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Anything for Billy is a 1988 American novel by Larry McMurtry about Billy the Kid.

It was one of a series of what McMutry called his "frontier yarns", others including Boone's Lick and Buffalo Girls. He said Anything for Billy was a parody of dime novels. He also wrote that Anything for Billy and Buffalo Girls "I tried to subvert the Western myth with irony and parody."

Reception

Kirkus Reviews wrote, "Stuffed with excitement, humor, tragedy, and leathery Western lore; centerpieced by McMurtry's vibrant portrait of Billy, scary, pathetic, yet darkly if oddly sympathetic; told in a warm, wise voice that you wish would never cease: this is a golden, always surprising yarn, and a welcome return by McMurtry to the high-stepping form of Lonesome Dove."

Publisher's Weekly said "This tale of random violence, unlikely romance and quicksilver friendships in the old West is a rip-roaring gamble with a tear in its eye, and it pays off in spades."

References

1. McMurtry, Larry (2009). Literary Life: A Second Memoir. Simon & Schuster. p. 152.
2. McMurtry, Larry (2001). Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen : reflections at sixty and beyond. p. 55.
3. Anything for Billy review at Kirkus
4. Anything for Billy review at Publishers Weekly

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