[In Somebody's Darling, an] arresting, kindly and wry novel about love, hope and fame, Larry McMurtry manages to be funny as he slouches through Hollywood without ever becoming cruel, cynical or mean-spirited. There is something about everyone here—and something for everyone who has ever felt longing….

McMurtry is a writer's writer, and most of the real readers in America have read one or more of his books, Horseman, Pass By; All My Friends Are Going To Be Strangers; The Last Picture Show, among others. I had some wrong-headed idea he was sort of the Clint Eastwood of serious writers—his books would be, I was sure, lean tough books about cowboys being sad in bars. I have some catching up to do. To be sure, there are cowboys here in Somebody's Darling—the craggy, footloose romantics, the workers of Hollywood who regard productions as cattle drives and...