Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

You take too many train trips.

Streets of Laredo by Larry McMurtry

by Leave a Comment

I was wary of this one going in. When I finished reading Lonesome Dove a few years back, and was floored by it, I picked up the other books in the series. I started not with this immediate sequel, but with Dead Man’s Walk and Comanche Moon, both of which I found rather disappointing. There’s something almost oafish and parodic about those books. So this one lingered in my consciousness for a long time. I have to say, this is a very very good book, and more so, a really […]

In the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases.

by Leave a Comment

The World According to Garp – 4/5 Stars I am trying to figure out books from the late 1970s and early 1980s, because it’s like the first time that authors really wanted to dig into sexual politics in some ways that are interesting, definitely alarming, but also handled with a kind of lack of care, or certainly a different context. This book was a huge hit when it came out and won several awards. It’s generally very good, but there’s a weird weird weird scene […]

There was no point in trying to stop a husband from going away

by Leave a Comment

By Sorrow’s River – 4/5 Stars When I reviewed the second book of this quartet I talked about the shifting tone from the first novel. I am more clear that this newer tone, one more serious and gallows at times as opposed to a little too silly, is the better and more suited tone for the novel. I also reviewed the novel Comanche Moon written a few years and I found that tone too mercurial for the subject matter. This one is really starting to […]

I’m a fastidious bookman and have never liked reading books with library markings or other messy defects.

by Leave a Comment

As you can see, I’m on a bit of a Larry McMurtry kick: The Literary Life – 4/5 Stars Like his previous memoir that I also recently reviewed, The Literary Life, is hyper-focused on his writing career. For the most part, he doesn’t repeat any important stories, though he does trace over a few events and ideas that have come up before. I think to enjoy this one — which reviews of the other books suggest — you have to be interested in the publishing […]

All plurals are ultimately singular.

by Leave a Comment

Packing My Library – 4/5 Stars This short memoir/thought piece takes it cue from the Walter Benjamin essay I will write about afterward and addresses what it means to pack one’s library away, presumably for good, as one heads into the final stages of life. Alberto Manguel is rounding on 70 and after decades of moving through and all over the world, he seems to have reached a place where he’s able to give up his library. His sentiments are especially interesting if you take […]

I suppose she’s just dying of living–that’s the one infection that strikes us all down, sooner or later.

Comanche Moon by Larry McMurtry

by Leave a Comment

I’ve seen the Lonesome Dove miniseries no fewer than 10 times and love it to death. And so when I read the novel, I was blown away by it and by the series again in terms of its adaptation. It’s not a perfect adaptation of what feels like a near perfect novel. So learning much later that there were more books, I was initially thrilled. And then I read Dead Man’s Walk and I was like umm ok, I guess. And the same thing happens […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo