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Summary: This novel is a powerful, character-driven work.
Review: This is the first book I've ever read by Larry McMurtry, and I was captivated. I really found myself caring a great deal what happened to the characters in this book. I was impressed by the author's ability to make a character real and extremely individual. There were no stereotypes in this book. Each person seemed so real and alive. This is what kept the pages turning for me. McMurtry is a true marvel. I have gotten so dead sick of prose-concious writers, who seem to flood the scene these days. In this work, I never felt the writer patting himself/herself on the back for some beautiful line, as I do in most modern novels. I never sensed "the writer" at all. I was just swept along by a great storyteller and a great story.
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Summary: Great read - but saddened by the realism portrayed
Review: Wow it was tough way back then. The gritty realism of the life on the frontier really struck home. Desperate men ( and women ) just trying to stay alive. Larry Mc has done a great job of bringing it all home to us modern day would be adventurers. Characters have been portrayed vividly and one must even start to warm to the good old Captn Call despite all his failures. The fringe characters ( in this book ) Clara, Dish, and some of the old hat Creek mob et al may have done with a little more story, but maybe, I guess, that would have detracted from the story line presented . I admired Lorena and her devotion but Maria deserved a better fate than being done in by her no good son - but thats life on the frontier I suppose. Just one question though - how does The Captain effectively sharpen all those tools with one arm ?? Great stuff Larry - I'll be a fan for life !!
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Summary: An absolutly fabulous book
Review: The book was full of realism. The characters were very well described. It was full of suspence and I couldn't put it down.
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Summary: A great ending to the four novel series with Capital Call
Review: An enjoyable ending to the saga of Captain Call. This book moved a little slower than those of the earlier years of McCrea and Call but I still could not put it down.
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Summary: As good, honest and true as Lonesome Dove.
Review: Is there any U.S. writer whose prose flows as easily as Larry McMurtry's? Say what you want about his themes and plots, the man is easily the most readable American author today, and there's no better example of that than Streets Of Laredo.Only McMurtry can guide the reader through so much grit, blood and downright nastiness without pausing. Streets of Laredo is much more visceral than its worthy predecessor, but it never feels forced or gratuitous -- that's the life of Woodrow F. Call and it all makes perfect sense. Many Lonesome Dove fans no doubt were irritated with some of the character development ("Lorena married WHO?!") in Laredo, but it certainly fits the templates that McMurtry fashioned in Lonesome Dove. The author retains his gift for dialogue that rings true and memorable, yet believable salt-of-the-earth characters, such as our accountant from the East. And this time, McMurtry has taken the time to actually create a human being for his villain, as opposed to the cartoon figure of Blue Duck. Young Joey Garza is more real, and much more frightening. I've had fans of Lonesome Dove criticize Laredo as being too depressing. But "Happy" has never been the point of McMurtry's work -- he tells it like it is. And he tells it very, very well.
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Summary: Empty, Desolate...Thrilling.
Review: This was better than Lonesome Dove, which to me seemed long winded, and not half as punchy and raw as this. Garza's psychopathy is rendered compellingly, his hatred of his own mother is chilling, and the duty she feels she has to him, to stop him from being the monster he has been for so long under her nose, is tragic, unsettling, a thing of curious and bewitching beauty. Call has the aspect of an elemental, with his long silences and astonishing strength he resembles more a force of nature than just a man. It seems scarey to me that I, and I'm sure many others, can be so taken with this quiet and driven man. Maybe he is the best ranger ever invented, pure and simple. I don't know. His persistence and sense of duty will never be more eloquently displayed than in the last half of this book. And then there's Famous Shoes, and Mox Mox the man burner, great characters both, and the set pieces, like the escape from Crow town at night, preceeded by the death of the satanic piglord, these are all contrivances, great brushstrokes with which to paint such marvellous characters. Where Lonesome Dove was vibrant and filled with a passion for life and the frontier, this book takes us through the dust, and the plains, the hot dry desert and the emptiness that tugs so mercilessly at our composure. It is a powerful book, an intelligent and shocking book, and is beyond a doubt my favourite of McMurtys. You HAVE to read it. Really. You've got to. Honest.
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Summary: A WORTHY SEQUEL
Review: AT THE START OF READING STREETS OF LAREDO I WAS HEARTBROKEN BECAUSE SO MANY OF THE CHARACTERS I LOVED FROM LONESOME DOVE WERE GONE AND YOU JUST KNOW IT WON'T BE THE SAME, BUT THIS SERIES IS AS LIFE..YOU CAN'T ALWAYS HAVE IT GO AS YOU'D LIKE. ONCE YOU ACCEPTTHIS AND YOU KEEP READING, IT'S THE SAME AS WITH LONESOME DOVE...YOU CAN'T PUT IT DOWN AND YOU NEVER WANT IT TO END...A TRULY GREAT STORY.
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Summary: Compelling
Review: The antithesis of Lonesome Dove. The regret, despair and tenacity of an old man torn apart by his failure to declare himself as the father of his son, and who feels deserted by those closest to him.
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Summary: Do some research, Larry !
Review: A good story marred by historical inaccuracy. Judge Roy Bean died of a combination of old age and alcoholism and outlived John Wesley Hardin by a good many years. JWH is depicted as a vicious killer even though he was a reformed character after being released from prison around the time the action takes place. He practised law and is unlikely to have even been in the area at the time. Mr McMurtry should read a little history - or use fictional characters.
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Summary: Call's still got it in the worthy sequel to Lonesome Dove.
Review: McMurtry shows us that not all sequels leave you unsatisfied. "Streets of Laredo" is an excellent book that shows a hero in his old age. It is both bittersweet and thrilling at the same time. We see Woodrow Call in his post-Gus McCrae days, taking on a bandit many years his junior. We see Pea Eye Parker, an unexpected choice for the last great Hat Creek member to follow Call, fighting his impulse to go on one last job with the captain. We see fear and hatred and loneliness and loss, and each emotion is conveyed in McMurtry's masterful way. McMurtry adds a special note of realism by using actual historical figures--John Wesley Hardin, often called the West's most prolific killer, Charlie Goodnight, one of the great cowboys, and Judge Roy Bean, the hanging judge, the Law West of the Pecos. He weaves these people with his fictional characters like Pea, the Captain, and Ned Brookshire to make a very effective and entrancing novel. "Streets of Laredo" is at times violent, amusing, depressing, and at all times interesting. A fine novel, and worthy of its predecessor, "Lonesome Dove." You can't go wrong with this one.
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