Texasville

Name: Texasville
Rating: 4.1 (1039 reviews)

by Larry McMurtry Book 4 in the Thalia, Texas and Duane Moore series.

First published 1987

Amazon

4.1(1,039)

During the 1980s oil bust, Duane Moore faces enormous debt while Thalia prepares an elaborate centennial celebration. His marriage to Karla is strained, his children create new crises and the businesses that once seemed permanent no longer provide security.

Jacy Farrow returns to town, and Sonny Crawford struggles with declining mental health. Their reunion shows how little the adults have escaped the desires and failures established in youth, even as the town tries to turn its own past into a public spectacle.

The oil bust gives the comic disorder an economic foundation. Easy credit and rapid speculation have made prosperity appear permanent, and Duane now has to confront what remains when asset values collapse. Family arguments, civic celebration and business debt all expose the gap between the mythology of Texas abundance and the vulnerability of a town built around one volatile industry.