pretty sure that's what it stands in for here.
Lonnie's step-mother (Hud's real mother) is not dead in the novel. She gets some great lines as a cranky old hypochondriac battleax. But in the end she is another woman reduced to a cow -- for some reason she is degraded with her 'teats hanging out'. Women are routinely considered as heifers in this tale about toxic masculinity. Each one of them has her breasts exposed, and described in detail. Because Alma has agency in the film and is wise and world-weary, this misogyny is somehow easier to take in the adaptation.
It was interesting to see how McMurtry's writing started out -- he quickly dropped the phonetic spellings for Black dialect, which he uses here and dates the book terribly. The film on the other hand could've been made yesterday as a period piece. But McMurtry was a great stylist from the get-go, as this first novel attests.
If you love the film I wouldn't necessarily recommend the book. Horseman, Pass By was adapted for screen by two master screenwriters, who improved on a work from a first time novelist. They wanted to make something starring Paul Newman because they'd worked with him before and he drew huge audiences, but the novel stars the old man. Hence the change of title.
I'm sure it helped that one of the screenwriters was a woman, because I for one am glad a lot of the most confronting misogyny was dropped. It was still there all right, but if we'd seen it on the screen it would've been something else altogether. Unfortunately, with the way Hollywood works today, if this novel were adapted in 2018, all the rape and degrading female nudity would've been left in and then some added for good measure.
And a segment of the audience would still fall in love with a handsome, murdering rapist.