Family Saga

The pages of Larry McMurtry’s 637-page novel “The Evening Star” (1992) seem to turn by themselves even if reading about the sex lives of senior citizens may not be one’s idea of a good time.

Aurora Greenway, the central character in “Terms of Endearment,” returns in this sequel older but not necessarily wiser. Now in her 70s, Aurora shares her bed with Hector, a retired general a decade older. But Hector no longer satisfies in that bed, so she remains open to other possibilities, including her much younger analyst, Jerry.

Rosie, her longtime maid, is a woman of similar age with similar appetites. Over the years their relationship has become a close friendship, even if one does work for the other. They complain that men are weak jerks, yet they are always on the hunt for these men, much like the aging women in McMurtry's later novel “Loop Group.”

The novel has a large cast of characters that includes Aurora's three troubled grandchildren (Emma, her daughter, died in the earlier novel) and her great-grandchildren. As the novel opens, Tommy is in prison for murder. Teddy suffers from mental illness, as does his wife and apparently their infant son, Bump. Melanie, the plump granddaughter, lives her life trying to please a boyfriend who keeps leaving her for hotter women, then returning. But by the end of the novel, which covers a number of years, all three of these grandchildren manage to make something like success out of their lives.

McMurtry constantly flips the novel's point of view from one character to another, sometimes as often as three or four times in a couple of pages. Even the babies have a point of view, which is how we suspect Bump may not exactly be a well-balanced child.

Old people eventually die, and death finds a number of the characters in this novel, including Aurora herself. Even so McMurtry's narrative remains light and breezy, often hilarious, sometimes wise and always compelling. And so the pages keep flying by. ( )

Not what I had hoped for so I took it back to the library ( )

In Evening Star, which continues the story of Aurora Greenway (famously played by Shirley MacLaine in the Terms of Endearment film), I was particularly interested in her “memory project.” To combat what she fears will one day be total forgetfulness, Aurora instead attempts to categorize and file everything, from clippings to photos to scraps of paper. Her life has been — and remains — full, no question, and although we never see or learn of the benefits her project might bring, it struck a chord with me.
For a couple of years now I’ve attempted to “remember” what I read and watch by keeping notes regarding plot, characters, clips … even transcribing long quotes from — or YouTube links of — the work itself. ( )

McMurtry reprises the character of Aurora Greenway, star of his earlier novel, Terms of Endearment. ( )