MOVING ON

Twenty years after its publication McMurtry's portrait of a contemporary marriage is definitely dated. In a preface to a new edition of the book, included in this recorded version, the author acknowledges the effect of the social changes of the intervening decades. As long as one keeps the time and locale firmly in mind, this is great entertainment; the follies and mishaps and hopes of the characters remind us of ourselves. Narrator Michael Prichard reads like a reporter, as though this were a piece on the evening news. The only dramatic touch is to give the rodeo and ranch people credible Southern twangs. The city folks--native Texans Patsy, Jim and their friends and university colleagues--are voiced with no discernable accent. N.B.H. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: MAR 93]