Why?

The parents of Pulitzer-prize winning author, Larry McMurtry, divorced in 1976, after 44 years of marriage. Forty-four years! Why, after 44 years, did Mr. and Mrs. McMurtry divorce? There were probably several, but the author, and son, focused on one in the first volume of his memoir.

Larry McMurtry’s father “was haunted” by the price his own mother (Larry’s grandmother) paid for settling on the frontier of Texas. One example was the burden of transporting water from the spring to the cabin, which Mr. McMurtry personally witnessed as a boy. There were, of course, many more hardships she had to endure to assist her husband and serve her growing family.

Larry’s father married a woman, who did not have to endure such toil.  Life was easier. Yet, a tension lingered for the duration of their marriage. As Larry wrote, even though the couple could occasionally have fun, “the core problem remained: my father could not forgive my mother for having an easier life than his mother had.”