Let's say your tastes run to
British novelists with female protagonists and village settings. Why
would you want to read an American Western featuring two cowboys?
Lonesome Dove,
a Pulitzer Prize winner, is full of action, feeling, humor, and great
dialogue. It paints a vivid picture of what the West was like when it
was still the Wild West. But the best thing about the book may be those
two cowboys and their bond with one another.
Augustus "Gus" McCrae and Woodrow Call are former Texas rangers who at
the opening run a cattle ranch in the small town of Lonesome Dove on
the Rio Grande. Gus is talkative, easygoing, and lazy; Woodrow is a
no-nonsense workhorse. They verbally spar, but each knows the other's
worth and tolerates their personality differences.
One day former ranger comrade Jake Spoon shows up and talks rapturously about
Montana. He inspires Call to want to drive a herd of cattle north and
set up the first cattle ranch in one of the last untamed frontiers.
Against his instincts, McCrae goes along, as do Call's possible son,
17-year-old Newt; the prostitute Lorena; and assorted ranch hands.
Along the journey, there are many harrowing experiences, including a
treacherous river crossing, battles with Indians, a kidnapping and
rescue, sandstorms, rainstorms, snowstorms, and even having to impose
the law of the West on their old friend Jake. The cattle arrive at the
destination, but only some of the humans make it. The reader may well
cry near the end of this supposedly macho novel when Woodrow pleads
with Gus to have his wounded leg amputated to save his life.
Those who can't get enough of McCrae and Call in the 945 pages of Lovesome Dove can
read about their earlier exploits in Dead Man's Walk
(1995) and Comanche Moon
(1997). McMurtry also wrote a sequel to Lonesome Dove, Streets of Laredo
(1993).
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