This is a great yarn, very nicely crafted. The writing is very good, nothing fancy but very fitting to the overall setting. Another reviewer calls it deceptively simple, which seems right - no big words, really plain and simple on its face, but everything develops like a well-woven blanket. The author beautifully renders physical setting, with south Texas and the plains of Oklahoma and Kansas getting lavish attention, parts north a bit less so.

McMurtry's real gift here, though, is character development. We get to tour the interior lives of a wide cast, the bit players just once or twice and the protagonists with multiple deep dives. I did find myself a little frustrated by their fixity, though - no one really learns anything, or grows, or even changes much, except for Newt. It's very possible that this was intentional, one of the points. But some of the characters are pretty dense and but Newt are as stubborn as mules. The irresolution of the various key relationships also left me hanging a little bit, though, again, McMurtry's gifted enough that that must be by design. I might mull it over more in my head and come to more understanding, as sometimes happens. In the meantime, this is a wonderful tale of the American West, and I'd gratefully receive recommendations for others books "like this", that do the West justice, develop good characters (especially the stony soil of men's hearts), are terrifically written, and tell a good tale.