Larry McMurtry grew up among ranchers and cowboys, and his familiarity with this rural world makes his early novels set in and around Thalia, Texas, genuinely alive with rich detail and believable characters. He knows this world as it's seen and understood by the people who live there, both young and old. Most revealingly (and colorfully) he knows how they really talk to each other and to themselves -- not in the stereotypical ways often ascribed to country people.You read "Leaving Cheyenne" slowly (the reference is to an old cowboy ballad, not the town in Wyoming), savoring the re-creation of real times and places, even when the story itself may move with no great urgency. The insights into characters and the observance of their behavior make them come alive on the page, and you simply enjoy the portrayals of them, their values, beliefs, and experiences.Part I of this novel is told from the point of view of Gideon, a rancher's son, about 20 years old, around the year 1920. There is his friend Johnny, from a neighboring ranch, and the two of them compete for the affection of Molly, a barefoot, independent-minded girl who willfully and unwisely marries another boy, an oilfield roustabout.In Part II, it is 20 years later, during WWII, and Molly, now widowed, remains friends with the middle-aged Gideon and Johnny, each of whom happens to have fathered one of her two sons. This part is told from her point of view. Gideon has married another woman (also unwisely) and has become a prosperous rancher, while Johnny works for him, content to be a happy-go-lucky cowboy. Molly lives alone, her sons off to war, and yearns for the company of each of her two old friends and lovers.In Part III, it is again 20 years later, about 1960 (the novel was published in 1962), and the three characters are now much older. Told from the point of view of Johnny, this section is farcically comical. Meanwhile, Gideon is haunted with guilt for his infidelities with Molly, and Johnny, as he says, has never lost a night's sleep feeling shame for anything he's ever done.Written in 20-year jumps, the novel gives a sense of how quickly life passes and how people remain the adolescents they once were even as they age. We see that choices made in haste cannot be undone and can leave a life-long legacy of regret. Yet there is also solace in affection, loyalty, and tenderness of heart. The novel celebrates the special quality of friendship among friends who have lived their whole lives together in the same small rural community. And over the years, there is the land -- and working the land -- to ground their rural lives with purpose.I recommend this novel, along with the author's "Horseman, Pass By," to anyone with an interest in cowboys and ranching. McMurtry captures rural western life and character in rich detail.
Ok, so, people are often like, "my, isn't it incredible that this male author can be a woman in his prose?!" Well, at least circa this, his 2nd novel, Larry McMurtry can't. Maybe he also can't be a man, not sure.I wanted this tone--Western, heavy romance. There's a lot of nice sex as well. But the dialect/naivete/flat affect of the 1st-person narration (first by Gideon, then Molly, probably by Johnny after that though I won't get that far) make the characters seem like probably retards or maybe children. I was certain Gideon was <16 during his narration. Would have guessed 13 except for all the hot sex he was having. Well, I learn in Molly's narration that Gid was supposed to be 20...nah.
What do You think about Leaving Cheyenne (2002)?
Larry McMurtry is one of my favourite authors. Leaving Cheyenne did not disappoint. This one of McMurtry's earlier works, before he wrote the wonderful Lonesome Dove, which I count among my all-time favourite novels. In fact, Gid and Johnny could be thought of as earlier, less fleshed out versions of Gus and Call. This book is so many things-a coming of age story, an unusual love triangle and romance, and a close-up look at the friendship between two very different men. Gid and Johnny share a great love of nature, the Texan wilderness, and a dislike for non-country living and culture, but frequently disagree as to how each should live his life. McMurtry can put you in the pasture, make you feel the heat as Gid and Johnny strain to dig new fence posts or fix a windmill in the blazing heat of summer. Frequently, I will stop reading, simply to marvel at the pictures he has painted in my mind. I finished this book in one day, and reluctantly turned the last few pages, guessing how it would end- with a lump in my throat and a sadness that this was one more McMurtry piece that I would never enjoy for the first time again. I will return to it another day, as I do with the Lonesome Dove trilogy, when I need to visit the land of great storytelling, where I am guaranteed to laugh and cry in equal measure.
—Laurel
Larry McMurtry's books are unique. I NEVER thought I'd be one to enjoy a western until I first read Lonesome Dove. That is still my favorite, but I enjoyed this more modern 'western', too. McMurtry's characters are extremely well-drawn and his dialogue addictive. I start talking like a cowboy myself with 3 pages! As far as the PLOT of Leaving Cheyenne...well.. I wish there were actually more of it. A little suspense might be good as well, but the characters and their relationships carry the book - regardless. I was there.
—Kathy
My dad told me that Larry McMurtry has written some books that were only so-so. I have yet to find one though. This one is great. I think I don't like it quite as much as Lonesome Dove or The Last Picture Show, but that could be because I read Lonesome Dove first, and because I really am blown away by the movie version of The Last Picture Show. This one is a drama about a rancher's son, a cowhand, and a woman who loves them both; it follows them from their teenage years to old age, roughly the nineteen-twenties to the seventies. I'd love to write a nice elegant review, but I find it hard to top a one-liner on the back cover of the book, a quote from a book reviewer published by the Los Angeles Times whose name wasn't given: "Larry McMurtry presents human dramas with a sympathy and compassion that makes us care about the characters in ways that most novelists can't."
—Rob
