The Desert Rose
08 October 2015Imprint: Picador
Synopsis
Bittersweet, funny and touching, Larry McMurtry's The Desert Rose is the story of Harmony, 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...
Details
08 October 2015416 pages
9781447274650Imprint: Picador
Reviews
Warm and funny . . . The real triumph of the book is Harmony herself, an unabashed romantic whose optimism and tenderness refuse to wilt in this arid, unromantic setting . . . McMurtry can transform ordinary words into highly lyrical, poetic passages . . . and presents human dramas with a sympathy and compassion that make us care about his characters in ways that most novelists can'tThe Los Angeles Times
Sad and sweet yet rigorously unsentimental. Mr McMurtry has the power to clutch the heart and also somehow to exhilarateNew Yorker
The astounding thing about Harmony . . . is that she really does have a heart of gold, and despite everything, she is wholly believable, oddly moving, even lovablePublishers Weekly
It is quite impossible not to fall in love with Harmony while reading The Desert Rose. . . It is unquestionably one of his best novels . . . The Desert Rose is, in a quite unassuming way, a beautiful little bookThe Washington Post Book World
