Years ago while watching one of my favorite movies, Hud, I learned that the movie was adapted from a book written by Larry McMurtry. This is the same author the created the foundations for the movie legends of Terms of Endearment, Lonesome Dove, The Evening Star and The Last Picture Show. He is also the father of an emerging country singer James McMurtry.
A good story, first published in 1961, about post WWII life in south Texas. Narrated by the grandson Lonnie Bannon, the owner of a cattle ranch, his grandfather Homer Bannon is an old school, deeply moral man in his mid-eighties. Misfortune besets them in the form of hoof and mouth disease, the government wants and does put the whole well bred herd down to protect the industry. The book concentrates on the the crushing reality of a man's life's work being killed before his eyes, and how that crushes the spirit of a proud cowboy. The proud cowboy is a source of pride and worship for Lonnie and when Homer meets his terrible end, the boy is adrift.
The character of Hud, immortalized by Paul Newman, is a bit of an enigma in the book, serving only to increase the tension of each moment his s a part of. True also in the movie, but differently the book does not concentrate there, but on the human tragedy.
Another difference between the book and movie is how the movie describes the manner of Lonnie's father's death, the book does not go there at all, leaving it to the imagination or lack therof the reader.
This is a short book, only about 175 pages. I picked it up, used, on Amazon for less than 5$.
I strongly recommend.
Thanks.
More
A good story, first published in 1961, about post WWII life in south Texas. Narrated by the grandson Lonnie Bannon, the owner of a cattle ranch, his grandfather Homer Bannon is an old school, deeply moral man in his mid-eighties. Misfortune besets them in the form of hoof and mouth disease, the government wants and does put the whole well bred herd down to protect the industry. The book concentrates on the the crushing reality of a man's life's work being killed before his eyes, and how that crushes the spirit of a proud cowboy. The proud cowboy is a source of pride and worship for Lonnie and when Homer meets his terrible end, the boy is adrift.
The character of Hud, immortalized by Paul Newman, is a bit of an enigma in the book, serving only to increase the tension of each moment his s a part of. True also in the movie, but differently the book does not concentrate there, but on the human tragedy.
Another difference between the book and movie is how the movie describes the manner of Lonnie's father's death, the book does not go there at all, leaving it to the imagination or lack therof the reader.
This is a short book, only about 175 pages. I picked it up, used, on Amazon for less than 5$.
I strongly recommend.
Thanks.
More
No comments:
Post a Comment
Show me the love. Serious, even disagreeable comments are not moderated.