Telegraph Days

By: Larry McMurtry

Narrated by: Annie Potts

Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

Not since the publication of his own beloved classic Lonesome Dove has there been a novel like this one, another big, brilliant, unputdownable saga of the West from Larry McMurtry. Telegraph Days is at once a major work of literature and a completely absorbing read; not just great fiction, but fiction on a great scale, encompassing many years, many characters, real and fictional, and the whole vast landscape of place, time, life, and heart, which has served for more than 130 years as the background for "the Western" in fiction and on the screen. Nobody writes, or has ever written, better about the West than Larry McMurtry, and nobody has caught better in words its myths, its often brutal reality, its overwhelming size, and the way it captured both the imagination and the hopes of those who settled there, only, as was so often the case, to dash those hopes.

Told in the voice of Nellie Courtright, a spunky, courageous, attractive young woman whose story this is in part, Telegraph Days is the big novel of the Western gunfighters that people have been hoping for years Larry McMurtry would write.

©2006 Larry McMurtry. All rights reserved. (P)2006 Simon & Schuster Inc. All rights reserved.

Critic reviews

• Winner of Audio Publishers Association 2007 Audie Award, Solo Narration - Female

• Audie Award Finalist, Fiction, Unabridged, 2007
• Audie Award Finalist, Solo Narration - Female, 2007

"McMurtry's latest skips through western lore with a wry smile." (Publishers Weekly)
"In his striving to demythologize the West, McMurtry's vision of the reality is compelling." (Booklist)

Missing last 4 chapters

Had anyone else had an issue with downloading this? I was thoroughly enjoying in but it stopped working with 2 hours and 10 minutes remaining. The last 4 chapters are greyed out with no option to continue download. I’ve never had this happen with audible before.

Enjoyable

I wanted to review this book and come here to find that my feelings are similar to the other reviewers. I always return to Larry McMurtry hoping to find another novel with the magic of Lonesome Dove. This is not that novel. But I still felt it was an above average novel. Obviously, Nellie could not have met all the characters she met if this were a true story any more than the character Forrest Gump could have met everyone he did. But that did not change my enjoyment of the novel and a glimpse of what it might have been like to be a woman in those Old West days. Annie Pots was the ideal reader and I found myself wanting to hear more of "Nellie's" story. No there was not a plot per se but it was a story of a life lived in another time. I recommend it.

Good McMurtry, not great

I'm a big McMurtry fan, but his last several books have an overtone of tedium to them. This one is one of his better ones in the last few years, but is no comparison to Lonesome Dove or any of his other western-themed novels. Annie Pots is a terrific reader and you may enjoy the story, but this is not a compelling book as many of McMurtry's earlier works have been. The plot is thin and riddled with western legends, not the real men and women in Lonesome Dove that made it such an interesting story.

Another great book from McMurtry

I loved this book. McMurty really is the master of tales from the old west. There isn't a better author of the old west. Annie Potts reading a McMurty book is as good as it gets. Wonderful!!!

loved it

I have read most of his books and I really love them all. This one is no exception! I highly recommend this book for it's entertainment value as well as it's nostalgia...you feel like you are Nell's best friend. Excellent narrator.

telegraph days

This isn't my normal genre, but it was a nice break. Good characters, and loved Annie Potts as narrator. I liked this.

Annie Potts is one of my favorite narrators.

Any additional comments?

I'm a big fan of McMurtry. This is not one my favorite books of his. It's really good, but I'd read other books of his first if I were you. BUT that being said, Annie Potts was one of the best readers I have ever heard of my entire Audiobook experience. She did a fantastic job.

Too much extramarital sex

Too much extramarital sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex disappointed with this

Where's the plot

Annie Potts is a very good reader. I love Lonesome Dove. But i must say this is weak. There is no plot and just ambling around the old west meeting every famous person. Nothing really happens. I suppose it may be enough to have penned Lonesome Dove, one of my all time favorite books but if you're not going to try to wright something close to that PLEASE STOP.

nonsense

love his lonesome dove novels. this book was written like a child's comic book. shame