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Lonesome Dove (Lonesome Dove, #1)

Larry McMurtry

Start date: April 1, 2020

Finish date: April 30, 2020

Discussion: 2020 Historical Fict. Tournament

Discussion leader: Christopher

Why we're reading this: 2020 Historical Fiction Tournament
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2020 Historical Fict. Tournament

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By Christopher · 2 posts · 47 views

last updated Feb 19, 2020 10:18AM

June Smoke-Filled Room: Wolf Hall vs. Fools Crow vs. Lonesome Dove
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last updated Jun 24, 2020 05:35PM

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What Members Thought

Jan 27, 2013 Christopher rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: future-classics, american, fiction, 20th-century, favorites, 500-pages-or-more, historical-fiction, great-american-novel, pulitzer-prize

Read Lonesome Dove the book. Transport yourself to Lonesome Dove the town. Taste the dry dust and sand of its streets. Meet its inhabitants. Respect Augustus McCrae and Captain Call, legends of the Texas Rangers. Shake the callused hand of cowboys with cowboy names, such as Dishwater Boggett, Deets and Lippy. See them dismount from their horses and walk bowlegged to the saloon for their evening respite of drinking, gambling, and whoring. Smell the dried sweat on every man's collar and the reek o ...more

22 likes · Like · see review

Aug 09, 2013 Sera rated it it was amazing

Shelves: kindle, own, favorites, literary-fiction, series

This book definitely deserved the Pulitzer Prize, because it has everything - great writing, interesting characters that are fully developed, and a fascinating storyline that doesn't need pages and pages of extreme violence to make its point (I'm talking to you Blood Meridian). I also like the diversity of the characters in the book and the fact that they are not treated like cartoon ones, exhibiting stereotypical behavior.

Life in the west during this time period wasn't just about cowboys and In ...more

9 likes · Like · see review

May 29, 2009 Petra rated it really liked it

This book starts slowly and I had thoughts of not continuing with a 900+ page book that told the story of cowboys, dust, beans and dry wells but this was only the introduction to the characters, their "pecking order" and their relationships with themselves and each other. Once that was established, the plotline began and the story became very compelling. The stories of each and all of the characters intertwine and become real to the reader. The descriptions of the people and the landscapes put t ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

May 05, 2020 Pamela rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: guardian-1000-read

I hardly ever watch Westerns on TV or in the cinema, I don't find the outdoor male-dominated lifestyle appealing and I normally have little interest in their historical setting. Nevertheless, I have just raced through almost 900 pages of an epic Western novel which has proved thrilling, fascinating and totally enjoyable.

Augustus McCrae and WF Call are retired Texas Rangers, leading an aimless life in the 1880s in the small Texan town of Lonesome Dove. When Call gets the idea to undertake a cattl ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Jul 27, 2007 Rachel rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, classics

I had no desire to read about cowboys or horses, but I got this from the bookstore because it's on several must read lists, and it was cheap. And it was really good! I read all 945 pages in 3 days, and now I want more.

2021: Started a reread of this last year, read most of it then put it down because I couldn't concentrate. Glad I picked it up again, enjoyed it just as much. ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Apr 16, 2018 Irene rated it liked it

Although this novel only spans a year, this cattle drive from Texas to Montana in the mid-19th century, has the feel of an epic. At over 900 pages, it had to be a well-paced story with sufficiently interesting characters to keep my attention. And, it did keep my attention. But, I was expecting more literary gold since it is the recipient of the Pulitzer. More often than not, the wording felt as if it was written for a young adult reader. There was nothing subtle in the reactions of the character ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Aug 30, 2017 Rosana rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2017

Lonesome Dove was a great surprise. I bought the audio version some time ago, probably during an Audiable sale that I can not even recall. But the prospect of 36 hours of it made me shy away from it for a very long time. Then, as it happens every year, harvest season arrived around here and I was once again driving long hours for tractor parts or driving the silage cutter or whatever job got thrown at me by my farmer husband. Audiobooks are a must about then, and Lonesome Dove was just there.

I Lonesome Dove was a great surprise. I bought the audio version some time ago, probably during an Audiable sale that I can not even recall. But the prospect of 36 hours of it made me shy away from it for a very long time. Then, as it happens every year, harvest season arrived around here and I was once again driving long hours for tractor parts or driving the silage cutter or whatever job got thrown at me by my farmer husband. Audiobooks are a must about then, and Lonesome Dove was just there.

I read somewhere that Lonesome Dove was originally a much shorter screenplay that sat on a shelf for 15 years until one day Larry McMurtry pick it up again and made it into a book. I can see how this could be true as there is a cinematographic quality to it, but also because the story is very much told through the dialogue between characters. Definitely Gus McCrae has some of the best lines of any character I ever come across.

I am too very drawn to books about the prairies and the original settlers. My husband’s family has been farming and ranching just North of Montana not far from the USA/Canada border for over a century, and stories of hardship and witty characters are part of the local lore. As distinctive of a character as Gus McCrae was, he does not sound unbelievable to my ears.

If I don’t give it 5 stars it is because this book could have been shorter. Some passages drag a bit too long, and are repetitive both in nature – how many times can Newt be drag into a cattle stampede – or in its explanatory discourse – we all got that Captain Call was a workaholic, no need to tell us 20 times. I feel that for every memorable passage, like the explanation about the sign for the Hat Creek Company, or the former bank robber, in the middle of nowhere collecting buffalo bones that are scattered as far as the eye can see, the first memorable for its comical and witty elements and the second in its iconographic display of the chaotic and almost inhuman characteristics of the time, there is an unnecessary or overdone passage.

Overall a great book that I am glad I finally got around to listening. I should also mention that I really enjoyed the narration by Lee Horsley.
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May 11, 2020 Lori rated it did not like it

Shelves: zy-text, z-read-2020, 19th-century, modern-history, history, literature, z-reviewed, america, roundtable, historical

I skipped a big chunk in the middle because I have a ton of books to read. Not so much a Western as a changing of eras novel, from Indian and buffalo to cattle and settlers.
Worth it if you like the style, which a lot of people do.

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