Lonesome Dove in WACKY READING CHALLENGES

Jun 16, 2010 Book Concierge rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, texas, favorite, movie, adventure, book-club, nature, library, western, friendship

5***** and a ❤

The quintessential Western – but also a love story, an epic adventure, a buddies’ road trip and a look at a time in American history that is long gone and available to the current-day citizen only through reading.

Augustus “Gus” McCrae and Woodrow (W. F.) Call are former Texas Rangers who have settled on the Hat Creek near the small town of Lonesome Dove on the Rio Grande. It’s a hardscrabble life, but it suits their independent natures. A former colleague shows up one day – the ch 5***** and a ❤

The quintessential Western – but also a love story, an epic adventure, a buddies’ road trip and a look at a time in American history that is long gone and available to the current-day citizen only through reading.

Augustus “Gus” McCrae and Woodrow (W. F.) Call are former Texas Rangers who have settled on the Hat Creek near the small town of Lonesome Dove on the Rio Grande. It’s a hardscrabble life, but it suits their independent natures. A former colleague shows up one day – the charming Jake Spoon – and tells a tale of Montana. Call decides they should get a herd and go to the promised rich land of Montana and so the adventure begins.

The sweeping saga of their months-long trip from the Rio Grande to far northern Montana is more than just a Western, however. We meet Lorie (Lorena Wood) … a young woman who has been led to the “sporting” life by circumstances beyond her control, but who harbors a dream of San Francisco and cooler temperatures. Her fierce desire to move on leads her to decide to go along on the trail drive, and eventually to the horrors of being kidnapped by the infamous Indian bandit Blue Duck. And we meet the love of Gus’s life – Clara, who has now made her life on the Nebraska plains with her husband and children.

There are hundreds of characters, some with just a brief mention, others central to the tale. And there are equally important non-human characters. The horses and other animals – Hell Bitch, Mouse, Sugar, Old Dog, the Texas Bull, Greasy, etc. And perhaps most prevalent are the inanimate “characters” – the vastness of the landscape, and the weather.

Gus is the philosopher of the group … always having something to say, but doing little of the work. Call is the taskmaster, a man who is running from his thoughts and who can never admit a mistake. Together they constitute a formidable team.

I had seen the mini series but had never read the book, so I couldn’t help but picture Tommy Lee Jones as Call and Robert Duvall as Gus. But the descriptions in the book are somewhat opposite. Call is short and stocky; Gus is tall and wiry. ...more

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May 19, 2016 *Dawn rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audible-own, favorites, read-in-2016

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
#3 Lonesome Dove
Owned: PB & Audio
Excellent audio narration by Lee Horsley

Fantastic literary western about a small group of townspeople from a dusty little nothing of a town called Lonesome Dove, Texas, shortly after the Civil War. The story centers around two friends, Gus McCrae and Captain Woodrow Call, who served as Texas Rangers for nearly 30 years and are now taking their little band of cowboys on a last hurrah of an adventure by moving a herd of over 3000 catt ...more

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Oct 18, 2022 Jody marked it as ttfn · review of another edition

Shelves: pulitzer-winner, 50-before-50-1945-onwards

I'm done. I simply just cannot read another word of this. 86 pages in, and I’ve lost count of the times I’ve read the word "whore”. Gross. I don’t care if it’s historically accurate, I don’t want to read that shit. ...more

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