Rating: 
Summary: McMurtry Reflects Elegantly
Review: This was on my stack of books to read, but I hadn't gotten to it. Maybe the title isn't as intriguing as it might be. Then a letter came from a friend with raves, and a few photocopied pages of the book that I had to read, because they would speak to ME. I stayed up all night, fascinated with McMurtry's life, reading habits, life as a book dealer, and thoughts about what he has learned--about himself, about human nature, about history. My husband and I have loved his fiction, different titles, for different reasons. Now McMurtry, past 60, thinks the grasshoppers pretty much have eaten all those fictional leaves. Too bad, but our good luck is that he has given us an eminently readable memoir, about growing up in a spare Texas landscape, riding a horse for 20 years, yet not really comfortable with horses, afraid of bushes (once rode into a hornet's nest), and poultry (they peck). Then off to college and the pursuit of his real passion: herding ideas and words, rounding up books and paragraphs. Now he has a difficult time dividing time (so many books to read, so little time) between reading and writing. If justifies my letting the ironing, weeding, mending, and cooking go, and sending out for pizza so I can read another book instead. Walter Benjamin is next.
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