The Last Picture Show

by Larry McMurtry Book 3 in the Thalia, Texas and Duane Moore series.

First published 1966

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4.4(3,179)

In the early 1950s, high-school seniors Sonny Crawford and Duane Moore approach graduation in the declining north Texas town of Thalia. Their friendship is tested by their relationships with Jacy Farrow and by their uneasy entry into the compromised adult world around them.

Pool-hall owner Sam the Lion provides one of the town’s few sources of stability, but his death accelerates a wider sense of loss. The closing of the picture house becomes a symbol of a community whose institutions, desires and shared life are disappearing.