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Summary: Magnificent Epic novel, not just for Western Theme readers
Review: Lonesome Dove is an epic novel that truly sweeps you into the time and place it is set in. You are drawn by the superb writing of Larry McMurtry into the world of Gus McCrea and W.F. Call, two retired Texas Rangers who decide to drive a herd of cattle from Texas up to the wild Montana territory.
The characters are so richly described, and yet remain simple in their ways. Gus, Call, Newt, Deets, Pea-Eye, Jake, Lorena, Clara, July, Bolivar, Lippy, Dish, Roscoe, Joe, and so many more. Even characters with small parts seem fully developed and all enhance the storyline. This novel is not just for readers of Western fiction, readers from all fiction types will love this book!
It is a story about people, about simpler and yet more violent times, about human nature and about the value of life.
There is much humor in this book ("pigs on the porch just make things hotter") but it is not a 'fluffy' story. It is tragic and sad, you feel the depression and the hopelessness of some of the characters, and yet others bring you to feel the hope and humor of life in general.
So many things happen to the Hat Creek Outfit on their cattle drive north, Jasper's fear of crossing rivers, Dish's love for Lorena, Lorena's kidnapping, Newt's coming-of-age, stampedes, storms, death, Jake getting tied up with the bad Suggs brothers, Indian encounters, July's hunt for Jake, Roscoe's hunt for July, Clara's horse ranch, and so much more. It would make this review way too long. I can recommend this book highly, without reservation, to anyone on the basis that the story never falters, and the tale is so richly told that it will just sweep you away!
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Summary: My new favorite author
Review: My love of westerns prompted me to read this novel. I generally stay away from "Made for TV movie" novels, but I had heard from many of my friends that this was a novel that couldn't be passed up. I am very glad I took the time to get into the novel. It is a fabulous epic that I will read again and again. Not only that, but I have gone and purchased the other three books of the series, and am anxious to begin reading them.
"Lonesome Dove" starts out kind of slow. You are introduced to the main characters early on, but the story line doesn't really pick up until the journey to Montana begins. Lorena's capture was the clincher of the novel. From that point on I was hooked. I could not put the book down until I finished it. I liked the development of Lorena's character, but unfortunately McMurtry puts it to an abrupt ending as soon as they reach Nebraska. She immediately went from a major character to a background character.
I am also wondering a bit why McMurtry decided to leave Woodrow Call's character such a secret until the very end of the novel. Like Clara, I don't particularly like Call, and wonder why McMurtry made him the character who rides into the sunset. I guess I will have to read "Streets of Laredo" to find out.
Augustus McCrae is by far my favorite character of the novel. His character is so well developed that you feel like you know him personally. He is fun, playful, sensitive, caring, skilled, and opinionated. What a great guy! What a hero.
My second favorite character of the novel is Newt. You can see him mature before your eyes. I hope that some day a novel is written about him.
Using myth, mystery and superstition, I believe that Blue Duck is an awesome character. He is crude and devilish, and his ending is so grand. McMurtry gave us just enough information to keep us in suspense, but not enough to form the whole picture of who this villan was.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who is in for a great epic tale of the American west. I think McMurtry is one of the best American authors we have ever had. I cannot wait to pick up his other novels.
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Summary: Deserves all the accolades it gets!
Review: It wasn't until I started to read McMurtry's "Streets of Laredo," which is the sequel to "Lonesome Dove," that I realized how much I truly love the original novel. In the first couple of pages of "Streets of Laredo" McMurtry describes the deaths of two of the surviving characters from "Lonesome Dove." I was so shocked and angry that I threw the book down. In fact, I was so upset at McMurtry for casually killing off two of my favorite characters that it took me a month until I could bring myself to open "Streets of Laredo" again. Silly, isn't? To get that angry over the wholly fictional deaths of completely fictional characters. However, that is the effect of "Lonesome Dove" a novel so wonderful that it brings to life numerous characters who are so three dimensional and enjoyable that they *almost* become like friends to the reader.I will not go into any plot or character details since others have already done that very well, but I did want to describe how this novel can effect even a jaded reader such as myself. I truly came to love the characters in this novel, and that is as high of praise as I can give any literary work.
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Summary: Lonesome Dove
Review: Attention, Gentlemen! Don't let the fact that McMurtry also wrote Terms of Endearment delay you from reading this book. This is the best book I have ever read, bar none. I can not describe to you how superlative this book is in every good way a book can be. The longer you delay in reading this book the poorer you will be as a person - it is that good. The story, the characters, the dialogue (especially the dialogue), the enemies, all are excellent. The other reviewers have done a better job than I in describing the merits of this work. I can only agree with them and urge you to purchase this book or borrow it from a friend post haste.
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Summary: Wild, Wild West
Review: "Lonesome Dove" is probably one of the longest books I have ever read, but it doesn't feel like it when you're actually reading it coz the book sucks you into its plot turns, landscape, and its mesmerising characters. This is a super book on the wild West, a wonderful, swashbuckling effort with battles between heroes and villains, the Indians and the Whites, the men and the women, and the good and bad....EXCEPT, there's no real good and bad. McMurtry shines in his ability to bring out the depravity and meanness of his characters, but also in highlighting their redeeming qualities, and their decency. An expert in character development, it is hard not to feel strongly for the wonderful and fascinating characters that McMurtry introduces us to -- I cried a whole bucketful when the black guy died (I forget the name). This is definitely recommended for anyone interested in books about cowboys and also for people who are not, coz they are BOUND to be hooked after this treat. Great work by McMurtry, it's just a shame the other installments in the series never manage to live up to the high standard achieved by this one.
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Summary: Saddle Up!
Review: Saddle up and enjoy this ride. Wallow in the pleasure of spending 945 pages with Captains Woodrow Call and Augustus McCrae and their gang on their travels from Lonesome Dove, Texas and in to the wilds of Montana. I can't remember the last time where almost every single character that appears in a novel is given such three dimensionality. And to boot, the novel is exciting, touching, and vivid. Truly a remarkable and beautiful achievement!
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Summary: From One Texan to the next....
Review: I bought this book on a true whim. I must admit, I watched Lonesome Dove years before on television. However, I was living in Texas at this time and from the fist moment I stepped onto Texas soil, I fell in love. A friend recommended that I read some Texas literature. McMurty is not just a wonderful Texas writer but a wondeful storyteller. He spins words that make you feel that you are right there on the drive. I highly recommend all of Larry McMurty's books, seeing how I"ve read every one. You will not be dissapointed.
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Summary: One of my all time favorites
Review: Although I'm not usually a fan of westerns, this book was on my summer reading list for junior year. My mom raved about it, so I decided to give it a try. After a while, I couldn't put the book down. Even with work and other activities it took me about 4 or 5 days to read this. The way the stories all come together, the amazing characters that you will connect to..after finishing Lonesome Dove I just wanted more. It is absolutely one of the best books I have ever read.
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Summary: One of the truly great novels
Review: OK you already know the outline. Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call are two aging ex-Texas Rangers who decide to experience one last adventure before they get too old for such things. They gather up a herd of cattle, hire some help, and head for Montana, where they aim to become that state's first cattle ranchers. They start out from their sleepy south Texas town of Lonesome Dove, hence the book's title. This book is so rich and long, with so many characters and subthemes, that a quick review can't do it justice. One of the earliest clues to the quality of the book came on page 112 (out of 945), with the phrase, "The Hat Creek outfit, seven strong, crossed the river..." At that point I realized that in a span of only 112 pages, McMurtry had established seven diverse and vividly recognizable characters. By that time, almost any sentence uttered by any of those seven people would have been sufficient for me to identify which character said it. Moreover, within the first ten pages the book had thrown me almost bodily into the South Texas of the 19th century. So not only does the book create characters that seem like real people whom you know personally, it also places the reader temporarily into a different world. For the next 900 pages, I lived with McCrae, Call, and company 24/7, even when I wasn't reading the book. Almost every person and every event in this long novel is thought-provoking. The book has a wealth of unforgettable people as well as a wealth of unforgettable lessons to teach. One noteworthy theme is that the two most practical and least romantic characters in the book are women (one of them Gus's old sweetheart Clara, the other a farmer woman whom deputy Roscoe encounters in his wanderings). One of the most memorable "characters" is the prairie itself: endless and uncaring, and a bitter challenge to even the bravest and strongest. But the continuous thread running through the book is the unspoken camaraderie between Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call. The two men love each other with an intensity, loyalty, and depth rarely found between lovers or married couples. Toward the very end, Clara delivers a denunciation of that relationship, and her words are indeed thought-provoking. But I have a hard time believing that Clara was speaking for the author. The two men, and I suspect McMurtry himself, were of the type who believed that there was more to life than the practicalities of establishing a home. They went for the gusto with all their hearts. Regardless of what McMurtry may have written in any sequels, I can't believe that either of them ever regretted it.
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Summary: One of the best fiction books ever written
Review: Lonesome Dove is an incredible book. The beginning of the story takes place in the incredible small town in Texas called Lonesome Dove. It tells the tale of the Hat Creek Outfit, a group of former Texas Rangers who own a livery stable who are inspired by a former Ranger who comes back into Lonesome Dove named Jake Spoon to drive a cattle herd up north. W.F. Call, a diligent hard worker is inspired by Spoon's words of Montana being a cattlemen's paradise. And this is where the journey begins. Lonesome Dove is filled with incredible characters. Augustus McCrae is the loveable former Ranger who has a taste for mash whiskey, long evenings on the porch, plenty of conversation, biscuits in the morning, and visiting the local whore in the Dry Bean Saloon, Lorena. Lorena is a beautiful blonde in her early twenties who has dreams of going to San Francisco. The Dry Bean Saloon is owned by Xavier Wanz, a kind man who is in love with Lorena and often pays for a poke or two himself. Lippy, the piano player, also has the hots for Lorena, but he has a hole in his stomach from a Native American, he wears a dirty bowler, and Lorena refuses to sleep with him. Now, the Dry Bean has its regulars such as Jake Spoon. When Joshua Deets, a diligent African-American cowboy returns to Lonesome Dove he brings Jake Spoon back with him. Jake Spoon is a real charmer, and most of the ladies love him. Lorena almost instantly falls for him and his ways of being. He makes promises of taking Lorena to San Francisco, but knows deep inside that they are only words. He next regrets making the suggestion of Montana being a cattlemen's paradise to W.F. Call because W.F. Call takes him seriously and begins hiring hands. Spoon, a ladies man, although a competant hand in times of need, enjoys the good life, and isn't very interested in driving cattle all the way to Montana. When you combine these characters with distinct personalities and characteristics, you get one of the most interesting novels in American History. On their way to Montana the reader meets more wonderful characters. July Johnson, for example, is the sheriff from Fort Smith, Arkansas who leaves Fort Smith in pursuit of his brother's murderer, Jake Spoon (an accidental murder). He finds himself then in pursuit of Elmira, his good intentioned, but sinister wife. Elmira is still in love with her old flame, Dee Boot, who she meets up again in Ogallala, Nebraska. The reader also meets other incredible characters such as the spectacular Clara and her daughters and her dying husband, Bob. Big Zwey, Elmira's buffalo hunter companion who thinks their married, and Blue Duck, the meanest Native American of the West. The reader also meets the Suggs brothers, Sally Skull (Jake's lover), Jenny, Roscoe, and even little adorable Joe Boot. Lonesome Dove is full of tears, laughter, happiness, and excitement. It is an incredible story of love, determination, and happiness. One should not pass up this story, and with only 945 pages, Lonesome Doves leaves the reader with many unanswered questions and begging for more. This book is well worth the reader's time.
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