Streets of Laredo (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Larry McMurtry
- First Published: 1993
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: The late nineteenth century
- Setting: Texas and Mexico
- Principal Characters: Captain Woodrow Call, Joey Garza, Maria Sanchez, Pea Eye Parker, Lorena Parker, Mox, Ned Brookshire, Charles Goodnight, John Wesley Hardin, Judge Roy Bean, Ted Plunkert, Doobie Plunkert, Famous Shoes, Colonel Sheridan Terry
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: North America or North Americans
- Locales: Mexico
In 1981, Larry McMurtry, who had left his native state to live in Washington, D.C., excoriated fellow Texas writers for wallowing in a pastoral myth of cowboys and cattle drives. In a lengthy, mordant essay, “Ever a Bridegroom: Reflections on the Failure of Texas Literature,” that took up most of the October 23 issue of The Texas Observer, McMurtry insisted that Texas has not produced any major writers because its most promising talents have been content to work redundant variations on a simplistic, sentimental frontier narrative. Contemporary Texas, he contended, is an urban...
[The entire page is 2145 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
See Also
