Point of View

The story is told from the first-person point of view of Lonnie Bannon. Lonnie is a high-school senior growing up on his Granddad's ranch in rural Texas, in the 1950s. It seems likely that the book is semi-autobiographical, since Larry McMurtry also grew up working on his family's ranch, and since Larry and Lonnie are both nicknames for the name Lawrence. Interestingly, although it is a story about growing up, McMurtry was only twenty-four when he wrote this, so he had just grown up himself. Thus, the book offers a unique perspective on growing up, since the author has just been through it. It is very important that Lonnie sees things from the viewpoint of a modern (1950s) youth, because a lot of the character development has to do with contrasting his viewpoint with an older, more old-fashioned view. Lonnie represents the transition from the olden...