61 out of 61 people found this review helpful.
Hell just froze over - I found a Western that I loved!
Date of Review: Jul 27, 2006
The Bottom Line: The bottom line is practicing its lasso technique
Recently, I finished a book and went to get the next one in my library stack when -gasp- I realized my library stack was gone. Remembering that when we moved the year before, we left almost 50 boxes of books unopened in the basement, I asked Z to go get me one of his favorites to read. He came back upstairs with Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove. After thinking to myself A Western? Are you kidding me? I went ahead and started it. It was either that, or do housework. 800+ pages later, the housework still needs to be done because I couldn't put down the book.
By the time the shade had reached the river, Augustus would have mellowed with the evening and be ready for some intelligent conversation, which usually involved talking to himself.
Captains Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call are retired Texas Rangers who now own and operate a cattle ranch in Lonesome Dove, Texas called the Hat Creek Cattle Company and Livery Emporium. Well, Captain Call operates it anyways. Gus McCrae is more the laid back type, likes to gamble, talk, and spend time with Lorena, the town's only prostitute. When Jake Spoon, a fellow Ranger, shows up and starts talking about the beauty of Montana, just waiting to be claimed and settled, Call decides it's time to move.
Incompetents invariably made trouble for people other than themselves. - Captain Call's thoughts on Jake Spoon
After stealing some cattle and horses from Mexico, and hiring a few cowboys, the group sets off toward Montana. Jake has also decided to bring Lorena along for the ride, much to everyone but Gus's chagrin. Jake's true colors show, however, when he quickly tires of Lorena, hits her and leaves her to ride into the nearest town to gamble. It is during his absence that Lorena is taken by Blue Duck, a stealthy half-white, half-Indian man whose reputation goes back to Call and McCrae's Ranger days.
Meanwhile, a young sheriff, July Johnson has been sent from his small town to go after Jake Spoon for killing the town dentist. The book jumps from the cattle drive to July and his gang, to July's derelict wife, to Gus's love lost, Clara. Not only does it swing from story to story, but, as in the best stories, each of the memorable characters is intricately connected, fleeting in and out of each other's story arcs. I haven't found many books where the author was able to weave that many characters, that many stories, and end up with such a polished novel.
It is Larry McMurtry's descriptions of the landscape, and his ability to create and develop the most remarkable characters I've read in a long time, that made this book so wonderful. Prior to reading the book, I would have sworn that no matter how well it was written, I wouldn't enjoy a Western. Yes, I realize that was a silly thought. Hindsight's 20-20, or so I've been told.
After a slow start, during which part of me was thinking, See, I told you a Western wouldn't be good, I was enthralled. At one point, I dropped the paperback into the bath (sorry, honey) and ran out to the library to rent a sturdier copy. I finished the massive book before I was ready to take my leave of the characters I'd met and the places I'd been.
I'm on a streak with my books, having read so many good ones recently. I'd like to go pick up the sequel to this, Streets of Laredo, but am afraid to break the streak. Anyone out there read it yet? And yes, I now want to watch the Lonesome Dove miniseries.
A man who wouldn't cheat for a poke don't want one bad enough. - Gus McCrae, after cheating for a poke (of course!)
