The Ballad of Gussie & Clyde: A True Story of True Love

It is a feat to turn a family story into a narrative with significance for the world at large. Latham meets that challenge head-on here, retelling the tale of his 84-year-old widowed father, Clyde, and his romance with Gussie, an 81-year-old he hadn't seen since childhood. The result is a sweet but slight book. Latham (Urban Cowboy) is an accomplished novelist, but here he is trying so hard the strain shows. The story is broken up with quotations from metaphysical poets; references to his wife, Lesley Stahl, of 60 Minutes fame, are judiciously scattered throughout; and Latham can't resist using his father's story to inventory his own life and emotions. Gussie gives up her familiar life in California to return to Clyde's town of Spur, Texas--population ""1,800 and shrinking."" The romance of Gussie and Clyde is powerful and moving in its own right, especially when put to the test by the inevitable ravages of ill health and modern medicine. But the implication that we should marvel at rewarding and passionate relationships between those in their 80s is troubling. (June)