Sunday, June 16, 2024

Book review - "Rhino Ranch" by Larry McMurtry (2009)

 I think McMurtry did this because he liked Duane Moore so much he felt compelled to see it through to Duane's death - rather quick, of a heart attack while fishing at the end of this book. Painless. But happy enough.

Once again all the gals want Duane - even his wife Anne, who at the start has left him, and at one stage dates Imran Khan which is cool, now is revealed to be on meth head, and she dies in an accident; Honour, his shrink, he occasionally talks to, and is killed off via cancer; there's Dal, a Cambodian at his son's work who moves in platonically but he could love her' a manic pixie horny girl who gives him a blow job and wants to work in porn; some other girl who offers to root him, a sculptor; a millionairess who wants to root him; a journalist who interviews him who might want to root him then roots his grand son.

He has a nice grandson, rabbiting daughters who are barely in it and have no dimension, a loyal friend. Chapters are super short, plots come and go with rapidity (a rhino ranch, meth users, a proposed statue), as do characters (the rhino, a Khalahari bushman, a Texas ranger, a female sherrif). There's sideswipes at Thalia/Archer, a lot of moseying around.

This one is for the diehards but since I'm a diehard I guess I enjoyed it, especially as it's clearly so personal.

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