✨ Featured Offer
Used, Very Good
$5.53
List Price: $16.99
🚚
See all 5 offers from $5.53 FREE standard delivery by: 30 Mar 2026
Overview
In this haunting and elegiac sequel to Duane's Depressed, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Larry McMurtry returns to Thalia, Texas, to explore emotional reinvention, erotic awakening, and the sting of midlife reintegration.
Back from a two-week trip to Egypt, Duane finds he cannot readjust to life in Thalia, the small, dusty West Texas hometown in which he has spent all of his life. In the short time he was away, it seems that everything has changed alarmingly. His office barely has a reason to exist now that his son Dickie is running the company from Wichita Falls, his lifelong friends seem to have suddenly grown old, his familiar hangout--once a good old-fashioned convenience store--has been transformed into an "Asian Wonder Deli," his daughters seem to have taken leave of their senses and moved on to new and strange lives, and his own health is at serious risk.
It's as if Duane cannot find any solace or familiarity in Thalia and cannot even bring himself to revisit the house he shared for decades with his late wife, Karla, and their children and grandchildren. He spends his days aimlessly riding his bicycle (already a sign of serious eccentricity in West Texas) and living in his cabin outside town. The more he tries to get back to the rhythm of his old life, the more he realizes that he should have left Thalia long ago--indeed everybody he cared for seems to have moved on without him, to new lives or to death.
The only consolation is meeting the young, attractive geologist, Annie Cameron, whom Dickie has hired to work out of the Thalia office. Annie is brazenly seductive, yet oddly cold, young enough to be Duane's daughter, or worse, and Duane hasn't a clue how to handle her. He's also in love with his psychiatrist, Honor Carmichael, who after years of rebuffing him, has decided to undertake what she feels is Duane's very necessary sex reeducation, opening him up to some major, life-changing surprises.
When the Light Goes reminds everyone that where there's life, there is indeed hope. At once realistic and life-loving, often hilariously funny, and always moving, Larry McMurtry has written one of his finest and most compelling novels to date, doing for Duane what he did so triumphantly for Aurora in Terms of Endearment.
Back from a two-week trip to Egypt, Duane finds he cannot readjust to life in Thalia, the small, dusty West Texas hometown in which he has spent all of his life. In the short time he was away, it seems that everything has changed alarmingly. His office barely has a reason to exist now that his son Dickie is running the company from Wichita Falls, his lifelong friends seem to have suddenly grown old, his familiar hangout--once a good old-fashioned convenience store--has been transformed into an "Asian Wonder Deli," his daughters seem to have taken leave of their senses and moved on to new and strange lives, and his own health is at serious risk.
It's as if Duane cannot find any solace or familiarity in Thalia and cannot even bring himself to revisit the house he shared for decades with his late wife, Karla, and their children and grandchildren. He spends his days aimlessly riding his bicycle (already a sign of serious eccentricity in West Texas) and living in his cabin outside town. The more he tries to get back to the rhythm of his old life, the more he realizes that he should have left Thalia long ago--indeed everybody he cared for seems to have moved on without him, to new lives or to death.
The only consolation is meeting the young, attractive geologist, Annie Cameron, whom Dickie has hired to work out of the Thalia office. Annie is brazenly seductive, yet oddly cold, young enough to be Duane's daughter, or worse, and Duane hasn't a clue how to handle her. He's also in love with his psychiatrist, Honor Carmichael, who after years of rebuffing him, has decided to undertake what she feels is Duane's very necessary sex reeducation, opening him up to some major, life-changing surprises.
When the Light Goes reminds everyone that where there's life, there is indeed hope. At once realistic and life-loving, often hilariously funny, and always moving, Larry McMurtry has written one of his finest and most compelling novels to date, doing for Duane what he did so triumphantly for Aurora in Terms of Endearment.
| ISBN-13 | 9781416534273 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10 | 141653427X |
| Weight | 0.35 Pounds |
| Dimensions | 5.50 x 0.52 x 8.50 In |
| List Price | $16.99 |
| Format | Paperback |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Pages | 208 pages |
| Publisher | Simon & Schuster |
| Published On | 2008-03-18 |
View All Offers
Sort by:
Price
Condition
Seller
Seller Comments
Price
Used, Good
Seller details
Greenworld Books
Arlington, TX, USA
Good condition. It may show normal signs of use such as light writing highlighting or library markin...
Free delivery by: 30 Mar 2026
✨ Used, Very Good
Seller details
Greenworld Books
Arlington, TX, USA
Fast-Very Good condition book with a firm cover and clean pages. Shows normal use and some light wea...
Free delivery by: 30 Mar 2026
Used, Good
Seller details
Goodwill of Greater Milwaukee
Milwaukee, WI, USA
Book is considered to be in good or better condition. The actual cover image may not match the sto...
Free delivery by: 30 Mar 2026
Used, Good
Seller details
Goodwill Books
Hillsboro, OR, USA
Signs of wear and consistent use.
Free delivery by: 30 Mar 2026
Used, Good
Seller details
Evergreen Goodwill
Seattle, WA, USA
Free delivery by: 30 Mar 2026