Terms of Endearment is a 1975 American novel written by Larry McMurtry.

The novel follows the often fraught relationship between a mother and daughter, as they manage marriages, illness, and other life events.

[1] McMurtry wrote the novel in Italy while supervising his son James, who was appearing in the film Daisy Miller.

I have come to like a later book, Duane's Depressed, just as much and maybe more, but Terms of Endearment still seems like my most mature fiction.

The minute I finished that book I fell into a literary gloom that lasted from 1975 until 1983, when the miracle of The Desert Rose snapped me out of it.