Lonesome Dove (Vol 2)

Rating:
Summary: There is nothing not to like
Review: Lonesome Dove is an amazing epic masterpiece. It transends genre or pop fiction status. Many people have criticized this book for being hackneyed and typical of all western fiction. The part that I think that most people don't understand is that this book isn't about the west. This book is about people. Lonesome Dove explores how people face hardship, brutatilty, illness, death, and even other's expectations. The author treats us to watching the bond formed between men through long comraderie (you will see the word 'companero' often in this book), mutual struggle, and loss of innocence. McMurtry does a stunning good job of exploring the hearts of the women in this book. They are drawn with not just beauty, but with brutal and shocking honesty. Women readers will be surprised at how a male author understands the psyche and coping mechanisms of females.

Aside from all of the amazing things about Lonesome Dove that won it the Pulitzer Prize, Lonesome Dove is a thoroughly enjoyable read. There was not one of the 945 pages that I didn't enjoy. The characters are well formed. You will love Gus and Newt, get frustrated with Call, and your heart will just break for Lorena. Their struggles and disappointments will reach you as little else in fiction does.

The setting(s) in this book are stunning. McMurtry draws amazing pictures of the the Rio Grande, the Texas panhandle, the American praire, old western saloons (and whorehouses), and many other places. While some readers will find the lack of dialogue in some places frustrating, I found the descriptions to be a treat. Having never been west to see any of these places, I felt truely transported.

Anyone who hasn't read this book and enjoys good fiction should read Lonesome Dove - now. Just commit yourself to reading the first 50 pages. After that, you won't be able to put it down. For myself, I stayed up past midnight with this book every night for a week. If I have any complaint about this book at all, it is that it was so good, I am afraid I will never be able to enjoy any other western fiction again.

Rating:
Summary: Truly a powerful novel. Fiction writing at its best.
Review: Lonesome Dove is easily one of the best novels I have ever read. Gus and Call are two of the most well-textured and crafter characters I've had the pleasure to come across in popular fiction. It's tremendously rewarding when a book this popular is also so highly rewarding as a piece of literature.

This was one of those books that made me long to experience all the things the main characters were going through as I was reading about them. I began consuming bacon, biscuits and buttermilk as I was reading this book, but I haven't really ate any of that since then. McMurtry will being you in completely into the world of Gus McCrae and Woodrow Call and although it's a long journey, when it's all over, you won't want to leave. I knew the book was going to be rewarding when I noticed I was reading page 300 and felt like I had just started the book. Time flies.

In its simplest terms, this is a book about a cattle drive from south Texas to Montana. On closer examination, the book examines themes of love, loyalty, duty and courage. One of the most amazing books I've ever read.

Rating:
Summary: One of the great "serious" entertainments
Review: Lonesome Dove is that rare thing, a serious novel that is, inall its parts, fabuloulsy entertaining. Larry McMurtry sets himselfthe seemingly impossible task of summing up the entire western genre in one book, and succeeds brilliantly. This novel has every stock western character and plot device: cattle drives, rattlesnakes, Mexican bandits, Texas Rangers, renegade Indians, gamblers, whores (with hearts of gold), riverboat men, wagon trains, sod busters, gun fights, fist fights, hangin', burnin' and much, much more. The book is brilliantly written with both humor and intelligence, causing the reader to care deeply about the fate of the main characters even while laughing out loud at the dialogue.

This is the masterpiece of McMurtry's long and distinguished career. No one, not even him, is going to top this as the ultimate western. For those who haven't read it, I can't recommend it highly enough.

Rating:
Summary: Happy Trails
Review: The Amazon reviews of this book range from "Lonesome Dud" to "American Tolstoy". I believe 'ol Leo painted on a somewhat bigger canvas but "Lonesome Dove" is a very enjoyable Western, not a dud at all.

No in media res foolishness for McMurtry, the technique here is to fire up a half-dozen parallel story lines and move from one to another every few pages to keep the reader from losing interest in any one of them (102 chapters). With all of them ending up in Ogallala Nebraska with everybody conveniently widowed at precisely the right moment to seem to ensure a happy ending; but the apogee is still to come at that point and enough loose ends are left to provide for a sequel.

A sequel!?? At 945 paperback pages it's a lot of reading and you have to get through most of it before you're ready to agree that the Pulitzer folks were right in their judgment. But if you have the stamina the story will carry you happily from Lonesome Dove (a flyspeck town in south Texas) on a cattle drive to Montana, with numerous stops, characters and adventures along the way. The Pulitzer was deserved.

Heroic men on horseback, evil drunken murderers fit only for the hanging they eventually get, beautiful compassionate women, Indians good bad and pitiful, whores, card sharps, innocent young cowpokes, the US Cavalry, grizzly bears, bad whiskey, big skies, dangerous rivers; you've got 'em all: Festus, Doc, Kitty, Matt, Roy, Dale, Trigger, Tonto, John Wayne, Gary Cooper and Ronald Reagan. Maybe a little Mel Brooks, too; a bit before Butch Cassidy's time.

The story centers around two Texas Rangers who are past their prime Rangering years. Part of the appeal for any similarly-aged readers is the fact that these men have had their share both of triumphs and life-altering failures with which they have to live the rest of their lives. There are many vignettes throughout that have a very strong odor of "Lord Jim", a haunting feeling I think we all begin to wrestle with when we are no longer children. The characters are very well developed and they become your friends (even the bad ones) as you lope along on horseback in the Old American West.

The reviewer who complains of political correctness is right. There are only two references to the Civil War, no mention of Reb or Yank at all, and Mark Twain is much truer to the race relations of the time. Nonetheless, it's not supposed to be historically accurate: it's supposed to be a great love story set on the frontier, which it is; and a good one. Dr. Zhivago is a closer comparison than War and Peace.

McMurtry paints his pictures beautifully, romantically; both the people and the country, the way Americans like to think of themselves and Gus McCrae is just the man to tell us about it: "... the Indians have had this land forever. To them it's precious because it's old. To us it's exciting because it's new."

"You've had a long ride for nothing, I guess", she said.
"Why, no," he said. "It's happiness to see you."

There's no sadder story than that of a man who lives his whole life without the woman he loves most in the world.

Rating:
Summary: Lonesome Dove: a memorial epic, the best book ever written!
Review: This 945 page journey through America's past in the wildest western territory is a definite must-read. The characters are so real that when certain events occur to them the reader can feel it themselves. My favorite characters are numbered many: Newt, Pea Eye, Gus, Deets, Lorie, and Roscoe Brown. I think the best part of the book is when Gus and Clara are reunited after their sixteen year separation. Gus's witticisms always make me laugh each and every time I read the book, which has been about six times total now. This is the type of epic where, each new time you read it, you derive a bit more information from the story. I have also read other books by Larry McMurtry, and they, also, are wonderfully written. Readers of nearly any age could enjoy this book. Age doesn't matter, because I am only fifteen years old. I highly recommend reading Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove. by: Kate Hoover