Lonesome Dove

“It's a fine world, though rich in hardships at times.”

Lonesome Dove is a bedraggled little town in southern Texas near the Rio Grande. Call and Gus are retired captains from the Texas Rangers, who capably fought Mexicans and Indians for twenty years. Now they've got a small ranch that Call runs with Gus's lackadaisical help, supported by a group of men who wait for directions. Gus likes to play cards in the local saloon and frolic with Lorena, a young girl whose life has led her to "sporting" (prostitution). Her natural beauty deeply affects several of the main characters. It's the 1870s, and Call gets smitten with the idea of driving cattle all the way to the undeveloped country of Montana, where majestic land can be claimed and show more make you rich.

A major strength of this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel lies in its realism. We get to know a host of believable characters well, and the harsh day to day realities of life, on the drive and in the towns and ranches along the way, are much more powerful than any mythic treatment of America's west. It's a fine world, though rich in hardships. The unexpected must be expected, and when it flares up, it's pulse-pounding for the reader, including gunfights, gun-less fights, hangings, life-threatening escapes, horse theft, grizzlies, a river boiling with snakes, and other potential disasters. There are matters of honor, and characters with no moral limitations whatsoever. The implacable and nightmarish Indian Blue Duck glories in the havoc he creates, and challenges taciturn Call and always-talking Gus in sometimes devastating ways. The land they travel is gorgeous but dangerous, and Montana a prize worth attaining.

Larger issues are a constant backdrop to the vivid life of surviving and taking care of business.

"The sun spread reddish-gold light through the shining bushes, among which a few goats wandered, bleating. Even when the sun rose above the low bluffs to the south, a layer of light lingered for a bit at the level of the chaparral, as if independent of its source. Then the sun lifted clear, like an immense coin. The dew quickly died, and the light that filled the bushes like red dirt dispersed, leaving clear, slightly bluish air.
It was good reading light by then, so Augustus applied himself for a few minutes to the Prophets. He was not overly religious, but he did consider himself a fair prophet and liked to study the styles of his predecessors. They were mostly too long-winded, in his view, and he made no effort to read them verse for verse—he just had a look here and there, while the biscuits were browning.”

The men struggle with their yearning for women, and for many of them, with their clueless inability to understand or talk naturally with them. Gus has been married twice, and entrances Lorena and others with his confident loquaciousness. But he yearns for the brainy and bold Clara, the one who got away, who saw early on that two alphas would make for a bad marriage. Call had one serious relationship that conflicted with his drive to lead men, and he's leery of marriage. “I don't see how being married could be any worse than listening to you talk for twenty years, but that still ain't much of a recommendation for it.” That relationship he had nonetheless has far-reaching consequences.

I'm sure everyone who reads this book has his or her favorite characters. I got a big kick out of Clara, who sees through Gus's spieling to a good man and lifelong friend, and who detests the uncomprehending Call for what others view as heroic. She tells Call, “And I’ll tell you another thing: I’m sorry you and Gus McCrea ever met. All you two did was ruin one another, not to mention those close to you.” But they're heroes. Can she possibly be right?

McMurtry is the son and grandson of cattlemen, and the book reportedly is based on the lives of two cattlemen who created the Goodnight-Loving Trail in the 1860s. Lonesome Dove's realism is compelling, and this is a five star read. show less

I will never be able to explain how a western about taking 3,000 head of cattle from Texas to Montana would become one of my favorite books! It was 36 hours on audio which definitely cut into my sleep but I just loved it so much! Gus and Call, retired Texas Rangers decide to go to Montana with cattle. They will be the first to take cattle up that far north. The characters in this book bring out all the feelings; love, laughter, horror, sadness, etc. It does take a little while to get involved but it will grab your attention and take over your life until you're finished!!! Highly recommended!

I was in college the first time I read Lonesome Dove (just realized that was TWENTY years ago). I was actively attempting to own and read the Pulitzer Prize Fiction winners back then, I read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, A Confederacy of Dunces, The Killer Angels and a few others. I had a blog with a complete list for my Pulitzer Prize challenge, I stopped keeping track around 2011 and in a purge I traded-in/donated several books (that I periodically go looking for on my shelf because I *swear* I own them).

Lonesome Dove is not one that was accidently traded in. It's a book I recommended on my blog any chance I got -- there used to be these weekly...memes? topics?...where someone would host and everyone would post about that show more thing. My perimenopausal brain can't hold on to words these days so I don't remember what they were called, but it was a thing. Everyone would go visit all of the blogs participating and it didn't involve paywalls or silos. It was great, everyone could have their own opinion, no one was cancelled, nuance existed, if you didn't like what someone had to say you just moved on. I miss those innocent days on the internet...but, I digress.

When I saw the surge in popularity of one of my favorite books featuring one of my favorite fictional characters, I thought...maybe it's time to visit with Gus, Clara, Call, Deets, and Newt again? So I used an Audible credit (actually, I think it was free? It was last October...) for the Lee Horsley audiobook edition (a new edition read by Will Patton was published last month) and started listening. Slowly. (In fact, I initially started listening at 0.9x before I finally bumped it up to 1.0x.)

It takes the Hat Creek Cattle Company months to get from Texas to Montana, so it took me months to listen to their story. And given what happens to my favorite character at the end, I was in no rush to live that again. It involves lots of tears, sobs even. After spending so long with a character and experiencing so much loss, damn. This book is brutal yet beautiful, complex, layered.

I've read other books by McMurtry, Terms of Endearment and The Last Picture Show, but I have not re-visited Gus and Call in any other prequels or sequels. I'm afraid they will ruin the perfection that is Lonesome Dove. Plus I didn't love those other books as much as Lonesome Dove so what if the others in the Lonesome Dove world don't live up to my expectations? It would be devastating.

This book is worth the hype. The characters feel alive, like these were real people (they weren't although Gus/Call were inspired by real people). The sense of place is so strong, McMurtry convinced me long ago that I needed to visit Montana (hasn't happened yet, but that's because I hate traveling). If you like the Yellowstone prequel 1883 or enjoyed reading True Grit or News of the World, and you haven't read Lonesome Dove...what are you waiting for? show less

This nearly 950-page Western revolves in large part around two former Texas rangers who for the last 20 years have run a business selling horses and cattle in the tiny Texas town of Lonesome Dove. Then an old friend shows up talking about the wide, unsettled spaces of Montana, and one of them decides to pack up the whole outfit and drive well over a thousand cattle on a journey to Montana, one that everyone, including the people who agree to come with him, seems to think is insane. Other characters also feature prominently, including Lonesome Dove's only prostitute, a young woman who's already led a very painful life and dreams of finding her way to somewhere better.

There's certainly a lot of stuff that happens in this novel: murders, show more kidnapping, horse thieving, hangings, battles, sex, death, you name it. But it still manages to feel sort of quiet and leisurely, and is perhaps more interested in the characters, their lives and histories and personalities and relationships, than anything else. I read it during a sort of half-vacation, during which I had a lot of reading time, and it was just about ideal for that: engrossing enough to comfortably read for long stretches, but, despite a few tense moments, never propulsive enough that I felt bad putting it down when other things demanded my attention.

One thing this book doesn't do, I think, is to either glorify or subvert the mythology of the American frontier, even though it's always lurking there in the background. Rather, we simply see it through the eyes of those living it. The former Rangers tell themselves, and mostly (but perhaps not entirely) seem to believe, that the native populations of the area had to be defeated so that whites could settle it and that's just the way things are, and McMurtry does not step in to yell at them about it. What he does do is to portray a world full of brutal violence that spares absolutely no one and may or may not be leading to anything worthwhile. (Be warned for some scenes of rape and torture. They're not necessarily described in deep, gory detail, but they're very definitely there.) What the reader takes from all of this will depend, I think, on what they bring into it. show less

Every review and recommendation was right - this was an absolutely ethereal read, completely magical. The first 150 pages or so are a bit slow, but that fits the characters and story anyway. Then I was beyond hooked.

McMurtry's writing flows like water. Whether it's describing the landscape, or getting glimpses of character motivations, or heartbreaking tragedy, it's obvious why this novel won the Pulitzer. There is true beauty here in nearly every sentence.

I was practically screaming at the characters sometimes to go against their nature. Stay, be safe. Apologize to the other person. Share your feelings. But they never do - even if they're aware of it, they can't go against who they are. The frontier is almost a character in itself - show more full of untapped potential, but brutally dangerous. Some death scenes were as shocking as any I've ever read before. I'm still thinking about them weeks later.

It's blunt and bleak, but also funny and hopeful. It's one of the best books I've ever read. show less

When former Texas Ranger Captain W. F. Call decides to move the business from Texas to Montana, his partner Augustus McCrae is reluctant about the plan, but goes along on the cross-country trek, along with a few cowboys, the proverbial whore with a heart of gold, and a couple of adorably creepy blue pigs. I enjoyed the overall story a lot, since it described the cowboy life as mainly dreary rather than heroic which is the norm, emphasized by the slow pace of the narrative. I also liked that there was no forced happy ending, but that, like in life, some things were left unresolved. However, for me, this was one of those odd books that I enjoyed while I was reading it, but once I had put a bookmark in, I wasn't eager to pick it back up to show more continue reading. The story was just too meandering and haphazard and it read a little bit too much like a movie for my liking - a lot of things happen and I was told how people reacted and how they felt, but I didn't really get to feel it for myself. It also seemed like the plains were inhabited by a fairly small number of people who managed to run into each other all the time and the coincidences got to me after a while. From the cover of my edition, I can tell that it has been filmed and I have a feeling it might be great in that medium. It wasn't a bad read by any means, but I would have wished for something that would make me feel deeply for the characters. I did love the blue pigs, though - those were my favorite characters. show less

“’It’s a fine world, though rich in hardships at times,’ Augusts said.” (Ch 96)

Famed, retired Texas Rangers, Augustus McRae and Woodrow Call, are proprietors of the Hat Creek Cattle Company in Lonesome Dove, Texas. The Rangers, who could not be more different, enjoy a quirky friendship come solid partnership. Gus, warm, personable, and understanding, is the perfect antidote to Call’s military-like precision, aloneness, and apparent indifference. When Call decides that the Hat Creek outfit’s destiny is in Montana, he, Gus, and their hands work to gather a herd of 3,000. Conveniently, Lonesome Dove is located very near the Mexican border. Gus dryly observes, “It’s a funny life. All these cattle and nine-tenths of the show more horses is stolen, and yet we was once respected lawmen.” (Ch 24) So begins a legendary cattle drive beset by “snakes, wild pigs, Indians, bandits, bears or other threats” (Ch 38) through the American frontier.

Certainly Lonesome Dove is enough cowpoke adventure to satisfy those yearning for a froniter read. But McMurty masters more than the frontier novel here. An abundant cast of perfectly flawed, unforgettable characters and a crackerjack plot result in much more: love story, coming of age, longing, regret, prejudice, and betrayal. Superb characterization and an omniscient point of view allow readers a look at the human, relatable flaws of those who, as in real life, are most always much more than they initially appear. Woodrow Call, for all of his detached remoteness, acknowledges the painful experience of past love:

“Better by far never to have known the pleasure than to have the pain that followed. Maggie had been a weak woman, and yet her weakness had all but slaughtered his strength. Sometimes just the thought of her made him feel that he shouldn’t pretend to lead men anymore.” (Ch 46)

An absolutely epic read, Lonesome Dove is not to be missed! show less