Old School Review #1 Larry McMurty

Larry McMurty’s first novel starts out with a beautiful passage about life on the plains of Texas. The idealized description of the land hits the reader and brings to life the feeling of being alive. It also explains why the writer felt the need to explain the beauty of the land where he was from.

What continues is a melancholy coming of age story, (Aren’t they all?) about the loss of the narrator’s way of life and home.  

The book I has a sense of desperation and sorrow in it, the good kind. The sorrow is the sad, earnest sense of losing a lover and the desperation feels like that of a maniac, the writing contains the riveting energy of a boxer behind by points in the final round.

I am a big fan of McMurty. His later novels, “Lonesome Dove,” and “Streets of Laredo” are well-known westerns set in the Wild West’s last days. “Horseman, Pass By” like “The Last Picture Show,” are perhaps not as well know, but are both classics. Both were out shined by movie productions starring some of the coolest men to ever step on the screen, Harrison Ford and Paul Newman.

Still, “Horseman, Pass By” will be a favorite of mine because the characters are as real to the reader as a pair of Levi Jeans and a big front porch.

The novel is written from the viewpoint of Lonnie, who lives on a cattle ranch with his grandfather, his grandfather’s second wife, her son Hud, a house keeper and several cow hands. Life is changing on the ranch, and not necessarily for the better.

Revealing too much more wouldn't ruin the joy of reading the book, but I don't want anyone not to read it because they feel the plot has been spoiled. 

The book is set in a time more than 50 years ago, and although a lot has changed since then, people today still feel a bone chilling sense of loneliness from time to time. I wish I read this book years ago, because I could have been able to really relate to the author. 

Below is the Yeats poem the book's title is from. I love books that are as inspired as "Horseman, Pass by" is. 

I don't hate Robin

Comic books are expensive.

Not the single issues, the ones that you purchase for $4. The problem with those is that they take five minutes to read, don’t contain a whole story arc and if the reader misses an issue the he/she misses out on major plot points.

What I’m writing about is a collection in a single bound book sold for $20 at a store. These ones still only take about 30 minutes to read and it’s difficult to justify paying that much money for something that lasts such a short amount of time, while making a waiter’s salary.

The past week I’ve gone to the downtown Kalamazoo library and checked out the collections they have. Comic books are located in the teen room, a marked off area in the basement where there are couches, “The Hunger Games” books and poetry collections. The room was created I think in part to give kids a place to hang out and feel safe. It would have been great when I was that age.

I try to go there during school hours, so I’m not the old guy reading superheroes.

It’s geared towards younger readers and maybe that’s why they have the first couple of collections of DC’s new 52 “Batman and Robin” series. I checked it out the other day in part because it’s nice to read a comic book when there people are in the house. For instance, you can read Superman and get asked to do the dishes without being concern of losing concentration, as opposed to “If on a winter’s night a traveler.”

I’ve never liked the character Robin too much. When I was a kid I was happy that my younger brother always wanted to be the part  for Halloween or when we were playing pretend. The Batman character seemed at odds with having a sidekick and since Robin was put into the comics’ last century solely to sell more books, I wasn’t a big fan of the storyline.

In addition to that, Tim Burton and Christopher Nolen’s movies are much better than “Batman Forever” or “Batman and Robin.”

But writer Peter J. Tomasi and artists such as Patrick Gleason have put together an amazing series (although I just found out Tomasi is leaving the book.) The story line touches the right nerves and balances the father son dynamic without being overdone and corny.

For those don’t read comic books, here is the summary of the current story line of Batman and Robin.

The new Robin is Batman’s son Damien. For some quick background, Dick Grayson was the original Robin and is now grownup and is Nightwing. Jason Todd was the second Robin, was killed by the Joker, came back to life and is now called “The Red Hood.” Tim Drake was the third Robin and is now the Red Robbin.

Now for the comics I’ve been reading. Robin’s mother, who is a bad person, created the current Robin, Damien in a test tube, without Bruce Wayne ever knowing about his “birth.” She raised him to be a deadly assassin from day one and when Robin was 10-years-old he was introduced to Bruce Wayne.

She taught Robin to be a bad guy, so it’s the basic nature/nurture argument there. But Robin decides to be with his dad and she retaliates by putting a $500 million bounty on his head.

Batman is not a great father, but Damien isn’t a very good son either. Batman’s one main code of ethic is that he will not kill anyone, something Robin doesn’t have a problem with, until Bruce Wayne attempts to “fix” the problem.

He doesn’t get along with his “older brother” Robins and puts himself in dangerous situations.

However Robin grows to become a more moral person throughout the series. Although he’s dismissive of Batman and draws disturbing pictures in his journal in the first couple of issues, they eventually get a dog and Robin starts to learn to be more ethical. Alfred and Damien form a great bond. Damien also finds one of Martha Wayne’s pearls and gives it to Bruce.

Then Robin dies protecting his father.

I was surprised the writer would kill such a young character, although I knew he wouldn’t be dead for long. (People are never really dead in comic books.)

Bruce Wayne acts a lot like grieving parents I have known. He blames himself. In the first issue after Robin dies there is no dialog, but lots of strong images, such as the Batmobile driving over the streetlight on crime alley where his parents died.

Batman goes on a spree and arrests a bunch of thugs, ties them up and puts under the Bat Signal for Gordon. He keeps getting more depressed and angry, so Alfred calls up the Robins to talk to him. He also pairs with Catwoman to save a young child.

Eventually he goes through a fight simulator over and over again to see if he could have saved his son. He finds out he couldn’t alone and the last issue of the storyline I read has Alfred taking a simulation and we find out that he could have prevented Robin from leaving the Batcave that night. He cries and Bruce puts his hand on shoulder and says, “I’m sorry I forgot you lost a son too.”

I’m well behind the current story, where Bruce is apparently dead and Robin has come back from the dead with superpowers, but I was very impressed with these books.

I thought the idea of Robin was just for kids, but the story of Batman and his son had great storytelling potential.