Somebody's Darling (novel)

Last updated
Somebody's Darling
Author Larry McMurtry
LanguageEnglish
Set inHollywood
Publication date
1978
Publication placeUSA
Preceded byAll My Friends Are Going to be Strangers 

Somebody's Darling is a 1978 American novel by Larry McMurtry. It was his first Hollywood novel and in 2005 he called it his "worst book". [1]

McMurtry later wrote "By the time of Somebody’s Darling I had been working in Hollywood nearly twenty years and I still didn’t know enough about the town to write a wholly convincing book about it. The book has its moments, but these are scattered; the recollections of the old screenwriter Joe Percy are my favorite parts, now that I too, like Joe, have become an old screenwriter." [2]

The New York Times wrote "the trouble is that the characters keep kicking over the traces of the plots and themes. It's just as well they do. It's what makes them so appealing." [3]

Kirkus called it an "imperfect but lovable book ." [4]

McMutry tried for several years to have a film financed with Diane Keaton and wrote "nothing cinematic came of this except a great friendship. Somebody’s Darling is a Hollywood novel—it went nowhere because of Hollywood’s persistent dislike of itself as a subject." [5]

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References

  1. ↑ Conversations with Texas writers. 2005. p. 242.
  2. ↑ McMurtry p 52
  3. ↑ Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher (20 December 1978). "Books of The Times". New York Times.
  4. ↑ Review of book at Kirkus
  5. ↑ McMurtry, 2010 p 23

Notes

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