Lonesome Dove
by Larry McMurtry
Book Summary Information
Author: Larry McMurtryEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1988-12-15
ISBN: 067168390X
Number of pages: 960
Publisher: Pocket
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780671683900
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
- Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices
Book Reviews of Lonesome Dove
Book Review: Rip Roaring Adventure
Summary: 5 Stars
Before I write a 5 star review, I like to read the 1 star reviews to see if there are valid points that I might have missed. It takes some guts to write a 1 star review on this book because virtually everyone that does gets annihilated by unhelpful votes and comments indicating that they are idiots.
Many of the poor reviews (there are only a few) point out 1) thin characters 2) negative stereotypical portrayals of women, blacks and Native Americans and 3)lack of literary merit.
So, I'll make my comments with those three objections in mind.
I have honestly never zipped through such a large novel so quickly. I found it exciting and inventive. It made me want to be out on the open plains with the main characters, Call and McCrae. This is not a novel that would win a Booker Prize because it doesn't use inventive literary techniques and it doesn't really deal with many abstract concepts. It's about cowboys who fight Indians, tangle with outlaws, face amazing obstacles in rough country, drink whiskey, gamble and sleep with whores. So, if I were to rate this on literary merit, maybe it would get a lower rating. In the end, it doesn't matter. I loved this book! I loved every second of it! It is high adventure with many memorable scenes where you simply can't tear yourself away.
The characters are varied and for the most part not dealt with deeply. The exception to that comment is the two main characters. The core of the book is the relationship between Call and McCrae. They are opposites. They don't appear to get along that well. They are partners. They love each other though they'd never state it that way. As annoying as they find each other, they'd each die for the other. They're also bigger than life. They have faced so many crises that they're cool and competent under all types of pressure.
The other characters are varied and, in my view, don't really indicate any prejudice on behalf of McMurtry. Deets, the black man in Call and McCrae's crew is extremely smart and virtually indispensable. Blue Duck is a villain and is the perfect opponent for Call and McCrae. He's their Professor Moriarty. I honestly think the characters are a strength in the book and that there are good and bad characters that cross gender and race.
So, if your favorite books are Booker winners then perhaps this won't be the book for you. Although I love books like Midnight's Children by Rushdie and Disgrace by Coetzee, I still have love for Lonesome Dove. It's a great western adventure.
Summary of Lonesome Dove
A love story and an epic of the frontier, Lonesome Dove is the grandest novel ever written about the last, defiant wilderness of America. Richly authentic, beautifully written, Lonesome Dove is a book to make readers laugh, weep, dream and remember. Now a blockbuster television event.Larry McMurtry, in books like The Last Picture Show, has depicted the modern degeneration of the myth of the American West. The subject of Lonesome Dove, cowboys herding cattle on a great trail-drive, seems like the very stuff of that cliched myth, but McMurtry bravely tackles the task of creating meaningful literature out of it. At first the novel seems the kind of anti-mythic, anti-heroic story one might expect: the main protagonists are a drunken and inarticulate pair of former Texas Rangers turned horse rustlers. Yet when the trail begins, the story picks up an energy and a drive that makes heroes of these men. Their mission may be historically insignificant, or pointless--McMurtry is smart enough to address both possibilities--but there is an undoubted valor in their lives. The result is a historically aware, intelligent, romantic novel of the mythic west that won the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
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