BOOKS

This memoir by one of America's most accomplished writers is not about his writing, or even writing in general. It's about his passion for books, which started with his own reading and later mushroomed into an eclectic used and rare book business in the previously bookless town of Archer, Texas. It’s the dusty Texas plain that most shapes the book, and McMurtry's writing. And that's where the reading fails the listener. The author writes in a laconic yet incisive style that isn't matched by the narrator. William Dufris renders the work easy to listen to and carries it well, but his delivery just doesn't match the “Texas-ness” that permeates everything McMurtry writes. It's really a case of promise unfulfilled. The work is serviceable, but it falls short of what it could have been. R.C.G. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2008]