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Lonesome Dove #2
Streets of Laredo
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Larry McMurtry comes the sequel and final book in the Lonesome Dove tetralogy. An exhilarating tale of legend and heroism, Streets of Laredo is classic Texas and Western literature at its finest.
Captain Woodrow Call, August McCrae's old partner, is now a bounty hunter hired to track down a brutal young Mexican bandit. Riding with Call are an Eastern city slicker, a witless deputy, and one of the last members of the Hat Creek outfit, Pea Eye Parker. This long chase leads them across the last wild stretches of the West into a hellhole known as Crow Town and, finally, into the vast, relentless plains of the Texas frontier.
Captain Woodrow Call, August McCrae's old partner, is now a bounty hunter hired to track down a brutal young Mexican bandit. Riding with Call are an Eastern city slicker, a witless deputy, and one of the last members of the Hat Creek outfit, Pea Eye Parker. This long chase leads them across the last wild stretches of the West into a hellhole known as Crow Town and, finally, into the vast, relentless plains of the Texas frontier.
547 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
1661 people are currently reading
17817 people want to read
About the author
Larry McMurtry
204 books3,914 followersLarry Jeff McMurtry was an American novelist, essayist, and screenwriter whose work was predominantly set in either the Old West or contemporary Texas. His novels included Horseman, Pass By (1962), The Last Picture Show (1966), and Terms of Endearment (1975), which were adapted into films. Films adapted from McMurtry's works earned 34 Oscar nominations (13 wins). He was also a prominent book collector and bookseller.
His 1985 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Lonesome Dove was adapted into a television miniseries that earned 18 Emmy Award nominations (seven wins). The subsequent three novels in his Lonesome Dove series were adapted as three more miniseries, earning eight more Emmy nominations. McMurtry and co-writer Diana Ossana adapted the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain (2005), which earned eight Academy Award nominations with three wins, including McMurtry and Ossana for Best Adapted Screenplay. In 2014, McMurtry received the National Humanities Medal.
In Tracy Daugherty's 2023 biography of McMurtry, the biographer quotes critic Dave Hickey as saying about McMurtry: "Larry is a writer, and it's kind of like being a critter. If you leave a cow alone, he'll eat grass. If you leave Larry alone, he'll write books. When he's in public, he may say hello and goodbye, but otherwise he is just resting, getting ready to go write."
His 1985 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Lonesome Dove was adapted into a television miniseries that earned 18 Emmy Award nominations (seven wins). The subsequent three novels in his Lonesome Dove series were adapted as three more miniseries, earning eight more Emmy nominations. McMurtry and co-writer Diana Ossana adapted the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain (2005), which earned eight Academy Award nominations with three wins, including McMurtry and Ossana for Best Adapted Screenplay. In 2014, McMurtry received the National Humanities Medal.
In Tracy Daugherty's 2023 biography of McMurtry, the biographer quotes critic Dave Hickey as saying about McMurtry: "Larry is a writer, and it's kind of like being a critter. If you leave a cow alone, he'll eat grass. If you leave Larry alone, he'll write books. When he's in public, he may say hello and goodbye, but otherwise he is just resting, getting ready to go write."
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February 11, 2023
“On the ride back across the gray plains, the young cowboy – he was just twenty – looked rather despondent. [Charles] Goodnight ignored his despondence for a while, then got tired of it. What did a healthy sprout of twenty have to be despondent about?
‘What’s made you look so peaked, J.D.?’ Goodnight inquired.
‘Why, it’s Captain Call, I guess,’ the young cowboy said. He was glad to talk about it, to get his feelings out.
‘What about Captain Call?’ Goodnight asked.
‘Why, wasn’t he a great Ranger?’ the boy asked. ‘I’ve always heard he was the greatest Ranger of all.’
‘Yes, he had exceptional determination,’ Goodnight told him…”
- Larry McMurtry, Streets of Laredo
How do you follow up Lonesome Dove, one of the greatest novels ever written?
You don’t.
At least, you should not try.
Streets of Laredo, Larry McMurtry’s sequel to his Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece, is not a bad book. It is, in fact, a great book. I will argue, in a moment, that it is better than Lonesome Dove in many ways, though I will always love the tale of Gus and Call’s last cattle drive more, and cherish it among the best of the best novels I've ever read.
But in a very real sense, Streets of Laredo did not need to be a follow-up. It would have worked just as well as a stand-alone with new characters. I can appreciate the many, many (many, many, many) joys of Streets of Laredo while still bemoaning the rather dismissive way that McMurtry treats his finest creation.
***
The toughest part of Streets of Laredo is overcoming the brutally abrupt way in which McMurtry dispenses with Lonesome Dove. The first time I read this, many years ago, I never recovered from my shock at the direction McMurtry takes. Within the first thirty pages, the legendary Hat Creek Cattle Company is summarily dismissed as an entity. It is as though McMurtry did not want to bother with them.
Without providing too many details, the most striking instance of this faithlessness is McMurty’s handling of Newt Dobbs. Readers of Lonesome Dove will recall that the mystery of Newt’s parentage, with Call the presumptive father, played a huge role in the formation of the characters of both Call and Newt.
Here, that entire storyline is dispensed with in a couple unsparing sentences. More than that, there are no repercussions whatsoever. In Lonesome Dove, the men of the Hat Creek Cattle Company were dogged by the past. That was a major part of that novel’s melancholy beauty. In Streets of Laredo, Call can’t be bothered to spare a thought for the boy who might be his son. This is especially striking given an extended sequence of self-flagellation, with Call musing on his mistakes, without ever mentioning young Newt. There are times in Streets of Laredo wherein it feels like McMurtry forgot the contents of the previous 900 pages he'd written about Call.
I am still not entirely ready to forgive McMurtry for sullying my memory of Lonesome Dove. Having finished this a second time, though, I am a bit more able to focus on its virtues, rather than dwelling obsessively on its shortcomings.
***
When Streets of Laredo opens, we learn that the former Texas Ranger Woodrow F. Call has become a bounty hunter. He has been hired by a railroad man named Colonel Terry to hunt down a vicious young Mexican bandit named Joey Garza. Eventually, Call gathers a low-IQ posse that includes Eastern dandy Ned Brookshire, hapless Deputy Ted Plunkert, and former Hat Creek cowboy Pea Eye Parker who, we learn, is improbably married to Lorena Woods.
(It took me a long, long time to accept this pairing. Certainly, during my first read-through, it did not make sense that the Lorena from Lonesome Dove would end up with droopy old Pea, a capable cowhand but a man who must have been dropped on the head repeatedly as a child).
McMurtry utilizes an omniscient third person viewpoint, constantly shifting perspectives among his characters. As is his style, there are a lot of players, scattered all over Texas and Mexico. The decision to give Pea Eye (uncharismatic, slow-witted, the anti-Gus McCrae) such a starring role is questionable. However, McMurtry is generous with his supporting actors and actresses. There is Brookshire, “the salaried man,” an accountant from New York who feels like the wind is going to blow him away; Famous Shoes, a mythical tracker who can walk as fast as a man can ride a horse, and who brings a touch of magical realism to the proceedings; and Billy Williams, a once-respectable scout who has gotten old and blind and who falls asleep while pooping – thereby losing his horse – in his introductory scene.
Unlike Lonesome Dove, Streets of Laredo features a number of real-life figures, and McMurtry absolutely nails their characterizations. A brusquely humane Charlie Goodnight serves as a Greek chorus, while there are memorable cameos from self-appointed Judge Roy Bean (heavily fictionalized) to a sly, oddly-sociable John Wesley Hardin.
Perhaps surprisingly, Streets of Laredo is really about the women. Much of the novel follows Maria Garza (Joey’s mother) and Lorena Parker (Pea Eye’s wife) as they try to undo the messes made by the men in their lives. To a large extent, the story runs through them. More than that, McMurtry’s excavation of toxic masculinity – the leers, the entitlement, the sexual aggression – feels very of-the-moment.
***
McMurtry is a natural storyteller. In that sense, there is no drop off in quality between Lonesome Dove and Streets of Laredo. He still employs his wide-angle lens, following a disparate and often disconnected group of characters. He is still spinning yarns within yarns, giving us backstories of even minor figures. He is never really worried about plot, and for much of the novel, the various storylines run parallel to each other. He relies heavily on coincidental meetings, and his west is never so large that one person cannot immediately find another.
Despite the failures I noted above, Streets of Laredo does provide some fan service. Characters from Lonesome Dove show up in unexpected places. Even better, we are given Round 2 in Woodrow Call’s never-ending struggle against “rude behavior.”
At times, Streets of Laredo suffers from a bit of overkill. McMurtry spends a lot of time creating the chilly, randomly-homicidal persona of Joey Garza. In scene after meticulous scene, he becomes a super predator, one that is more than a match for Call. (Indeed, Garza is so supernaturally good, that McMurtry eventually has to inject some really bad decisions into his bad-guy in order to make the fight fair).
For whatever reason, though, McMurtry apparently did not feel like Garza was enough. So, like any good comic book movie, he adds another super-villain. This second killer is Mox Mox:
Mox Mox once rode with Blue Duck, and was with his gang when Lorena was captured in Lonesome Dove. I understand the impulse on McMurtry’s part, to give Lorena some added motivation in her actions. The problem, of course, is that Mox Mox never appeared in Lonesome Dove. Retrofitting a character is always extremely awkward, and that is the case here.
***
Up to this point, I have been back and forth on Streets of Laredo. This is the point wherein I make my pitch for its greatness.
Fantasy and sci-fi readers will often talk about how an author creates a “system,” the ways in which a particular fictional world operates.
Though set in an entirely different milieu, McMurtry does something very similar. He develops an overarching cosmic order that is utterly cold and terrifying. There is no god in the heavens, no fate or destiny. Instead, everything in the world of Streets of Laredo is ruled by blind chance. No matter how good you are, no matter how careful, no matter how well you train or prepare, luck is the only arbiter.
More than Lonesome Dove, more than most novels, in fact, Streets of Laredo has a powerful thematic consistency. Most of the characters we meet are dealing with the fact that all of them, at some point, will slip. Sometimes it is a wild horse that bucks a rider; sometimes it is a river that washes you away; sometimes it is a bullet, fired on a blind trajectory; sometimes it is illness; and if one escapes all these, there is age, relentless age, which has never lost a match.
Streets of Laredo is dark, a far darker novel than its predecessor. At times, it put me in mind of a more readably entertaining version of Blood Meridian. Hewing to his system, McMurtry cavalierly kills off a number of beloved characters, as though even he, the author, lacks the power to save them.
Yet, this is also a compassionate book, a work of deep humanism. For all the murderers and man-burners and thieves and rapists, there are also people willing to lend a hand. Streets of Laredo is balanced between hope and despair, between sentimentality and dispassion. It is set in an uncaring universe populated by dangerous men. But ultimately, it puts all its faith in people, in their relationships, and in love.
‘What’s made you look so peaked, J.D.?’ Goodnight inquired.
‘Why, it’s Captain Call, I guess,’ the young cowboy said. He was glad to talk about it, to get his feelings out.
‘What about Captain Call?’ Goodnight asked.
‘Why, wasn’t he a great Ranger?’ the boy asked. ‘I’ve always heard he was the greatest Ranger of all.’
‘Yes, he had exceptional determination,’ Goodnight told him…”
- Larry McMurtry, Streets of Laredo
How do you follow up Lonesome Dove, one of the greatest novels ever written?
You don’t.
At least, you should not try.
Streets of Laredo, Larry McMurtry’s sequel to his Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece, is not a bad book. It is, in fact, a great book. I will argue, in a moment, that it is better than Lonesome Dove in many ways, though I will always love the tale of Gus and Call’s last cattle drive more, and cherish it among the best of the best novels I've ever read.
But in a very real sense, Streets of Laredo did not need to be a follow-up. It would have worked just as well as a stand-alone with new characters. I can appreciate the many, many (many, many, many) joys of Streets of Laredo while still bemoaning the rather dismissive way that McMurtry treats his finest creation.
***
The toughest part of Streets of Laredo is overcoming the brutally abrupt way in which McMurtry dispenses with Lonesome Dove. The first time I read this, many years ago, I never recovered from my shock at the direction McMurtry takes. Within the first thirty pages, the legendary Hat Creek Cattle Company is summarily dismissed as an entity. It is as though McMurtry did not want to bother with them.
Without providing too many details, the most striking instance of this faithlessness is McMurty’s handling of Newt Dobbs. Readers of Lonesome Dove will recall that the mystery of Newt’s parentage, with Call the presumptive father, played a huge role in the formation of the characters of both Call and Newt.
Here, that entire storyline is dispensed with in a couple unsparing sentences. More than that, there are no repercussions whatsoever. In Lonesome Dove, the men of the Hat Creek Cattle Company were dogged by the past. That was a major part of that novel’s melancholy beauty. In Streets of Laredo, Call can’t be bothered to spare a thought for the boy who might be his son. This is especially striking given an extended sequence of self-flagellation, with Call musing on his mistakes, without ever mentioning young Newt. There are times in Streets of Laredo wherein it feels like McMurtry forgot the contents of the previous 900 pages he'd written about Call.
I am still not entirely ready to forgive McMurtry for sullying my memory of Lonesome Dove. Having finished this a second time, though, I am a bit more able to focus on its virtues, rather than dwelling obsessively on its shortcomings.
***
When Streets of Laredo opens, we learn that the former Texas Ranger Woodrow F. Call has become a bounty hunter. He has been hired by a railroad man named Colonel Terry to hunt down a vicious young Mexican bandit named Joey Garza. Eventually, Call gathers a low-IQ posse that includes Eastern dandy Ned Brookshire, hapless Deputy Ted Plunkert, and former Hat Creek cowboy Pea Eye Parker who, we learn, is improbably married to Lorena Woods.
(It took me a long, long time to accept this pairing. Certainly, during my first read-through, it did not make sense that the Lorena from Lonesome Dove would end up with droopy old Pea, a capable cowhand but a man who must have been dropped on the head repeatedly as a child).
McMurtry utilizes an omniscient third person viewpoint, constantly shifting perspectives among his characters. As is his style, there are a lot of players, scattered all over Texas and Mexico. The decision to give Pea Eye (uncharismatic, slow-witted, the anti-Gus McCrae) such a starring role is questionable. However, McMurtry is generous with his supporting actors and actresses. There is Brookshire, “the salaried man,” an accountant from New York who feels like the wind is going to blow him away; Famous Shoes, a mythical tracker who can walk as fast as a man can ride a horse, and who brings a touch of magical realism to the proceedings; and Billy Williams, a once-respectable scout who has gotten old and blind and who falls asleep while pooping – thereby losing his horse – in his introductory scene.
Unlike Lonesome Dove, Streets of Laredo features a number of real-life figures, and McMurtry absolutely nails their characterizations. A brusquely humane Charlie Goodnight serves as a Greek chorus, while there are memorable cameos from self-appointed Judge Roy Bean (heavily fictionalized) to a sly, oddly-sociable John Wesley Hardin.
Perhaps surprisingly, Streets of Laredo is really about the women. Much of the novel follows Maria Garza (Joey’s mother) and Lorena Parker (Pea Eye’s wife) as they try to undo the messes made by the men in their lives. To a large extent, the story runs through them. More than that, McMurtry’s excavation of toxic masculinity – the leers, the entitlement, the sexual aggression – feels very of-the-moment.
***
McMurtry is a natural storyteller. In that sense, there is no drop off in quality between Lonesome Dove and Streets of Laredo. He still employs his wide-angle lens, following a disparate and often disconnected group of characters. He is still spinning yarns within yarns, giving us backstories of even minor figures. He is never really worried about plot, and for much of the novel, the various storylines run parallel to each other. He relies heavily on coincidental meetings, and his west is never so large that one person cannot immediately find another.
Despite the failures I noted above, Streets of Laredo does provide some fan service. Characters from Lonesome Dove show up in unexpected places. Even better, we are given Round 2 in Woodrow Call’s never-ending struggle against “rude behavior.”
The minute he struck the blow, the Captain seemed to change. He didn't stop with one blow, although Doniphan was knocked flat, and his pistol went skittering across the floor of the jail. Call continued to hit the sheriff with the rifle. Once, when the sheriff turned to try and escape, the Captain knocked him in the ear with his boot, so hard that Brookshire would not have been surprised if Doniphan’s head had flown off.
At times, Streets of Laredo suffers from a bit of overkill. McMurtry spends a lot of time creating the chilly, randomly-homicidal persona of Joey Garza. In scene after meticulous scene, he becomes a super predator, one that is more than a match for Call. (Indeed, Garza is so supernaturally good, that McMurtry eventually has to inject some really bad decisions into his bad-guy in order to make the fight fair).
For whatever reason, though, McMurtry apparently did not feel like Garza was enough. So, like any good comic book movie, he adds another super-villain. This second killer is Mox Mox:
Mox Mox killed short people because they reminded him of himself…He killed tall people because he envied them. He could be a killer, but he could never be tall. He could never be blond, because he had red hair; and he could never look you straight in the eye, because one of his eyes was pointed wrong. It looked out of his head at an angle. Mox Mox hated being short, regretted the smallpox that scarred his face, and was sorry that he was not blond, but the thing he hated most about himself was his crooked-looking eye. His greatest, most elaborate cruelties were reserved for people with well-set, bright blue eyes. When Mox Mox caught such a person, male or female, he tended to do the worst things to the eyes. If the person with the perfect blue eyes was tall and blond, then so much the worse for him or her.
Mox Mox once rode with Blue Duck, and was with his gang when Lorena was captured in Lonesome Dove. I understand the impulse on McMurtry’s part, to give Lorena some added motivation in her actions. The problem, of course, is that Mox Mox never appeared in Lonesome Dove. Retrofitting a character is always extremely awkward, and that is the case here.
***
Up to this point, I have been back and forth on Streets of Laredo. This is the point wherein I make my pitch for its greatness.
Fantasy and sci-fi readers will often talk about how an author creates a “system,” the ways in which a particular fictional world operates.
Though set in an entirely different milieu, McMurtry does something very similar. He develops an overarching cosmic order that is utterly cold and terrifying. There is no god in the heavens, no fate or destiny. Instead, everything in the world of Streets of Laredo is ruled by blind chance. No matter how good you are, no matter how careful, no matter how well you train or prepare, luck is the only arbiter.
More than Lonesome Dove, more than most novels, in fact, Streets of Laredo has a powerful thematic consistency. Most of the characters we meet are dealing with the fact that all of them, at some point, will slip. Sometimes it is a wild horse that bucks a rider; sometimes it is a river that washes you away; sometimes it is a bullet, fired on a blind trajectory; sometimes it is illness; and if one escapes all these, there is age, relentless age, which has never lost a match.
“Woodrow Call had his time,” [Goodnight] said, finally. “It was a long time, too. Life’s but a knife edge, anyway. Sooner or later people slip and get cut.”
Streets of Laredo is dark, a far darker novel than its predecessor. At times, it put me in mind of a more readably entertaining version of Blood Meridian. Hewing to his system, McMurtry cavalierly kills off a number of beloved characters, as though even he, the author, lacks the power to save them.
Yet, this is also a compassionate book, a work of deep humanism. For all the murderers and man-burners and thieves and rapists, there are also people willing to lend a hand. Streets of Laredo is balanced between hope and despair, between sentimentality and dispassion. It is set in an uncaring universe populated by dangerous men. But ultimately, it puts all its faith in people, in their relationships, and in love.
February 23, 2025
Illumination
🏜️ McMurtry has not been the only one who wanted to demythologize the Hollywood West. A demythologized West that has been soaked in tinsel town and lively western novels for over a hundred years becomes something rugged, raw and unvarnished. Laredo is a substantial work of realism. But McMurtry is capable of doing something not all the demythologizers are capable of. His stories are not all dark. There is light too. There is illumination. It is not all about cruelty. There is kindness and mercy too.
The Puritan style authors who embrace and promote the depravity of man (out of their own depravity) see no redemption in human nature, no way forward, no light in the darkness. McMurtry is honest to the pain and horrors of human existence but also honest to the acts of kindness and courage and compassion. Not every writer of western realism is (or any realism).
In my own experience I have seen the illumination. Even in the night there is illumination (the lesser light to rule the night). One example is animal rescue - the abusers abuse cruelly, the rescuers heal magnificently. That is more of McMurtry’s balanced approach. Harsh as the harsh aspects of Laredo are they are by no means the whole story.
McMurtry lifts up strong, compassionate and unflinching women in Laredo. It’s one of the most hopeful and exhilarating aspects of the novel.
🏜️ Most are used to Lonesome Dove. This book has its sadness and grimness, but also holds up a beauty that is beyond the violence of the Old West.
🏜️ McMurtry has not been the only one who wanted to demythologize the Hollywood West. A demythologized West that has been soaked in tinsel town and lively western novels for over a hundred years becomes something rugged, raw and unvarnished. Laredo is a substantial work of realism. But McMurtry is capable of doing something not all the demythologizers are capable of. His stories are not all dark. There is light too. There is illumination. It is not all about cruelty. There is kindness and mercy too.
The Puritan style authors who embrace and promote the depravity of man (out of their own depravity) see no redemption in human nature, no way forward, no light in the darkness. McMurtry is honest to the pain and horrors of human existence but also honest to the acts of kindness and courage and compassion. Not every writer of western realism is (or any realism).
In my own experience I have seen the illumination. Even in the night there is illumination (the lesser light to rule the night). One example is animal rescue - the abusers abuse cruelly, the rescuers heal magnificently. That is more of McMurtry’s balanced approach. Harsh as the harsh aspects of Laredo are they are by no means the whole story.
McMurtry lifts up strong, compassionate and unflinching women in Laredo. It’s one of the most hopeful and exhilarating aspects of the novel.
🏜️ Most are used to Lonesome Dove. This book has its sadness and grimness, but also holds up a beauty that is beyond the violence of the Old West.
February 7, 2023
In order of publication:
Lonesome Dove (1985) *****
Streets of Laredo (1993) ****
Dead Man's Walk (1995) ****
Comanche Moon (1997) ****
In order of internal chronology:
Dead Man's Walk – set in the early 1840s
Comanche Moon – set in the 1850–60s
Lonesome Dove – set in mid-to-late 1870s
Streets of Laredo – set in the early 1890s
Lonesome Dove (1985) *****
Streets of Laredo (1993) ****
Dead Man's Walk (1995) ****
Comanche Moon (1997) ****
In order of internal chronology:
Dead Man's Walk – set in the early 1840s
Comanche Moon – set in the 1850–60s
Lonesome Dove – set in mid-to-late 1870s
Streets of Laredo – set in the early 1890s
July 9, 2023
"Instinct, however well honed, could not necessarily warn one that a young killer, hidden behind a rock four hundred yards away, with the sun and at his back, was looking through a telescope sight, about to squeeze the trigger."
4.75🌟's
Initial Thoughts
When I finished reading Lonesome Dove over a year ago, I was absolutely blown away by it. Enthralled from start to finish by the depth of the characters, the detail of the setting and richness of the story, there's a very good reason it scooped the Pulitzer prize for author Larry MacMurtry. Not only is it my favourite western of all time, but quite possibly my favourite book of all time.
So why has it taken me so long to continue with the sequels? I'd say the main reason is that they're widely regarded as not being anywhere near the level of that first novel. So not wanting to be disappointed, I have put them off. But, as with most things in life, it's best to make your own mind up.
It's worth noting that Streets of Laredo is a direct sequel to Lonesome Dove and was the second book published, in 1993, of a four book series. However, the next two books (Dead Man's Walk and Comanche Moon) are actually prequels. So if you want to read them in publication order, like I am, then use the reading order suggested on this site. However, if you want to read them as a chronological story then it's actually:
Dead Man's Walk
Comanche Moon
Lonesome Dove
Streets of Laredo
Now we've got that out the way it's on with the review.
The Story
The story begins in Texas during the 1890s, some twenty years after the conclusion of Lonesome Dove and that failed cattle drive to Montana. The famous and former Texas ranger Captain Woodrow Call is now an old man and making a living as a bounty hunter, tracking down those hard to catch outlaws. With his particular set of skills and unmatched determination it's a vocation he's well suited too. But father time is catching up to him.
Call's days of glory are well behind him, but when a young psychopath begins holding up trains and indiscriminately killing passengers there's only one man railroad president, Colonel Terry, wants to bring this guy to justice. Call is hired and accompanied by Terry's accountant, Brookshire, while recruiting Pea Eye Parker and Deputy Plunkett for the mission. Reputation only goes so far and Captain Call is going to need all the help he can get if he's going to bring stone cold killer, Joey Garza, to justice.
"Joey's smile became part of the legend the gringo's made about him: Joey Garza always smiled before he killed."
The Writing
MacMurtry's writing was fantastic in Lonesome Dove and it's exactly the same in Streets of Laredo. Warm, with a natural flow that gets straight to the point. It's full of humour mixed with tragedy that paints a very realistic image of the wild west that is contrary to the idyllic perception that we've become accustomed to. Where the end result has more to do with stupidity and bad luck than noble intentions.
But if anything the tone in this one is even darker than it was in the previous novel. MacMurtry seemed to crank up the violence and cruelty in this one quite a bit. Not quite on the same level as Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian but getting somewhere near there.
Street of Laredo is absolutely full of tragedy and the injustice of the world that I'm obviously not going into as it will completely spoil the experience for you. Let's just say that the west can be a violent and harsh place where bad things can happen to good people. Make sure you have that box of Kleenex on standby.
But despite all the good stuff this is not quite Lonesome Dove. The atmosphere just wasn't quite as good and the general feel of the location wasn't up at the same level. There were also a couple of parts that dragged a little bit and I'm the type of guy who prefers me a slower paced read. But that's me being ultra critical and it's more down to the amazing quality of the first novel. This is still brilliantly written, but I know you will want to know how it compares so there you go.
"Life's but a knife edge, anyway. Sooner or later people slip and get cut."
The Characters
Let's get this straight. Larry McMurtry is without doubt one of the best authors of character driven stories that's lived. The quality present in Lonesome Dove is astonishing. While the level of detail in Streets of Laredo is not on that level it is still fantastic. Just not as good. Sorry if I'm beginning to sound like a broken record.
A big reason for the disparity is the absence of Gus MacRae. That's the problem with being dead. This isn't Game of Thrones after all. The back and forward banter between him and Woodrow Call was an absolute highlight of that first novel. An odd couple that really lit up the pages that the pair featured on. I never got tired of Gus's whimsical philosophical views on how the world worked. Without doubt my favourite character in Lonesome Dove and perhaps all of fiction.
But in Streets of Laredo it's pretty much a one man show with Call firmly in the role of the lone hero. An old man who still possesses that famous grit and determination. He's a miserable git who's completely unsympathetic toward anyone who doesn't measure up to his impeccable standards and who just can't allow himself to be happy. Still, if you're in a tight squeeze he is a man you definitely want on your side. The story is very much a study of his reluctance to change in a rapidly changing world. With most of his old friends and colleagues dead we see that he fails to form meaningful relationships. But despite his faults you can't help but admire and root for him.
Then we have the two villains. Train robber Joey Garza, who gets his own POV chapters, and the vile and dastardly sadistic Mox Mox. It's because of these two that the majority of tragedy takes place in this book. Both are compelling in their own way and rank alongside the most evil villains in western fiction. What about the Judge from Blood Meridian? Ok, maybe not that evil smart ass but you get my point. These guys are bad and take great pleasure in administering pain and misery to anyone they come across. I'd have just liked a little more backstory from Garza, particularly his time spent living with the Apaches, to flesh out his character. With him being a main character I definitely felt the need for it.
Other great characters included the accountant Brookshire, who begins life as quite an annoying individual but develops into a pretty likeable and heroic fellow at the close. And the mysterious Indian tracker Famous Shoes who's love of nature and native ways was only overshadowed by his love of money. But my favourite supporting character had to be the unsavoury gunslinger John Wesley Harding who was as quick with an insult as he was on a draw and had zero respect or fear for anyone.
Famous Shoes
Yes there's some great characters and I could talk all day about them but alas Goodreads has a word limit. Although I'm seriously putting that to the test.
Final Thoughts
So the question you really want to know. How does this sequel compare to the original? While I'll readily admit it is not as good as Lonesome Dove, it is however up there with the absolute best in Western Fiction. Louis L'Amour has got nothing on my man Larry McMurtry.
What I can say about Streets of Laredo, without reservation, is that it is a very very good book and a fantastic sequel. A great piece of writing that contains all the elements that make a great story.
The ending in particular hit very hard. Extremely sad, it almost broke my heart. If I had one. After getting to know these characters over almost two thousand pages it was extremely moving. Emotion like that can elevate fiction from mere words on a page into a work of art.
All that's left to say is that if you're a fan of Lonesome Dove then this is essential reading. A cut above all other western novels. Thank you Larry McMurtry.
Larry McMurtry
And thanks to you for staying with me and...cheers!
May 15, 2024
We beat the drum lowly and shook the spurs slowly,
And bitterly wept as we bore him along;
For we all loved our comrade, so
Brave and handsome,
We all loved our comrade, although
He’d done wrong. . . ——“Streets of Laredo,” c. 1860
And so begins Streets of Laredo, the sequel to Larry McMurtry’s critically acclaimed and beloved Lonesome Dove. This is part of the literary portrait of McMurtry’s native Texas and the rugged Western literature that he has been creating over the years with this being one of his most powerful and moving books. I loved this achingly melancholy literary achievement taking place twenty years after the events in the memorable Lonesome Dove, as we learn what has happened in the intervening years. Streets of Laredo continues the epic narrative of the waning years of the Texas Rangers. Although he has aged, Captain Woodrow Call is still a legendary hunter of outlaws. And as such, he is called upon by one of the railroads now crisscrossing the Western frontier territory to bring to justice a young much feared Mexican train robber and killer, Joey Garza. On this expedition, Call is accompanied by the railroad accountant from Brooklyn, an inexperienced and reluctant Texas deputy, and Texas Ranger Pea Eye Parker,now married to Lorena and the father of five children, adding to his hesitation and conflict about accompanying the Captain. As the narrative alternates between Mexico and Texas and along the Rio Grande River, Streets of Laredo is a marvelous and fitting conclusion to the epic Lonesome Dove. I literally could not put this book down, beautifully done Mr. McMurtry.
January 5, 2025
Fifteen years have passed for Captain Call since closing the final pages of Lonesome Dove. Call is one of those characters cast in stone, meaning like the leopard who could not change his spots, he is the same. My thought is there is no other way, as I'm sure McMurtry knew as well. Do I like him just a little more after closing Streets of Laredo? I like him a lot more actually. Even in Call, there is a tender spot, though it's buried deep and hard to find.
In most any other moment, I think this would be a five star read for me. Even now I want to give this a five, but Lonesome Dove casts a long shadow. McMurty does an amazing job with Streets of Laredo by not trying to repeat the story of that first book. Instead, he looks to Call, and then extends from there. Lonesome Dove is therefore not finished, even if so much has been left behind. Place and time are contained to McMurtry's state of Texas with a bit of leaking across the river and into Mexico. Even though the civilized America we came to know is quickly forcing its way from the East, the pervading feeling here is that this Western land could almost remain wild forever.
It's more than possible that this story is overly brutal for some, and unlikely the characters could find one another so readily across the vast distances described. My feeling is that writers do that in one form or another all the time. There are some characters I sorely miss, including their humor, but on the flip-side I love that Lorena's story continues, that Pea Eye's grows, and how Call's is more deeply realized.
In most any other moment, I think this would be a five star read for me. Even now I want to give this a five, but Lonesome Dove casts a long shadow. McMurty does an amazing job with Streets of Laredo by not trying to repeat the story of that first book. Instead, he looks to Call, and then extends from there. Lonesome Dove is therefore not finished, even if so much has been left behind. Place and time are contained to McMurtry's state of Texas with a bit of leaking across the river and into Mexico. Even though the civilized America we came to know is quickly forcing its way from the East, the pervading feeling here is that this Western land could almost remain wild forever.
It's more than possible that this story is overly brutal for some, and unlikely the characters could find one another so readily across the vast distances described. My feeling is that writers do that in one form or another all the time. There are some characters I sorely miss, including their humor, but on the flip-side I love that Lorena's story continues, that Pea Eye's grows, and how Call's is more deeply realized.
August 8, 2022
I LOVED it! Possibly even more than Lonesome Dove. This one picks up 15 years after the events of Lonesome Dove, and you definitely NEED to read Lonesome Dove before reading this one. I was a bit devastated in the beginning of this book when I realized we were only going to follow certain characters from Lonesome Dove in this one, but I did end up loving it.
Let me just say, Larry McMurtry does not care about coddling his characters. He treats them just like the Wild West would. Don't think anyone in this book is safe, ever. But that was also really refreshing because it made me *genuinely* worried for the characters, wanting the best for them but knowing ultimately, nature and evil people do often come out on top. How our main characters handle and stay true to themselves though is the ultimate story he's telling.
Oddly enough this reminded me a lot of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. The way he weaves together characters with different motivations, moving them across the landscape, sometimes making them run into each other, other times just missing one another, and revealing information to characters at the right moments—it felt a bit Game of Thrones-y! I liked that a lot.
I think this book has a much more clear and precise plot than Lonesome Dove. Whereas Lonesome Dove is a strong character driven novel, it's long and meanders. It's more about the journey, not the destination. This book is also a journey but has a strong plot and it's SO gripping to watch the events unfold. But in true McMurtry fashion, he does not neglect character development for plot. He masters both, while giving us stunning descriptions of the West along the way!
Let me just say, Larry McMurtry does not care about coddling his characters. He treats them just like the Wild West would. Don't think anyone in this book is safe, ever. But that was also really refreshing because it made me *genuinely* worried for the characters, wanting the best for them but knowing ultimately, nature and evil people do often come out on top. How our main characters handle and stay true to themselves though is the ultimate story he's telling.
Oddly enough this reminded me a lot of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. The way he weaves together characters with different motivations, moving them across the landscape, sometimes making them run into each other, other times just missing one another, and revealing information to characters at the right moments—it felt a bit Game of Thrones-y! I liked that a lot.
I think this book has a much more clear and precise plot than Lonesome Dove. Whereas Lonesome Dove is a strong character driven novel, it's long and meanders. It's more about the journey, not the destination. This book is also a journey but has a strong plot and it's SO gripping to watch the events unfold. But in true McMurtry fashion, he does not neglect character development for plot. He masters both, while giving us stunning descriptions of the West along the way!
August 31, 2012
As much as I enjoyed Lonesome Dove, that's how much I disliked Streets of Laredo. Larry McMurtry spent much of the earlier book demolishing the squeaky-clean John Wayne image of the Old West by showing it as realm of rape, sexual slavery, meaningless violence and random death, but he also showed the grandeur and beauty that drew men like Augustus McCrae. Gus is sorely missed in this novel, in which McMurtry seems perversely committed to focusing on the least interesting characters and reworking themes in the least interesting ways. The novel opens with Newt already dead and still unacknowledged by his father, the taciturn and emotionally stunted Woodrow Call, and the Montana cattle venture has collapsed. So, scratch two potentially fascinating plotlines for a tedious round of bandit-chasing. I never believed for a moment that railway men would hire an obviously way-past-his-prime Woodrow Call to hunt down the ruthless Joey Garza, just as I never bought the idea that Lorena would marry Pea Eye Parker, apparently for no other reason than have a reliable man on call. McMurtry does come up with an authentically terrifying villain in Mox Mox, a former associate of Blue Duck with a penchant for torturing his captives (especially children) before setting them afire. But for much of its excessive length, Streets of Laredo reads like less of a sequel than a kiss-off -- a backhanded rejoinder to anyone who loved Lonesome Dove.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 17, 2018
This is on my short list of books that I have read more than once. In fact I think I've read it 2 1/2 times. A few years ago I picked it up one day, opened it somewhere in the middle (maybe I was looking for a particular passage), started reading, and couldn't put it down for a couple of days until I finished it (for the third time). That's how much the book drew me into the story that McMurtry tells, and the magnificent way he tells it. I think he's a fabulous writer, the greatest I've read for evoking a feeling (maybe a little romanticized) for the Old West.
I'd guess I'm quite likely to read this book again some day.
I'd guess I'm quite likely to read this book again some day.
December 1, 2019
I read it a while ago but it wasn't listed as READ so I am adding it now. (2019)
LOVE< LOVE< LOVE!! McMurtry is my favorite TOP 5 authors. Great story. Great Western. I didn't know I was a western fan until I got a hold of these stories now I can't go back and un-be one.
LOVE< LOVE< LOVE!! McMurtry is my favorite TOP 5 authors. Great story. Great Western. I didn't know I was a western fan until I got a hold of these stories now I can't go back and un-be one.
April 30, 2025
5/5 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 stars!
I had not expected to like Larry McMurtry’s conclusion to the story as much as the original Lonesome Dove had moved me. I was wrong. My enjoyment of the story was not any less than LD. I loved it just as much and in some parts I relished the story probably even more. The story moved like the winds on the plains. In Streets of Laredo, life shifts quick, like a horse at full gallop. The story twists and turns, showing how love and loss shape folks. Each page speaks of care—deep, real care—for those we hold close.
Stories with head hopping POVs don’t generally work for me but McMurtry makes the head hopping work effectively and smoothly, shifting perspective cleanly and quickly without making it seem jarring. He truly does inhabit the character completely which makes it a real treat to see life from one character’s eyes and then, in the very next sentence or paragraph, observe and reflect on an event from another character’s eyes. This kind of writing that “opens your eyes” and provides immense perspective and empathy to leave its mark on the soul would probably not be possible otherwise. I wonder.
The parts that I really loved had to do with some characters that were carried over from LD and also some new characters that he introduced.
“It did seem to Famous Shoes that they resembled certain tracks, such as the track of the centipede, or of certain delicate birds who skimmed the water’s edge for their prey.”
“They’re words, not tracks, you damn Indian!”
“..he wanted to learn badly about the tracks in books.”
What was not different was how the story lays bare how starkly fickle life is. The book paints the raw truth of life. Days are fragile, dreams often dashed, but bonds shine through the dust and heat. McMurtry's words cut deep, though simple. He doesn't use or need big words to leave his mark. It's a story with grit, heart, and punch—a yarn spun fine.
The story gets pretty grim in parts, with very dark threads, but in the mix I found a kind of beauty. It tells of life lived in full. It sticks with you, just like the tracks carved in the soil.
I had not expected to like Larry McMurtry’s conclusion to the story as much as the original Lonesome Dove had moved me. I was wrong. My enjoyment of the story was not any less than LD. I loved it just as much and in some parts I relished the story probably even more. The story moved like the winds on the plains. In Streets of Laredo, life shifts quick, like a horse at full gallop. The story twists and turns, showing how love and loss shape folks. Each page speaks of care—deep, real care—for those we hold close.
Stories with head hopping POVs don’t generally work for me but McMurtry makes the head hopping work effectively and smoothly, shifting perspective cleanly and quickly without making it seem jarring. He truly does inhabit the character completely which makes it a real treat to see life from one character’s eyes and then, in the very next sentence or paragraph, observe and reflect on an event from another character’s eyes. This kind of writing that “opens your eyes” and provides immense perspective and empathy to leave its mark on the soul would probably not be possible otherwise. I wonder.
The parts that I really loved had to do with some characters that were carried over from LD and also some new characters that he introduced.
“It did seem to Famous Shoes that they resembled certain tracks, such as the track of the centipede, or of certain delicate birds who skimmed the water’s edge for their prey.”
“They’re words, not tracks, you damn Indian!”
“..he wanted to learn badly about the tracks in books.”
What was not different was how the story lays bare how starkly fickle life is. The book paints the raw truth of life. Days are fragile, dreams often dashed, but bonds shine through the dust and heat. McMurtry's words cut deep, though simple. He doesn't use or need big words to leave his mark. It's a story with grit, heart, and punch—a yarn spun fine.
The story gets pretty grim in parts, with very dark threads, but in the mix I found a kind of beauty. It tells of life lived in full. It sticks with you, just like the tracks carved in the soil.
May 16, 2024
Full video review here: https://youtu.be/fNDkSvKs-6Q
How to do the impossible? Follow up one of the best books ever written that doesn't feel like a letdown. Somehow, McMurtry has done that. With returning characters and a handful of new ones you will slip right back into the boots and cowboy hat until the author reminds you that this was a tough time to be alive. This one may be even more grim than Lonesome Dove was but it has every bit as much heart.
Can't wait to read the prequels.
How to do the impossible? Follow up one of the best books ever written that doesn't feel like a letdown. Somehow, McMurtry has done that. With returning characters and a handful of new ones you will slip right back into the boots and cowboy hat until the author reminds you that this was a tough time to be alive. This one may be even more grim than Lonesome Dove was but it has every bit as much heart.
Can't wait to read the prequels.
February 14, 2020
Lungo tutta la durata della lettura non ho fatto che ripetermi: "che peccato, che delusione". Sin dall'inizio si è rivelato pacchianotto e pedante, sarebbe servito un mezzo miracolo affinché potesse riprendersi. Ho tirato fino in fondo sperando in quel miracolo, e invece niente.
Una trama raffazzonata e sconclusionata che vuol parlare di rimorsi e fallimenti ma non arriva nemmeno a scalfire la superficie dei temi che dovrebbe trattare. Non è per niente all'altezza di Lonesome Dove, non lo è nella forma come non lo è nel contenuto.
Il meccanismo dei continui inseguimenti e ripensamenti su cui si basa questa trama, all'inizio può lasciar sperare che ci sia un "qualcosa" che sta per spiccare il volo, ma ben presto finisce per dimostrarsi un moto perpetuo grottesco e farsesco. Ancor più farseschi sono i ripensamenti dei "cattivi", utili più che altro a far sì che non si compia una strage definitiva la quale avrebbe posto fine al libro anzitempo, ma plausibili quanto un'arrampicata sugli specchi.
C'è una sovrabbondante farcitura composta di nuovi personaggi, tutti con le loro micro-storie e micro-paturnie, ma alla fin fine sono solo macchiette con tanta quantità e poca qualità, non rimpiazzano affatto i vecchi personaggi venuti a mancare già durante la trama di Lonesome Dove o quelli fatti sparire in modo frettoloso nello spazio tra un libro e l'altro.
A dire il vero, anche i vecchi personaggi che vengono qui riproposti, non sono più gli stessi: secondo gli intenti dell'autore dovrebbero essere sempre loro ma alle prese con la vecchiaia, o in ogni caso alle prese con venti primavere in più sulle spalle. Ma il risultato mostra il contrario: non sono le stesse persone semplicemente invecchiate, sono le caricature di quelli che erano stati proposti nel libro precedente.
Particolarmente pacchiana e infelice la scelta di porre in essere una sorta di "revisione" riguardo lo svolgimento dei fatti inerenti al rapimento di Lorena in Lonesome Dove. Per come viene descritto l'episodio nella versione originale, nulla da eccepire: crudo, violento, ma mai inutilmente splatter e mai in cerca di una dose extra di compassione. Invece qui mi tocca sentire Lorena che rievoca i fatti accaduti circa vent'anni prima aggiungendovi dettagli e personaggi che non erano mai stati menzionati prima: una aggiunta palesemente posticcia e palesemente finalizzata alla costruzione di un sequel che potesse in qualche modo aggrapparsi a quello che è l'evento emotivamente più drammatico nel romanzo precedente, dunque una evidente ricerca della dose extra di commozione. Ma il risultato fa lo stesso effetto di un gatto che cercasse di arrampicarsi sullo specchio di cui sopra.
Stavolta la smania del seguito non è stata premiante, avrei fatto meglio ad accontentarmi di un libro solo e molto bello, piuttosto che rovinarmelo così miseramente con un seguito in salsa di casa nella prateria.
Una trama raffazzonata e sconclusionata che vuol parlare di rimorsi e fallimenti ma non arriva nemmeno a scalfire la superficie dei temi che dovrebbe trattare. Non è per niente all'altezza di Lonesome Dove, non lo è nella forma come non lo è nel contenuto.
Il meccanismo dei continui inseguimenti e ripensamenti su cui si basa questa trama, all'inizio può lasciar sperare che ci sia un "qualcosa" che sta per spiccare il volo, ma ben presto finisce per dimostrarsi un moto perpetuo grottesco e farsesco. Ancor più farseschi sono i ripensamenti dei "cattivi", utili più che altro a far sì che non si compia una strage definitiva la quale avrebbe posto fine al libro anzitempo, ma plausibili quanto un'arrampicata sugli specchi.
C'è una sovrabbondante farcitura composta di nuovi personaggi, tutti con le loro micro-storie e micro-paturnie, ma alla fin fine sono solo macchiette con tanta quantità e poca qualità, non rimpiazzano affatto i vecchi personaggi venuti a mancare già durante la trama di Lonesome Dove o quelli fatti sparire in modo frettoloso nello spazio tra un libro e l'altro.
A dire il vero, anche i vecchi personaggi che vengono qui riproposti, non sono più gli stessi: secondo gli intenti dell'autore dovrebbero essere sempre loro ma alle prese con la vecchiaia, o in ogni caso alle prese con venti primavere in più sulle spalle. Ma il risultato mostra il contrario: non sono le stesse persone semplicemente invecchiate, sono le caricature di quelli che erano stati proposti nel libro precedente.
Particolarmente pacchiana e infelice la scelta di porre in essere una sorta di "revisione" riguardo lo svolgimento dei fatti inerenti al rapimento di Lorena in Lonesome Dove. Per come viene descritto l'episodio nella versione originale, nulla da eccepire: crudo, violento, ma mai inutilmente splatter e mai in cerca di una dose extra di compassione. Invece qui mi tocca sentire Lorena che rievoca i fatti accaduti circa vent'anni prima aggiungendovi dettagli e personaggi che non erano mai stati menzionati prima: una aggiunta palesemente posticcia e palesemente finalizzata alla costruzione di un sequel che potesse in qualche modo aggrapparsi a quello che è l'evento emotivamente più drammatico nel romanzo precedente, dunque una evidente ricerca della dose extra di commozione. Ma il risultato fa lo stesso effetto di un gatto che cercasse di arrampicarsi sullo specchio di cui sopra.
Stavolta la smania del seguito non è stata premiante, avrei fatto meglio ad accontentarmi di un libro solo e molto bello, piuttosto che rovinarmelo così miseramente con un seguito in salsa di casa nella prateria.
February 22, 2025
This novel is the final story of the "Lonesome Dove" saga and tells what became of the characters at the end of the trail drive. McMurtry creates some unlikely heroes and some very bad hombres and some events were hard to stomach. But I always imagined that evil like in this book can exist and life on the frontier could have been just as described. It was a place where dreams were chased, life was cheap and people could do anything they wanted without having to answer for it.
No one tells a story like McMurtry.
No one tells a story like McMurtry.
July 10, 2024
Earlier this year I eagerly awaited the Pulitzer announcement and excitedly discovered that one of the runners up for biographies had been Larry McMurtry: A Life. Having gone through biographies like they are water since I was in second grade, I savored learning about the author who brought Lonesome Dove into existence. McMurtry lead quite a life to say the least, and, upon completing his biography, I decided to select him as one of the authors I am honoring this year as I read the masters. There are Pulitzer winners and there are Pulitzer winners; there are westerns and there are westerns. Lonesome Dove is one of the best of the best in both regards, McMurtry penning his opus when he was at a crossroads of his career as a writer. Even though he studied under Wallace Stegner, McMurtry longed to distance himself as a primarily western writer; however, he was a westerner in every sense of the word and his most memorable works paid homage to his west Texas home. He grew up hearing his grandfather tell stories of the old west and even accompanied him on cattle drives, meeting the famous cowboy Charles Goodnight on one occasion. Lonesome Dove emerged from these stories as well as the dime store westerns that McMurtry grew up reading. After completing his opus and telling the story again as a television mini series, Hollywood and readers clamored for more. Six years after the publication of Lonesome Dove, McMurtry set to work on its sequel, having it published two years later. It has been nearly that amount of time since I read the story of the Hat Creek Outfit, and I knew it was high time that I return to the old west and find out what occurred to the surviving protagonists in Streets of Laredo.
It had been fifteen years since the end of Lonesome Dove. Captain Woodrow Call is all but retired as a Texas Ranger, but his name still instills fear in the outlaws of the old west. According to some sources the events take place during the 1890s; however, modernization is slow to find the border states and Mexico. Frederick Jackson Turner had declared the west closed twenty years earlier when Captain Call and Gus McCrae lead the Hat Creek Outfit to Montana, but old time outlaws still operated and cowboys still drove herds up and down the west. Many natives and buffalo had been driven off their lands, but the west still existed as an expanse of blue skies and continuous rolling hills, mountains and desert; the land might only be closed to easterners who viewed the land west of New York as little more than a blip on the radar. The narrative opens with a Connecticut Yankee named Ted Brookshire meeting Captain Call and pleading with the retired ranger to help him track and gun down notorious train robber Joey Garza. Call did not trust the Yankee and barely trusted any man in his work. Gus McCrae was long dead and Charles Goodnight- a real life character- lived the life of a cowboy. The only member from the Hat Creek Outfit left was the dependable deputy Pea Eye Parker, who had married the former whore Lorena and settled down on the Panhandle as a farmer, Lorena a teacher. They have five children, and it is apparent that Lorena runs the home; Pea Eye was never a good shot, but after all these years remains loyal to Captain Call. Pea Eye loves his wife and no longer craves the life of a ranger, but she encourages him to go to his captain; she will run the farm. The principal characters introduced, the narrative can advance, and readers should be prepared for a fast paced romp through the old west, that, despite the modernization occurring in the eastern half of the country, was still a country of cowboys and natives, rangers and bandits, the country where Larry McMurtry’s family had settled and made their livelihood.
As in Lonesome Dove, McMurtry introduces a myriad of story threads and characters and gives all of them their due. During his illustrious life, McMurtry befriended multiple women at every stage. At the time that he wrote Streets of Laredo, McMurtry spent much of his time with Diana Ossana of Tucson, and she assisted him with much of his writing, and would for the rest of his life. Her influence is apparent because the narrative highlights strong women, both major and minor characters. The west is not a place for a lady. It is still a place dominated by rangers and bandits, saloons and gambling, men eyeing women for whoring, posses camping under the open sky each night as they chase the baddest men in the west. Mrs Lorena Parker has reformed. She is a wife and mother and teacher; however, when she gets word that manburner Mox Mox is still active, she ships her children off to safety, and goes after her husband to bring him home. He is no spring chicken and should not be chasing bandits and her children need a father. Lorena’s presence forces the cowboys to be less crude but her acquired skills are necessary throughout the narrative, and she is hardly a prude. Lorena’s foil is María Garza of Ojinada, México, Joey’s mother. The kindest mother to her other children and the only midwife for one hundred miles, María travels for over one hundred miles to warn her son that the famous Captain Call is after him. He might be bad but he is still her son, and she has the capacity for love that only a mother can. Even the other members of Call’s traveling party reminisce of their wives and he realizes that the west might be changing, as respectable people show loyalty to their wives and families above all else. The west might not be as modern as eastern cities, but men who used to drop everything for a chance to work with Captain Call are choosing lives in small towns that are dotting the west and trying to give their children a better life than that of a bandit chaser.
Many stories of the old west are oral tales that evoke mythology. McMurtry notes that he created Call and McCrae from the chronology of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, a hero and his sidekick who craved honor and treasure. With McCrae gone, Pea Eye Parker is less of a foil to Captain Call but still exhibits loyalty to him. Captain Call’s exploits from his rangering days before the civil war are stuff of legend. Even the bandit Garza fears him because Captain Call defeated many a bandit along the border for a generation, allowing families to sleep safe in their beds. Garza is creating a legendary story as Call chases him, robbing riches off of trains and hiding them in a cave that only he knows about. As Call and his party approaches Garza’s home, the bandit has already killed thirty people or so the people claim. This is more than even the infamous Billy the Kid; Garza must be eliminated. Joey Garza only wanted riches to replace the love his mother did not give him. The woman knew her share of hardship, being married four times and raising a boy who appeared autistic and a blind daughter. What Joey experienced was jealousy and he robbed to replace the love his mother supposedly did not give him; regardless, he would need to be eliminated so that families could sleep easier at night, the days of high security prisons would not exist for generations. People would come for miles to see that Joey Garza was dead; they would spread oral history about the demise of Mox Mox. These are the types of mythological stories that McMurtry heard from his grandfather that he used as the backbone of his body of work. He created the real and fictional characters in this story from the stories he heard growing up, the stories of the old west that had not quite reached modernity.
Knowing that the narrative of Streets of Laredo occurred while Theodore Roosevelt rose in popularity back east is not lost on me. Roosevelt reformed cities to make them cleaner and cleaned up New York of vice while he moved up in rank in the Republican Party. The west had not reached this need yet. It was still the west of rangers and bandits, cowboys and natives, homesteads and one room schools. Lorena and Pea Eye Parker reveal that one can change and encourage their children to have better lives than the ones they lived. Pea Eye along with Captain Call and Charles Goodnight had their time. The days of rangers were slowly coming to an end as more former cowboys chose to move into town and settle down. After all of his adventures, even Captain Call realized that the west would be won from the natives and settled eventually. These were the crossroads when Larry McMurtry’s father and siblings grew up in Archer City, Texas near the fictional Quitaque where Pea Eye and Lorena raised their family. McMurtry came of age when the west had moved past the days of relics like Captain Call, which was why early in his career he was reluctant to tell that story. Following an opus like Lonesome Dove is not a task that is easily undertaken. McMurtry weaves together an equally unforgettable tale here as he returns to the Streets of Laredo. Hollywood would convince him to write two more prequels to the story of Captain Call and Gus McCrae. If either tale comes close to these first two illustrious stories of the old west, I can count on McMurtry as one of the top writers in American history.
4.75 stars (because there is only one Lonesome Dove)
It had been fifteen years since the end of Lonesome Dove. Captain Woodrow Call is all but retired as a Texas Ranger, but his name still instills fear in the outlaws of the old west. According to some sources the events take place during the 1890s; however, modernization is slow to find the border states and Mexico. Frederick Jackson Turner had declared the west closed twenty years earlier when Captain Call and Gus McCrae lead the Hat Creek Outfit to Montana, but old time outlaws still operated and cowboys still drove herds up and down the west. Many natives and buffalo had been driven off their lands, but the west still existed as an expanse of blue skies and continuous rolling hills, mountains and desert; the land might only be closed to easterners who viewed the land west of New York as little more than a blip on the radar. The narrative opens with a Connecticut Yankee named Ted Brookshire meeting Captain Call and pleading with the retired ranger to help him track and gun down notorious train robber Joey Garza. Call did not trust the Yankee and barely trusted any man in his work. Gus McCrae was long dead and Charles Goodnight- a real life character- lived the life of a cowboy. The only member from the Hat Creek Outfit left was the dependable deputy Pea Eye Parker, who had married the former whore Lorena and settled down on the Panhandle as a farmer, Lorena a teacher. They have five children, and it is apparent that Lorena runs the home; Pea Eye was never a good shot, but after all these years remains loyal to Captain Call. Pea Eye loves his wife and no longer craves the life of a ranger, but she encourages him to go to his captain; she will run the farm. The principal characters introduced, the narrative can advance, and readers should be prepared for a fast paced romp through the old west, that, despite the modernization occurring in the eastern half of the country, was still a country of cowboys and natives, rangers and bandits, the country where Larry McMurtry’s family had settled and made their livelihood.
As in Lonesome Dove, McMurtry introduces a myriad of story threads and characters and gives all of them their due. During his illustrious life, McMurtry befriended multiple women at every stage. At the time that he wrote Streets of Laredo, McMurtry spent much of his time with Diana Ossana of Tucson, and she assisted him with much of his writing, and would for the rest of his life. Her influence is apparent because the narrative highlights strong women, both major and minor characters. The west is not a place for a lady. It is still a place dominated by rangers and bandits, saloons and gambling, men eyeing women for whoring, posses camping under the open sky each night as they chase the baddest men in the west. Mrs Lorena Parker has reformed. She is a wife and mother and teacher; however, when she gets word that manburner Mox Mox is still active, she ships her children off to safety, and goes after her husband to bring him home. He is no spring chicken and should not be chasing bandits and her children need a father. Lorena’s presence forces the cowboys to be less crude but her acquired skills are necessary throughout the narrative, and she is hardly a prude. Lorena’s foil is María Garza of Ojinada, México, Joey’s mother. The kindest mother to her other children and the only midwife for one hundred miles, María travels for over one hundred miles to warn her son that the famous Captain Call is after him. He might be bad but he is still her son, and she has the capacity for love that only a mother can. Even the other members of Call’s traveling party reminisce of their wives and he realizes that the west might be changing, as respectable people show loyalty to their wives and families above all else. The west might not be as modern as eastern cities, but men who used to drop everything for a chance to work with Captain Call are choosing lives in small towns that are dotting the west and trying to give their children a better life than that of a bandit chaser.
Many stories of the old west are oral tales that evoke mythology. McMurtry notes that he created Call and McCrae from the chronology of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, a hero and his sidekick who craved honor and treasure. With McCrae gone, Pea Eye Parker is less of a foil to Captain Call but still exhibits loyalty to him. Captain Call’s exploits from his rangering days before the civil war are stuff of legend. Even the bandit Garza fears him because Captain Call defeated many a bandit along the border for a generation, allowing families to sleep safe in their beds. Garza is creating a legendary story as Call chases him, robbing riches off of trains and hiding them in a cave that only he knows about. As Call and his party approaches Garza’s home, the bandit has already killed thirty people or so the people claim. This is more than even the infamous Billy the Kid; Garza must be eliminated. Joey Garza only wanted riches to replace the love his mother did not give him. The woman knew her share of hardship, being married four times and raising a boy who appeared autistic and a blind daughter. What Joey experienced was jealousy and he robbed to replace the love his mother supposedly did not give him; regardless, he would need to be eliminated so that families could sleep easier at night, the days of high security prisons would not exist for generations. People would come for miles to see that Joey Garza was dead; they would spread oral history about the demise of Mox Mox. These are the types of mythological stories that McMurtry heard from his grandfather that he used as the backbone of his body of work. He created the real and fictional characters in this story from the stories he heard growing up, the stories of the old west that had not quite reached modernity.
Knowing that the narrative of Streets of Laredo occurred while Theodore Roosevelt rose in popularity back east is not lost on me. Roosevelt reformed cities to make them cleaner and cleaned up New York of vice while he moved up in rank in the Republican Party. The west had not reached this need yet. It was still the west of rangers and bandits, cowboys and natives, homesteads and one room schools. Lorena and Pea Eye Parker reveal that one can change and encourage their children to have better lives than the ones they lived. Pea Eye along with Captain Call and Charles Goodnight had their time. The days of rangers were slowly coming to an end as more former cowboys chose to move into town and settle down. After all of his adventures, even Captain Call realized that the west would be won from the natives and settled eventually. These were the crossroads when Larry McMurtry’s father and siblings grew up in Archer City, Texas near the fictional Quitaque where Pea Eye and Lorena raised their family. McMurtry came of age when the west had moved past the days of relics like Captain Call, which was why early in his career he was reluctant to tell that story. Following an opus like Lonesome Dove is not a task that is easily undertaken. McMurtry weaves together an equally unforgettable tale here as he returns to the Streets of Laredo. Hollywood would convince him to write two more prequels to the story of Captain Call and Gus McCrae. If either tale comes close to these first two illustrious stories of the old west, I can count on McMurtry as one of the top writers in American history.
4.75 stars (because there is only one Lonesome Dove)
September 19, 2024
Completed the Lonesome Dove series with the chronological final book. Epic, tragic, shocking and a fitting end to the saga. Woodrow Call is still rangering, but the west is not as wild as it once was, and the railroad has arrived, so there is less endless lonesome plains and more setting in towns and villages. The Native Americans have largely disappeared to the reservations. In fact it is the women of the story who finally take centre stage and the stories of Maria, Lorena and Teresa that provide the emotional core - while Mox Mox and Joey are suitably terrifying killers and the hapless Pea Eye gets a heroic moment. Elegiac, sombre but with just enough sense of hope in the children for the future of the West. Not many better series out there.
August 7, 2025
Farewell to the greatest western-series out there. McMurtry is one of the GOATs of true character writing. Beautifully sharp prose, dialogue that will make you feel all of the feels, and a final third that takes your breath away. I will miss this cast so much.
Read
January 28, 20234/10
As much as it pains me to give this McMurtry novel such a low rating, I couldn't in good conscience walk away from this gunfight without putting some sort of warning on the ranch gate. In fact, I'm wondering if I'm not being generous in assigning this to a 4/10. If this had been my first McMurtry novel, I can assure the world it would have been my last. As it is, I still can't reconcile the McMurtry of Lonesome Dove with the guy who wrote Streets of Laredo.
Excess is the operative word, as in violent excess: gun violence, knife violence, emotional violence, sexual violence -- the kind of violence that Tarantino would be proud of. But, truth be told, I haven't seen a Tarantino movie yet that so degrades women. Never have I seen a Tarantino movie that degrades the value of life itself to such a level.
Sexual predators are more plentiful than maggots on a 3-day coyote kill. In whatever direction a woman moves, there's a maggot there wanting to take her to her knees, or on her knees, or both.
The violence against children is utterly repugnant, especially in that it appears as a gratuitous flinging into the flames.
The violence against animals is revolting.
No one is safe from the violence: even those characters who appear as cameos are brutalized in some way.
I'm not a cringing damsel, with a hankie soaked in lavender-water held to my temple: I know the brutality of life; and I completely buy into the brutality that was the Old West. But ... this!
The arc of the story itself was a red, hot bloody mess. Literally, on the "bloody". McMurtry dropped valuable storylines with a dismissive wave of his .45 and decided to people his work with decided murderous psychopaths, sociopaths, malignant narcissists ... hey ... just let me quote the DSM-5 for a shorter list.
The characters who gave breath and backbone to Lonesome Dove herein appear as cartoon characters who are paper doll housewives and cardboard ex-rangers. While this novel was purportedly a sequel to LD, thus implying a continuation of it, it was let loose on the plains to ride like one of Stephen Leacock's characters who ... flung himself from the room, flung himself upon his horse and rode madly off in all directions.
What saves it from being tossed into the flames of the campfire is that there is just enough of the Lonesome Dove essence to ransom it: Call redeems himself -- as I ever knew he would. It seems that might have been the point of Streets of Laredo all along: for Call to have a final stab at redemption, ham-fisted though the result was.
And that's all folks.
Oh, Larry, Larry, Larry ... Sigh
As much as it pains me to give this McMurtry novel such a low rating, I couldn't in good conscience walk away from this gunfight without putting some sort of warning on the ranch gate. In fact, I'm wondering if I'm not being generous in assigning this to a 4/10. If this had been my first McMurtry novel, I can assure the world it would have been my last. As it is, I still can't reconcile the McMurtry of Lonesome Dove with the guy who wrote Streets of Laredo.
Excess is the operative word, as in violent excess: gun violence, knife violence, emotional violence, sexual violence -- the kind of violence that Tarantino would be proud of. But, truth be told, I haven't seen a Tarantino movie yet that so degrades women. Never have I seen a Tarantino movie that degrades the value of life itself to such a level.
Sexual predators are more plentiful than maggots on a 3-day coyote kill. In whatever direction a woman moves, there's a maggot there wanting to take her to her knees, or on her knees, or both.
The violence against children is utterly repugnant, especially in that it appears as a gratuitous flinging into the flames.
The violence against animals is revolting.
No one is safe from the violence: even those characters who appear as cameos are brutalized in some way.
I'm not a cringing damsel, with a hankie soaked in lavender-water held to my temple: I know the brutality of life; and I completely buy into the brutality that was the Old West. But ... this!
The arc of the story itself was a red, hot bloody mess. Literally, on the "bloody". McMurtry dropped valuable storylines with a dismissive wave of his .45 and decided to people his work with decided murderous psychopaths, sociopaths, malignant narcissists ... hey ... just let me quote the DSM-5 for a shorter list.
The characters who gave breath and backbone to Lonesome Dove herein appear as cartoon characters who are paper doll housewives and cardboard ex-rangers. While this novel was purportedly a sequel to LD, thus implying a continuation of it, it was let loose on the plains to ride like one of Stephen Leacock's characters who ... flung himself from the room, flung himself upon his horse and rode madly off in all directions.
What saves it from being tossed into the flames of the campfire is that there is just enough of the Lonesome Dove essence to ransom it: Call redeems himself -- as I ever knew he would. It seems that might have been the point of Streets of Laredo all along: for Call to have a final stab at redemption, ham-fisted though the result was.
And that's all folks.
Oh, Larry, Larry, Larry ... Sigh
September 7, 2025
“Call listened with amusement--not that the incident hadn't been terrible. Being decapitated was a grisly fate, whether you were a Yankee or not. But then, amusing things happened in battle, as they did in the rest of life. Some of the funniest things he had ever witnessed had occurred during battles. He had always found it more satisfying to laugh on a battlefield than anywhere else, for if you lived to laugh on a battlefield, you could feel you had earned the laugh. But if you just laughed in a saloon, or at a social, the laugh didn't reach deep.”
This is the fourth novel chronologically in the Lonesome Dove sequence by McMurtry. This follows the characters from Lonesome Dove (those that survived). It is some years later and Woodrow Call is pretty much an old man. The premise is fairly straightforward. A young outlaw is robbing trains and the train company wants him caught. Call is hired to deal with the outlaw. The setting is still south Texas and northern Mexico. We meet the few remaining members of Call’s group from Lonesome Dove. The strongest characters in this are the women, two in particular and they add much more depth and nuance to the novel. It does chart the end of the Old West (this is the 1890s) and times are changing, the world moving on. It is a stand alone novel , but it does help to read Lonesome Dove as there are some storyline links that follow on.
The terrain covered is vast, and there is a certain level of coincidence and people keep running across each other. Despite this, it is a well written and constructed novel, almost as good as Lonesome Dove.
This is the fourth novel chronologically in the Lonesome Dove sequence by McMurtry. This follows the characters from Lonesome Dove (those that survived). It is some years later and Woodrow Call is pretty much an old man. The premise is fairly straightforward. A young outlaw is robbing trains and the train company wants him caught. Call is hired to deal with the outlaw. The setting is still south Texas and northern Mexico. We meet the few remaining members of Call’s group from Lonesome Dove. The strongest characters in this are the women, two in particular and they add much more depth and nuance to the novel. It does chart the end of the Old West (this is the 1890s) and times are changing, the world moving on. It is a stand alone novel , but it does help to read Lonesome Dove as there are some storyline links that follow on.
The terrain covered is vast, and there is a certain level of coincidence and people keep running across each other. Despite this, it is a well written and constructed novel, almost as good as Lonesome Dove.
May 4, 2019
«Texas, ultimo scampolo dell’Ottocento. Il mondo è cambiato, ma la storia continua. Niente più mandrie di bestiame che percorrono praterie immense, ma treni che tagliano l’orizzonte.»
A voler scomodare Dumas e il suo Ciclo dei Moschettieri, anche McMurtry riprende i suoi moschettieri di Lonesome Dove – o almeno, quelli che ne sono usciti vivi … - e ce li racconta vent’anni dopo, con qualche acciacco in più e alle prese con un mondo che è cambiato senza che loro siano forse riusciti a stargli dietro del tutto. Non tutti almeno. Qualcuno si è sposato, qualcuno ha cambiato vita, qualcuno ha aperto un negozio di ferramenta, qualcuno ... è vivo per fortuna qualcuno è morto, c'è una vedova da andare a visitar …
Il Capitano Woodrow Call, il più famoso Texas Ranger di tutti i tempi, dopo la spedizione nel Montana, è di nuovo in Texas. Ci sarà da dare la caccia a vecchi brucia-cristiani e giovani, spietati banditi. Call troverà il tempo per andare a trovare il Giudice Roy Bean, The Law West of the Pecos, e il suo vecchio amico Charles Goodnight, ricco allevatore di bestiame.
«- Voi pp-piangete mai, signore? – chiese il baldo Georgie.
- Raramente, figliolo, molto raramente, - rispose Goodnight.
- Pp-per il fatto che avete la bb-barba? – chiese Georgie. Il vecchio gli era simpatico, anche se non parlava tanto.
- Sì, immagino sia per quello, - disse Goodnight.»
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQqB0Y...
Un modo duro, estremo, brutale, in continuo cambiamento, dove però determinazione, solidarietà, amicizia, amore, rispetto, dignità, si confermano, a dispetto di tutto, valori incorruttibili.
«Quando cantò Amazing Grace, la sua voce s’innalzò su quella delle altre, le cinque puttane e le donne di chiesa. Era limpida come l’aria.» http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogxLNl...
Terrific! A causa forse del mio personalissimo universo, fatto di sogni ad occhi aperti e roventi Colt 45, mi ha avvinto e procurato emozioni. Non saprei chiedere di più.
A voler scomodare Dumas e il suo Ciclo dei Moschettieri, anche McMurtry riprende i suoi moschettieri di Lonesome Dove – o almeno, quelli che ne sono usciti vivi … - e ce li racconta vent’anni dopo, con qualche acciacco in più e alle prese con un mondo che è cambiato senza che loro siano forse riusciti a stargli dietro del tutto. Non tutti almeno. Qualcuno si è sposato, qualcuno ha cambiato vita, qualcuno ha aperto un negozio di ferramenta, qualcuno ... è vivo per fortuna qualcuno è morto, c'è una vedova da andare a visitar …
Il Capitano Woodrow Call, il più famoso Texas Ranger di tutti i tempi, dopo la spedizione nel Montana, è di nuovo in Texas. Ci sarà da dare la caccia a vecchi brucia-cristiani e giovani, spietati banditi. Call troverà il tempo per andare a trovare il Giudice Roy Bean, The Law West of the Pecos, e il suo vecchio amico Charles Goodnight, ricco allevatore di bestiame.
«- Voi pp-piangete mai, signore? – chiese il baldo Georgie.
- Raramente, figliolo, molto raramente, - rispose Goodnight.
- Pp-per il fatto che avete la bb-barba? – chiese Georgie. Il vecchio gli era simpatico, anche se non parlava tanto.
- Sì, immagino sia per quello, - disse Goodnight.»
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQqB0Y...
Un modo duro, estremo, brutale, in continuo cambiamento, dove però determinazione, solidarietà, amicizia, amore, rispetto, dignità, si confermano, a dispetto di tutto, valori incorruttibili.
«Quando cantò Amazing Grace, la sua voce s’innalzò su quella delle altre, le cinque puttane e le donne di chiesa. Era limpida come l’aria.» http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogxLNl...
Terrific! A causa forse del mio personalissimo universo, fatto di sogni ad occhi aperti e roventi Colt 45, mi ha avvinto e procurato emozioni. Non saprei chiedere di più.
February 24, 2025
I miss reading this book. There was quite a bit of sadness in it, but in the reader way, good.
_________________________________
Bittersweet, that's all I'll review about it. Also, it's worth reading.
_________________________________
Bittersweet, that's all I'll review about it. Also, it's worth reading.
August 31, 2015
I wanted to love this. Lonesome Dove is one of my all time favorite books. But this left me almost wishing I didn't read it. It is all sadness and violence and none even a hint of humor as was in the first. I still enjoyed it, but rushed through it so I could be done.
May 5, 2016
This is the sequel to Lonesome Dove and it's almost as good. The only thing that really didn't work for me was that he didn't seem to have a firm fix on what was motivating Joey Garza.
I found myself taking a meandering, slow journey through this book instead of rushing to finish it. His writing is very good and his characters are absolutely brilliant, with the aforementioned exception. In particular, McMurtry knows how to write women. You see so much these days about people wanting strong female characters, well I say that I want more than strong, I want a world full of Lorenas, Marias, and Teresas. They are truly extraordinary.
I found myself taking a meandering, slow journey through this book instead of rushing to finish it. His writing is very good and his characters are absolutely brilliant, with the aforementioned exception. In particular, McMurtry knows how to write women. You see so much these days about people wanting strong female characters, well I say that I want more than strong, I want a world full of Lorenas, Marias, and Teresas. They are truly extraordinary.
March 11, 2021
You see, it’s as clear as day. Why, I’m a cowgirl. I love his stories.
Gus. STOP. In Rhode Island. STOP. Please can you come home.
Gus. STOP. In Rhode Island. STOP. Please can you come home.
August 8, 2024
Doesn’t quite live up to Lonesome Dove, but still pretty good. Glad I read it. 4/5 stars.
January 3, 2020
I've never rushed to a sequel quicker than I have this one and have equally never been as immediately underwhelmed. There's a lot to unpack here but I'm not sure this book deserves it. It's about half the length of Lonesome Dove and half the story as well. From the beginning when you learn that Pea Eye and Lorrie have been married, you're thrown for such a loop that it takes damn near the whole book to recover.
There is SO MUCH repetitive exposition in this book that it gets old really quick. I felt like I was reading and rereading about the thinly written characters wants & fears so frequently that McMurtry had them copied to his clipboard and ready to be pasted whenever he needed to fill up some pages. It really seems like this might have been a cash grab on the success of Lonesome Dove. Nothing seems as important or carefully constructed as in Dove. Testament to that novel's strength that I had to finish this one to know what happened. When the morbid ends of some character's lives came to past, it didn't have the same effect as other characters in L.D.
It's a decent, quick read ultimately but not worthy of sharing the same characters that had been written before.
There is SO MUCH repetitive exposition in this book that it gets old really quick. I felt like I was reading and rereading about the thinly written characters wants & fears so frequently that McMurtry had them copied to his clipboard and ready to be pasted whenever he needed to fill up some pages. It really seems like this might have been a cash grab on the success of Lonesome Dove. Nothing seems as important or carefully constructed as in Dove. Testament to that novel's strength that I had to finish this one to know what happened. When the morbid ends of some character's lives came to past, it didn't have the same effect as other characters in L.D.
It's a decent, quick read ultimately but not worthy of sharing the same characters that had been written before.
October 24, 2022
Streets of Laredo, the sequel to Lonesome Dove is a good book. If I had read this before Lonesome Dove, I’d have loved it, start to finish. However… (there’s the ‘but’) there were parts leading up to the end (avoiding spoilers) that I just didn’t want. And “I just didn’t want” should be read as a sentence from a petulant child (sparing everyone the fit). Lonesome Dove was of course better.
Streets of Laredo left me feeling sad, melancholy for Lonesome Dove. I felt the mention of characters was a basic wrap up, because McMurty had to mention (obligation ?) where those characters were. A few paragraphs of their landing was it. Yeah, yeah, this book wasn’t their continuation but I still felt a little left off. It was an abrupt conclusion for some characters.
Streets of Laredo left me feeling sad, melancholy for Lonesome Dove. I felt the mention of characters was a basic wrap up, because McMurty had to mention (obligation ?) where those characters were. A few paragraphs of their landing was it. Yeah, yeah, this book wasn’t their continuation but I still felt a little left off. It was an abrupt conclusion for some characters.
October 23, 2014
I loved this book. Unlike most sequels, this book does not pick up where the last one left off. It is fully able to stand on it's own which I find to be an amazing feat. I loved Lonesome Dove, but felt that the novel was complete and was ready to start a new adventure. Would I have liked to see a further continuation of Newt, Dish and even Clara? Sure, but I was so quickly wrapped up in the new characters and new setting that I was more than willing to go on the hunt for Joey Garza, Mox Mox and a myriad of new characters that only Larry McMurtry could have given voice to, in a land where the cowboy is nearing extinction. Well done.
August 19, 2021
Boy oh boy, thassa lot of dead people!
McMurtry could really write, and if his purpose, or part of it, was to strip the romance from cowboy stories and replace it with some stark realism, then he achieved it in spades. For awhile there, I wondered if any of his main characters were going to survive this novel. It's a rough read in that regard, and so I assigned it to be the bathroom book, where I would only read a little at a time, up till the end, at least, when I had to carry it out of there to find out how things turned out.
Brilliantly written.
McMurtry could really write, and if his purpose, or part of it, was to strip the romance from cowboy stories and replace it with some stark realism, then he achieved it in spades. For awhile there, I wondered if any of his main characters were going to survive this novel. It's a rough read in that regard, and so I assigned it to be the bathroom book, where I would only read a little at a time, up till the end, at least, when I had to carry it out of there to find out how things turned out.
Brilliantly written.
June 12, 2023
[4.5]
Era difficile essere all’altezza di Lonesome Dove, ne ho tenuto conto. Mi è piaciuto molto. È stato bello incontrare nuovamente alcuni personaggi, vedere a che punto sono arrivati con le loro vite, cos’è successo nel frattempo e cosa sarebbe accaduto in queste pagine.
L’unica cosa per me stonata è stata far comportare in un certo modo i cattivi, uno in particolare, adducendo giustificazioni che sembrano essere create ad hoc per far andare la storia in un certo modo. Questo mi ha lasciata piuttosto perplessa. Ma resta una lettura assolutamente godibile e consigliatissima. Non riuscivo a staccarmi dalle pagine.
Era difficile essere all’altezza di Lonesome Dove, ne ho tenuto conto. Mi è piaciuto molto. È stato bello incontrare nuovamente alcuni personaggi, vedere a che punto sono arrivati con le loro vite, cos’è successo nel frattempo e cosa sarebbe accaduto in queste pagine.
L’unica cosa per me stonata è stata far comportare in un certo modo i cattivi, uno in particolare, adducendo giustificazioni che sembrano essere create ad hoc per far andare la storia in un certo modo. Questo mi ha lasciata piuttosto perplessa. Ma resta una lettura assolutamente godibile e consigliatissima. Non riuscivo a staccarmi dalle pagine.
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