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LEAVING CHEYENNE  by Larry McMurtry

LEAVING CHEYENNE

A Novel

by Larry McMurtry

Pub Date: June 15th, 1963
ISBN: 0684853876
Publisher: Harper & Row

She title's Cheyenne is "that part of a cowboy's day which is his earliest best — his blood's country and his heart's pastureland". Gideon Fry, Molly and Johnny McCloud met at such a time in the Texas of the early 1900's. They formed a unique triangle then that endured for over fifty years in which only the times, not the people or the basics of the country, changed. Using each as a narrator at various stages, the story is told of Gid's love for Molly, her refusal to carry him and the polyandrous relationship that is established between the two men, Molly and her lout of a husband. The saga sags with Molly who happily produces by-blow for each lover. It is supposed to be earthy wisdom that keeps her from carrying Gid, but this is hardly proved at any point. McMurtry has no difficulty creating believable, memorable men, but in Molly we have one of those unsatisfactory portraits of a woman who is more of a regular guy with female equipment. , an ambitious, conscientious rancher is in contrast to his best friend Johnny, she eternally unfettered cowboy. As in his last book Horseman Pass By which has the current hit movie Hud the author depicts a starkly unglamorized Texas. Occasionally he indulges in "offal realism". His offensive and unnecessary scenes animal and human micturition are the devices of an amateur, and, at still less than the age of 30, McMurtry is not that but a powerful storyteller with a grip on his landscape and background material.