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The Desert Rose : A Novel
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Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
List Price: $14.00
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Pulitzer Prize-winner Larry McMurtry writes novels set in the American heartland, but his real territory is the heart itself. His gift for writing about women -- their love for reckless, hopeless men; their ability to see the good in losers; and their peculiar combination of emotional strength and sudden weakness -- makes The Desert Rose the bittersweet, funny, and touching book that it is.
Harmony is a Las Vegas showgirl. At night she's a lead dancer in a gambling casino; during the day she raises peacocks. She's one of a dying breed of dancers, faced with fewer and fewer jobs and an even bleaker future. Yet she maintains a calm cheerfulness in that arid neon landscape of supermarkets, drive-in wedding chapels, and all-night casinos. While Harmony's star is fading, her beautiful, cynical daughter Pepper's is on the rise. But Harmony remains wistful and optimistic through it all. She is the unexpected blossom in the wasteland, the tough and tender desert rose. Hers is a loving portrait that only Larry McMurtry could render.
PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS:
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780684853840
ISBN: 0684853841
Label: Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: 2002-02-12
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Studio: Simon & Schuster
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CUSTOMER REVIEWS:
Leaving Las Vegas -
The last time, I believe, that it I mentioned Las Vegas in this space was regarding a review of the late Hunter Thompson's classic "gonzo" piece Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas that used that city as the backdrop for his drug-addled adventures spoofing the rubes. The last time that I mentioned the author of the book under review, Larry McMurtry, was just recently praising his Texas trilogy that was based on his classic 1950's coming of age tale The Last Picture Show. In a sense McMurtry tackles the scenes that the drug-rattled Thompson failed to get- a view of those who actually live and work in Vegas 24/7/365. That story has a certain pathos that McMurtry is able to milk. Maybe not in the definitive way that he can milk small town Texas for a story but milk it nevertheless.
Hollywood and Las Vegas has stood culturally in America as meccas for generations of young girls from places like Oklahoma and guys from Kansas as places to achieve fame, if only for that proverbial fifteen minutes. That is one of the strands that McMurtry weaved into his tale of the loves, dreams, losses and forfeitures of Las Vegas showgirl extra ordinaire Harmony and her ill-fated marriage to that Kansas boy, Ross.
This is also a story of generations as the product of the marriage, Pepper, although only a teenager seems destined to avoid most of the mistakes that "mom" made by having more talent - for picking right guys, rejecting bad guys and being a dancing prodigy rather than a mere showgirl. The problem, however, is that for Pepper to rise Harmony must fall. The two cannot share center stage in the casinos or in life. Moreover, in a youth-crazed culture epitomized to the nth degree in Vegas aging "mom" cannot fight the fates, even if she had the capacity to do so. That is the drama that centrally drives this little piece.
Along the way we get to look at the lives and loves of the people who hold Las Vegas together (if not themselves). We get to view lifelong Vegas denizens, the inevitable gay wardrobe guy, assorted talented or talentless showgirls and their trials and tribulations, sundry backstage types who share the dreams of the spotlight. Is this a McMurtry work that you must read? No, I already told you that Last Picture Show trilogy is a must read. But if you have a few hours, and want to read about what Thompson missed on his sojourn, then read this little novel.
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Pointless, mindless, plotless, etc. -
This is quite possibly the worst supposedly good book I have ever read. On the grammatical level, every other sentence contains a comma splice. I know that sounds like a minor nit to pick, but consider this: that is no exaggeration -- at least half of the sentences have exactly the same structure: "Jessie had already had her sedative and was a little groggy, she sort of dozed off while they were getting her room ready." Here's a paragraph-long sentence from the first page: "Ross was always thinking up funny names for things, it kept her laughing right up until they had Pepper, plus about a year more, and then she and Pepper took him down to the bus station behind the Stardust one day, he was going to check on a job doing lights for a show up in Tahoe, and had just sort of never come back, although Pepper was as cute a little girl as anyone could want and Harmony herself at the time had been said by some to have the best legs in Las Vegas and maybe the best bust too, although that was long before she had ever done topless, so that only Ross and a few of her old boyfriends really knew the whole story there." That is a SINGLE SENTENCE, ladies and gents! It becomes mind-numbing at some point, which is actually helpful in wading through this complete drivel. I only read the whole thing because I thought something interesting might happen. Let me spare you the anguish: Nothing ever happens! Nobody learns anything, or does anything, or thinks anything at all! I only cared about the characters in the sense that I wanted them all to fall into a tar pit together. I was very disappointed when this did not happen.
The abject badness of this book actually made me angry. In the foreword McMurtry admits that he crapped out this steaming pile while he was in the middle of writing Lonesome Dove, which I can only assume is a better book. It would be difficult to imagine otherwise.
I would agree with one of the other reviewers that an editor of some kind should have looked at this book pre-publication... but I think that would have resulted in an empty dust jacket. The blurbs and the foreword were certainly better-written than the text of the book.
Please note that Amazon does not allow zero-star reviews; one star is definitely not deserved.
A Disappointing Book From A Talented Writer!!! -
In this book the author introduces the reader to Harmony and her rebellious daughter Pepper. Harmony goes through the usual Mother and Daughter Trials and Tribulations which the reader is supposed to feel empathy for. Harmony's own life is a mess so I don't know how she is supposed to be of any great help to her daughter. Harmony also works as a topless Las Vegas Showgirl and although I did not expect her to be a Candidate for Mensa she comes across in this novel as an airhead who no doubt would have been the subject of lots of "Blonde Jokes". As Judge Judy says "Beauty fades but dumb is forever". I give this book 5 stars because the author has succeeded in describing life in the town of Las Vegas where nothing is real and it is all a maze of smoke and mirrors.
Sad and sweet all at once -
Set in tawdry Las Vegas, the story is about Harmony, now hitting 40, and once a real show-stopper on the Strip. But life has stopped being good for Harmony, and nothing in her life - her career, her lovelife, and especially her daughter Pepper - is going right. But she's a trooper, and nothing gets her down for long. McMurtry gets the sweetness and sadness of Harmony just right, even though at times her innocence comes across more as just ignorance of the ways of the world. Well done.
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Looking for love in all the wrong places... -
Not a typical McMurtry novel;but then again none of his are.I've had this book for a long time as well as it's sequel "The Late Child"and for a change of pace decided to give it a try.
It is a great read.Somewhat like "Tems of Endearment";but more along the lines of "Cadillac Jack";which was my first McMurtry novel and probably my favorite.As a matter of fact I would'nt have been surprised if he has shown up somewhere;maybe at one of Myrtle's garage sales.
McMurtry has put together a great bunch of characters who all belong with one another.Kind of like the cast you find in a novel by Erskine Caldwell,Kinky Friedman,Hunter Thompson or even Steinbeck.These characters come from a different slice of life . These are the personal lives of the people who live very public lives in the Las Vegas entertainment world.In spite of it all, these are real people.Mc Murtry shows it is a tough world and eats up the workers and gamblers and spits them out when they reach the end of their prime or run out of cash.Rather than being Rednecks I guess you'd have to call them Pinknecks.They are somewhat akin to those loveable characters we know as Carnies.
Anyway, the book is a great,fast moving read with a surprise on every turn of a page.A lot of characters and I'm glad I made notes as they appeared so I could keep track of them.
Liked it so much I'm reading "The Late Child " next to see what happened to all these characters.It's surprising that so much time went by between this book and the sequel--12 years.
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