Uncovering the Untold Mysteries Behind Larry McMurtry’s Legendary Life in ‘Western Star’
Streitfeld’s attention to details allows him to tease out some interesting analyses. For example, it was Peter Bogdanovich’s cinephilic view that the closing of the movie theatre in McMurtry’s fictionalized hometown was symbolic of something bigger: the death of culture in that place. Drawing a connection between that perspective and McMurtry’s oft-repeated observation that he grew up in a bookless house in a bookless town, Streitfeld develops the point further, suggesting that in a town where no one reads, the movies are the only connection to culture. Though that was not the conscious, driving force for The Last Picture Show when McMurtry wrote it, I find the argument provocative and wonder about its possible relevance to the rural/urban divide that has mushroomed in the decades since the 1950s when the theatre closed. Streitfeld’s analysis illustrates the likelihood that McMurtry was uniquely tapped into something in the cultural zeitgeist that is still revealing itself.
