Reading Order
Some Can Whistle Reading Order
Some Can Whistle (1989) by Larry McMurtry is a companion novel to All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers (1972) — the story of Danny Deck, a television writer who became famous and rich from one hit series, now living as a hermit in his Texas ranch while his unseen daughter T.R. calls him for the first time at age 20. The novel opens with that phone call and becomes the story of what happens when Danny finally meets T.R. and brings her and her two children into his isolated world. Some Can Whistle is one of McMurtry's most philosophical novels — Danny Deck is an intellectual, a man who thinks constantly about what he is doing and why, and the novel gives him room to ruminate about fame, money, solitude, art, and what it means to be responsible for a daughter he has never known. The novel has the quality of a man who has been alone long enough to have developed elaborate theories about everything and who is now confronting a reality (his daughter) that his theories cannot accommodate. T.R. herself is one of McMurtry's best female characters — practical, energetic, funny, completely outside Danny's philosophical framework, and completely alive in a way that Danny, for all his sophistication, has ceased to be.
Where to start
All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers first is ideal — Danny Deck appears there as a young writer, and Some Can Whistle is more resonant knowing his earlier history. But Some Can Whistle works as a standalone. Any Simon & Schuster paperback.
Complete Some Can Whistle Book List
- 1Buy
Some Can Whistle
Larry McMurtry·1989·The novel — Danny Deck on his Texas ranch, the phone call from his 20-year-old daughter T.R., their meeting; McMurtry's most philosophical novel, the story of a famous solitary man confronting the daughter he abandoned. - 2Buy
All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers
Larry McMurtry·1972·The companion novel — Danny Deck as a young writer in Houston and Austin, his first novel's success; the essential predecessor for understanding who Danny Deck is and what brought him to his Texas isolation. - 3Buy
Lonesome Dove
Larry McMurtry·1985·McMurtry's Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece — the companion in his full range; the frontier Texas epic is the opposite pole from Some Can Whistle's contemporary, introspective mode. - 4Buy
Terms of Endearment
Larry McMurtry·1975·McMurtry's mother-daughter novel — the companion in his domestic fiction; Aurora and Emma's relationship is the female version of the parent-child dynamic that drives Danny and T.R.'s relationship in Some Can Whistle. - 5Buy
The World According to Garp
John Irving·1978·Irving's comic novel about a writer and his unusual life — the companion in the tradition of the American novel about the relationship between writing and living; Garp's attempts to be both a writer and a father are the comic companion to Danny Deck's more philosophical version of the same problem. - 6Buy
Humboldt's Gift
Saul Bellow·1975·Bellow's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel — Charlie Citrine's meditation on his dead mentor Von Humboldt Fleisher is the high literary companion in the tradition of the American novelist thinking about fame, money, and what art is worth; Danny Deck's ruminations are in the same philosophical register. - 7Buy
A Fan's Notes
Frederick Exley·1968·Exley's autobiographical novel about failure, drinking, and watching Frank Gifford play football — the companion in the tradition of American fiction about the man who was supposed to succeed and didn't; Danny Deck's success is the mirror image of Exley's failure, both obsessing over what their lives should have been. - 8Buy
The Sportswriter
Richard Ford·1986·Ford's novel about a former novelist turned sportswriter in the aftermath of his son's death — the companion in American fiction about the man who stopped being what he was supposed to be; Frank Bascombe is the nearest contemporary literary character to Danny Deck.
Some Can Whistle — Frequently Asked Questions
What is Some Can Whistle about?
Some Can Whistle is the story of Danny Deck, a television writer who had one enormous hit, made millions, and has been living as a hermit in his Texas ranch for years, unable to write anything else. The novel opens when his daughter T.R. — whom he has not seen since she was an infant — calls him for the first time. Danny flies her and her two children to his ranch, and the novel becomes the story of their relationship: Danny's attempt to know his daughter, T.R.'s attempt to understand her father, and the collision between Danny's elaborate philosophizing and T.R.'s practical energy. T.R. is 20, has two children by different men, lives chaotically and energetically, and is not remotely interested in Danny's theoretical frameworks for understanding experience.
What is Danny Deck like?
Danny Deck is one of McMurtry's most interesting characters — a man of genuine intelligence and genuine failure, who thinks better than he lives. He made enormous amounts of money from a television series, but he has not been able to write another novel (he started seven and abandoned them all), and he has been hiding in his Texas ranch, thinking about everything and doing nothing. He is self-aware about his failure — he knows exactly why he stopped writing, approximately, and why he chose isolation over engagement — but his self-awareness has not allowed him to change anything. Meeting T.R. is the first genuinely unexpected thing that has happened to him in years, and the novel is about whether the unexpected can restart a man who has stopped.
How does Some Can Whistle connect to All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers?
Some Can Whistle is a sequel to All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers (1972). In the earlier novel, Danny Deck is a young Houston writer whose first novel has just been published and is a success; the novel follows him through his marriage, its failure, his move to California, and his slow unraveling. T.R. is conceived in All My Friends — Danny abandons T.R.'s mother before the birth. Some Can Whistle takes up Danny nearly twenty years later, after his television success, his wealth, and his retirement into isolation. Some Can Whistle reads as a standalone but is richer for knowing All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers, especially because the Danny of the later novel is constantly reflecting on who he was and what he did in the period the earlier novel covers.
Why is T.R. such an important character?
T.R. is important because she is completely outside Danny's philosophical framework — she has not read the books Danny has read, she is not interested in the theories he uses to understand his life, and she is alive in a way that Danny, for all his sophistication, has ceased to be. She is practical and energetic and funny, and she has a kind of authenticity that Danny's elaborate intellectualism has foreclosed. The novel uses T.R. to ask whether contact with someone who is genuinely, uncomplicatedly alive can restart a man who has retreated into pure thinking. McMurtry does not give a comfortable answer.
What should I read after Some Can Whistle?
After Some Can Whistle, All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers (1972) is the companion novel showing Danny Deck as a young writer. For McMurtry's other major work, Lonesome Dove and Terms of Endearment are the most important. For American fiction about writers and fame in the same tradition, John Irving's The World According to Garp and Saul Bellow's Humboldt's Gift are the most important companions. Richard Ford's The Sportswriter is the nearest contemporary literary character to Danny Deck.
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