Larry McMurtry's books are all exceedingly well written, I think, and they are among the finest works of western fiction ever...but they are ultimately quite depressing also. That bothers me, and it kind of spoiled the experience of reading them for me.

I don't believe in a defeatist philosophy of life that ends in the final death and collapse of everyone's best hopes and dreams...in the final defeat of their best potential. I realize that life sometimes IS like that for a lot of people, but I see little use in composing a brilliant work of fiction that leads to such nihilistic conclusions. (I would have to assume that Larry McMurtry has no belief in anything beyond this physical life...in which case, of course, every life would finally end in complete defeat and dissolution. I don't see it that way at all. Not for a moment.)

Fiction might better serve to inspire people with what is possible and what is noble and triumphant, then to simply depress them with the presumed ultimate futility of our mortal existence.

Larry McMurtry's stories are spectacularly well told, but they leave a really bad taste in my mouth when they end...the taste of death, disillusionment, and ashes. I don't need it.

Louis L'Amour's books are brilliant in a quite different way, and they don't leave that bad taste in my mouth when the story ends. Elmore Leonard's books likewise.

If a story is a true life story that ends in someone's defeat and tragedy...great...I appreciate hearing what really happened in any true life story....but I don't particularly long for fictional stories that make me feel like slitting my own wrists when I finally reach the words: "The End".