Streets of Laredo

Rating:
Summary: doesn't quite measure up...
Review: While it has been a while since I have read this book, after reading the other reviews, I may have to go back and read it again.
I did not like the way that the author killed off my favorite characters from LD in the first few chapters. To get rid of Newt and Clara was just cruel. Newt especially could have developed into an awesome character.
I also did not like the pairing of Lorena and Pea Eye. This was just too much of a stretch for me to believe. I would rather have her with Dish or even Newt. Pea Eye was just not who I would have picked for her.
Granted, I am not the author and while I greatly respect Larry McMurtry and his work, I was disappointed with this.
I also do not remember the "man burner" being in LD. Lorena said that he was in the gang that kidnapped her and after re-reading LD many many times, I still cannot find reference to him. I am going to have to buy Commanche Moon and read the whole series from start to finish.

Rating:
Summary: A Worthy Sequel to Lonesome Dove
Review: This is my second favorite of the four "Lonesome Dove" tales. I liked "Commanche Moon" almost as much, with "Dead Man's Walk" trailing the pack because it went a little too overboard with believeability. As there is a gap between "Dove" and this, there is in theory another possibility for another saga, but let's not hold our breath on that one.

This one shows the last great adventure of Woodrow Call. We see how the man has aged, and how he is realizing he has aged. But there is still a lot of fire in him, and more important, a sense of duty that has been driving him all his life. Even though one can argue that he should have hung up his guns long ago, he shows the determination, as well as the ability, to focus on a task until it is completed. Even in this book, where he's often outnumbered, he plods on to get the job done. That's what heroes are made of, folks.

You know there's going to be a lot of gore in a McMurtry western, and for those fans of it, you get a lot here. For there is not only one, but two different serial killers in the story, and both are as bad as bad can be. In fact, with McMurtry's propensity for characters who torture as sport, it will be hard for him to come up with one worse than Mox Mox, who burns children for fun. Be warned in advance if this is not your cup of tea.

We also get to hear what happened to the survivors of "Lonesome Dove", and when "Streets of Laredo" is done, you will see what happens to the ones that survive this one. Of course I won't reveal this, but if you've gotta know this stuff, you've got to read this book.

Rating:
Summary: Fast Paced Western -- McMurty Scores Again
Review: This is a good western. It's late in the period -- the frontier's closed, Indian wars and giant buffalo herds almost petered out, but there's still plenty of "bad" in the West.

When Joey Garza starts holding up trains along the Mexican border area, the railroad decides to stop him. Captain Call, an old Texas Ranger, is called upon to help make the Texas Panhandle safe again, as he has spent a career doing.

This "Lonesome Dove" sequel works well as a stand alone. McMurty gives enough back ground to his characters and their stories that the reader will not be hampered if they did not read his great "Lonesome Dove."

Those of us who found Lonesome Dove a wonderful companion, will enjoy this book also. Captain Call is older, Pea Eye much more prominent and other characters either dead or moved on -- just as in real life. This book is very much a woman's story. All of the strong characters, that is strong in mental, moral and physical manner, are women. It is not too much to say that women drive this story forward and are the most complete and interesting characters in the book. The male characters tend to be mean, scary, determined or loyal, but usually are lacking in some other important component of personality and being.

Women characters played a prominent role in Lonesome Dove also, but they were also balanced by the Gus McCrea lead. Gus died at the end of Lonesome Dove, which takes the one strong male lead (who was strong in many dimensions) out of the story. McMurty does not replace him with any of his new cowboys, judges or villians who join the tale of the west in this book. It is not too much to say in this book that the men react, while the female characters think and act.

This is a good yarn that moves quickly and contains enough twists to keep you reading at fifty and seventy-five page clips. I do agree with the reviewers who say this in not "Lonesome Dove," but hey, that book was a Pulitzer Prize winning masterpiece. This book doesn't quite reach LD's heights and richness, but it is still one heck of a good diversion in its own right

Rating:
Summary: Just missed.
Review: Streets of Laredo is a great story filled with adventure, however, it does not do justice to Lonesome Dove. It begins about 20 years after the conclusion of Lonesome Dove. Larry McMurtry hardly tells of the charactars from his previous masterpiece exept for Lorena, Captain W.F. Call, and Pea Eye Parker who are lead on a wild adventure. The Hat Creek Ranch in Montana and the men who worked it are only briefly mentioned. It seems as though Larry McMurtry was tired of the Lonesome Dove storyline. If you read this book, read it as a story of an adventure, not as a sequel to Lonesome Dove.

Rating:
Summary: Not bad, but could have been better
Review: I love Larry McMurtry. That's not to say I agree with everything he does with his characters, but I do enjoy his work for the most part. Streets of Laredo is a good book, but I was a little disappointed with it. I have heard arguments about why Lorena and Pea Eye shouldn't be married, but to me that works. I knew the ending of this book wouldn't be happily ever after, because Woodrow Call is old, and it's apparent he has to be put to rest, so to speak, for the series to end. But the explanations of what happened to the rest of the Hat Creek gang just didn't set well with me. Newt killed by his own horse? Dish, the top cow hand, running a store?! I was disappointed in what happened to the characters McMurtry didn't seem to want to deal with anymore, and I will admit to being shocked by Newt's fate. Anyone who has read the other books in the series will understand why. But all in all, this is a good book. I found it easy to read, and these days that can be rare. I highly recommend this book to those who have read the other three books in the series. If you have not yet read them, pick them up first; read them in order, or else you'll find yourself re-reading them.

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Book!
Review: A very good continuation of "Lonesome Dove". A psycho train robber who is a crack shot with a rifle is spreading panic and fear in the South and Southwest. Texas Ranger Captain Woodrow Call is called upon to stop him. The hunt for the young train robber begins. There are many twists and turns in the trail.Call and his troops have many adventures on their treck. They finally wind up reunited with PeaEye in Texas. There are some exciting encounters for Captain Call during their hunt. Many interesting characters are introduced during the telling of this story. The ending is very good. This is another McMurtry classic that you will enjoy. Read it.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but no Lonesome Dove
Review: This was a good book but I was disappointed in the lack of enthusiasm that the characters had. Compared to Lonesome Dove, this book was even more of a downer. Lonesome Dove was sad but in good, touching ways, whereas Streets of Laredo was sad in an uncomfortable way. It made me not like Capt. Call anymore. He no longer seemed like a mystery man with his own thoughts, but became very pathetic. When I finished this book I didn't think back on it very much. It was just over.

Rating:
Summary: Bleak, bleak, bleak, but entertaining and admirable
Review: Lonesome Dove was a wide-angle celebration of human struggle and human life--and about how people choose to live.

Streets of Laredo is much more focused. It is about getting old and dying, or dying before you get the chance to get old. It's outrageously bleak in parts, but McMurtry's straightforward, slightly folksy style makes it almost humorous (there's a scene in which a young woman commits suicide by eating rat poison that had me chuckling).

This relentless darkness will undoubtedly anger a lot of readers who love the first book. I liked it, because it is still a good story with good characters, and because I can't help but be impressed by a writer who would create a sequel that he knows will alienate many of his readers.

Rating:
Summary: A real disappointment
Review: I fell in love with Gus, Lorena, Call, and the other characters in Lonesome Dove, and was anxious to read what happened to them, particularly Call and Newt. Streets Of Laredo, the sequel to the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, did not satisfy. In all great books, characters have deep motivation for the things they do, even if the reader doesn't agree. The writer's responsibility is to make the reader understand why they do these things. In Streets Of Laredo, McMurtry doesn't provide that. The poetry of the language and the complexity of the relationships between characters in Lonesome Dove are not followed through here. It's as if a completely different writer wrote it. in this so-called sequel The author had characters doing things out of character, like Lorena marrying Pea-eye. What was the attraction? Why would a smart beautiful woman want a homely man who can barely put a sentence together? If McMurtry had given me more of these people than mere description, I would have found it plausible. But I never understood the attraction. The dialogue between these people is about as interesting as waiting for wallpaper to dry. "Show don't tell" is one of the rules of good writing. Lonesome Dove showed me the west, in its glory and rage. Streets of Laredo story does little showing, in fact parts of it read like notes a writer makes to himself as he writes, scenes that he or she plans to flesh out later. McMurtry also missed an opportunity to honor he relation ship between Call and Newt. He could have built the entire sequel around the dynamic between father and son. Instead the author kills off Newt so we never get to explore what could have been. Also, Call comes off as a whiny, cowardly simp when faced with death. The call I knew in Lonesome Dove was a stoic and brave. As great as Lonesome Dove was, this book was just awful.

Rating:
Summary: Should have stopped at three
Review: First, I have to say Lonesome Dove is a masterpiece of the American West. Second, Comanche Moon and Dead Man's Walk are very enjoyable. I think McMurtry should have stopped there. What made Lonesove Dove were the wonderful characters and the wonderful adventures each of them were having. Every character, wether you loved or hated them, had a story that drew you in and held you. Unfortunatly most of them are killed off in Lonesome Dove leaving little to start a new novel with. The ones that have made it are so dramatically different it is hard to relate to them as the same people. This novel also never really draws you into the story at hand like the previous. There are high points and overall I am glad that I read it just to see where McMurtry went with this saga. However, as a whole it was a great disappointment from the earlier works.