The Late Child

Praise for
The Late Child

“Raucous, unexpected, and downright quirky, this is McMurtry at his powerful best.”

—Publishers Weekly

“McMurtry's genius for seductive, wholly American speech is in full flower here, and it's always a pleasure to hear his characters talk. … Harmony is one of McMurtry's best characters, eternally hopeful even when crushed with sadness.”

—Adam Woog,
Seattle Times

“A favorite old character and an endearing new one fill McMurtry's latest with heartbreak, hope, happiness. …
The Late Child
is the most optimistic, hopeful novel McMurtry has written in a long time. Eddie, one of the most memorable characters ever to walk out of the pages of a novel, has enough love, enough determination, and enough good ideas to keep not only his grieving mother but also all of us going.”

—Linda Brinson,
Winston-Salem Journal

“McMurtry has always written exceptionally well about women: they represent many of his most memorable characters, such as Patsy and Emma, or Jacy from
The Last Picture Show.
And in The
Late Child
, Harmony emerges as every bit their equal.”

—David L. Ulin,
Los Angeles Times

“
The Late Child
possesses a distinctive charm and, ultimately, a high position in McMurtry's body of work. … Eddie [is] one of the most appealing little boys in all of literature. … McMurtry's prose is sharp nearly all the way through; funny, sad, full of insight and human surprise.”

—David Hendricks, San
Antonio Express-News

“By the close of the novel, I found myself captivated by this bittersweet picture of life, eager to follow Harmony's story a step or two farther to see how things worked out.”

—Clay Reynolds,
Houston Chronicle

“Entertaining …
The Late Child
is both funny and forlorn. McMurtry has a good eye for eccentricity and the assorted misfits add a measure of peculiarity, kindness, and humor. … Harmony is a wonderful companion.”

—Susan Kelly,
USA Today

“McMurtry writes as insightfully about bright, passionate, confused, frustrated women as anybody has. … Maybe if we let go the reins of our life, as Harmony has to do when crippled by grief, our lives could take us places we never expected to go in our wildest dreams.”

—Joyce R. Slater,
Chicago Tribune

“This is a car trip … with episodes as hilarious as almost anything from Trip
to Bountiful
to
Breathing Lessons
to
National Lampoon's Family Vacation
… [by] an author whose character studies have the depth of real people.”

—Michael Lollar,
The Commercial Appeal
(Memphis)

“McMurtry … invests Harmony's plight with genuine poignancy.”

—Michael Berry,
San Francisco Chronicle

“The
Late Child
offers a darker look at the American heartland than the bicoastal culture is accustomed to. … McMurtry clearly dotes on Harmony … she's finely drawn and believable.”

—Angie Jabine,
Oregonian

“[A] trademark Larry McMurtry production, a hilarious and poignant cross-country odyssey that's rich in characters, laughs, and truths about life.”

—Jean Westmoore,
Buffalo News

“The
Late Child
has some sweet fablelike moments. … The story is never less than engaging, and sometimes dates to be more ambitious than that.”

—Amanda Heller, The
Boston Globe

“Distinctly readable … McMurtry's accomplishment is the way in which, by virtue of Harmony's sorrowful cruise through the complacency of their worlds, everyone around her starts to make noise, like dominoes falling. Choices are made, many of them agonizing, some liberating, most pointing this or that person toward home.”

—Beaufort Cranford, The
Detroit News

“It's always fun to listen to McMurtry's characters talk.”

—Verlyn Klinkenborg, The
New York Times Book Review

“Traditional and modern American landscapes come to life, personalities flawed by limited intelligence and unlimited heart flash between poignancy and slapstick, and the story takes on a momentum in the early pages that does not flag until the very last.”

—Judi Goldenberg,
Richmond Times-Dispatch

“The author gives us another tender and comic odyssey that sends his characters on an unforgettable journey across America.”

—Mary Jane Ulmer,
Beaver County Times
(Pennsylvania)

“Engaging and charming … uniquely shaped by [McMurtry's] witty vivacity and humorous cynicism … The author pulls off this picaresque comedy better than anybody else writing today.”

—John G. Cawelti,
Lexington Herald-Leader

“Under McMurtry's fine hand, [the] denouement is as perfect as the rest of this wonderful book. …
The Late Child
is actually a joyous celebration of life and our instincts to survive. … It is a great piece of work and another winner from one of America's finest writers.”

—Curt Schleier,
The Grand Rapids Press

B
Y
L
ARRY
M
C
M
URTRY

Paradise

Boone's Lick

Roads: Driving America's Greatest Highways

Still Wild: Short Fiction of the American West 1950 to the Present

Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen

Duane's Depressed

Crazy Horse

Comanche Moon

Dead Man's Walk

The Late Child

Streets of Laredo

The Evening Star

Buffalo Girls

Some Can Whistle

Anything for Billy

Film Flam: Essays on Hollywood

Texasville

Lonesome Dove

The Desert Rose

Cadillac Jack

Somebody's Darling

Terms of Endearment

All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers

Moving On

The Last Picture Show

In a Narrow Grave: Essays on Texas

Leaving Cheyenne

Horseman, Pass By

B
Y
L
ARRY
M
C
M
URTRY AND
D
IANA
O
SSANA

Pretty Boy Floyd

Zeke and Ned

Larry McMurtry

SCRIBNER PAPERBACK FICTION
Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Rockefeller Center
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 1995 by Larry McMurtry
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

First Scribner Paperback Fiction edition 2002
SCRIBNER PAPERBACK FICTION
and design are trademarks of Macmillan Library Reference USA, Inc., used under license by Simon & Schuster, the publisher of this work.

For information regarding special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-800-456-6798 or
[email protected]

Designed by Colin Joh

Manufactured in the United States of America

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 0-7432-2254-7 (Pbk)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-2254-9
eISBN: 978-1-4391-2978-4

For Curtis

 

Take me back to Tulsa,
      I'm too young to marry.…
                      
BOB WILLS

T
HE
L
ATE
C
HILD