Will I love Lonesome Dove?

Here is another masterpiece.

It purports to be historical fiction set in the Old West, following one of the last great cattle drives. Yet within a few chapters, it begins to feel like a series of episodes from Grimm’s fairy tales.

I remember at UC Irvine, where I earned my Fiction MFA, several fellow writers were reading this novel alongside me. We kept stopping each other in the hall or at cocktail parties to relive this or that chapter, struggling to understand how it could be both so entertaining and so good.

The fact that it is long—a real doorstopper… show more.

I can remember hustling to read this one before the mini-series launched on television. And I was so glad that I did. This is one of the rare occasions where you really need to experience both.

Recently, I reread the original masterpiece novel and discovered that, decades later, I love it as much as I did when it was new. What I love most is the collection of characters. They're not just colorful. They're vibrant. Even the supporting characters are memorable. If I only had one book to read, this would be it.

I live in Montana and finally read the book. It really is amazing.

Winner of the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, McMurtry’s trail drive tale remains one of the most powerful stories about the Old West or any other time or place. Woodrow Call and Augustus McRae and their cowboy crew experience friendship, love, hardship, life, and death as they drive a herd of cattle from Texas to Montana. A book worth reading and rereading, as I have done.

This book is written basically as a western road movie. The two main protagonists, former Texas Rangers, decide, on little more than a whim, to assemble a cattle herd and drive it north from the Rio Grande to Montana, with the author providing some wonderful descriptions of the topography and hardships they encounter. 

What makes it a classic for me is how the central characters explore their own mettle from the dichotomy of Woodrow, who is moralistic but happily rustles Mexican cattle and won’t acknowledge his son because the young man’s mother was a prostitute.

Gus has a more enlightened… show more.

I saw a well-used copy of this book in the bunkhouse of real cowboys. That totally confirmed the way I felt–that this book is authentic. Yes, it has the feel of the mythical West I fell in love with as a girl, but it’s gritty and quirky, too.

Who would guess that Augustus, a tough-as-leather former Texas Ranger, would bring two pigs on a hundreds of miles-long cattle drive? Not for eating, but because he couldn’t leave those friendly pets behind. His heart is tender, though he’s tough as any Western man you ever imagined.

Whenever I (unwillingly) think of… show more.

Because I have a hard time letting go of a great read and committing my time and emotions to a new one, I love a big, fat book. My choices could all occupy first place, so I’ll list them according to girth. 

At 843 pages, Lonesome Dove more than qualifies and instantly committed me to the long haul. The writing is simply great, and the plot head spinning. The main characters, Augustus McCrae and W.F. Call, are aging Texas Ranger retirees who are stoic, brave, and restless.

It’s their foolish restlessness that gets them in serious trouble as they determine… show more.

This is my favorite book of all time, by far. It’s a sprawling, epic Western for people who don’t like Westerns. But that’s just one of the many things it does brilliantly.

McMurtry was the master at finding humor in every character, no matter how loathsome or pitiful, and in every situation, no matter how heart-breaking or violent, without sacrificing or undercutting anything for a laugh. He makes the humor seem as natural as breathing, crying, or bleeding, which is a vital coping mechanism for dealing with life…it certainly is in my own.

But McMurtry taught me how to incorporate… show more.

McMurtry’s 1985 novel follows two former Texas Rangers as they drive a herd of cattle from Texas to Montana. This is an epic in every sense as McMurtry effortlessly shifts from one character’s point of view to another. All are as captivating and authentic as the landscape and world of the old West.

The story itself is actually quite unconventional but it is impossible not to be caught up in these dramatic lives and this most dramatic of worlds. 

I chose this for characters and setting. Larry McMurtry was one of the greatest American writers and a chronicler of life in Texas, and he won the Pulitzer Prize for Lonesome Dove, the story of two aging Texas Rangers on a final adventure together.

McMurtry immerses the reader in his world, but more importantly he immerses his characters in that world. The relationships are amazing: between characters who face deeply personal and tragic life-or-death decisions, but also between characters and the novel’s savage, lethal world.

McMurtry’s stories are character-driven slices of life, but authors of plot-driven books can learn… show more.