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Title: Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry ISBN: 0-671-68390-X Publisher: Pocket Pub. Date: 15 December, 1988 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.8 (264 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: One of the great "serious" entertainments
Comment: 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: 5
Summary: Lonesome Dove is not only for Western fans.
Comment: McMurtry's Lonesome Dove initially tells the story of the Hat Creek Outfit of Lonesome Dove and, particularly Augustus (Gus) McCrae and Woodrow Call. Both former captains in the Texas Rangers, the aging pair demonstrate the courage which has made them famous as they decide to drive a cattle herd to Montana, after hearing glowing reports from a former friend, Jake Spoon. McMurtry collects an ensemble of characters, from the pathetic keeper of Lonesome Dove's saloon, to the sad, lonely and lost whore Lorena, to the wild and reckless Jake Spoon to ultimately provide readers with a very fine tale of what was probably the REAL Old West, full of natural disasters, and some truly despicable characters.
Lonesome Dove is an epic Western. It is the only Western that this reviewer has persisted with, as it is above portraying narrow genre stereotypes. McMurtry always favours powerful description over cliched phrases and is able to produce both adventure and poignancy in one powerful novel. Lonesome Dove is a truly great achievement.
Rating: 5
Summary: Happy Trails
Comment: 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.
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Title: Streets of Laredo by Larry McMurtry ISBN: 0671537466 Publisher: Pocket Pub. Date: 01 November, 1995 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Comanche Moon (Lonesome Dove) by Larry McMurtry ISBN: 0671020641 Publisher: Pocket Pub. Date: 01 June, 1998 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Dead Man's Walk by Larry McMurtry ISBN: 0671001167 Publisher: Pocket Pub. Date: 01 June, 1996 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title:Lonesome Dove ASIN: B00005Y6YB Publisher: Lionsgate/Fox Pub. Date: 21 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.98 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $11.24 |
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Title: The Wandering Hill (Berrybender Narratives) by Larry McMurtry ISBN: 0743451422 Publisher: Pocket Star Pub. Date: 01 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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