Lonesome Dove
Book description
Larry McMurtry's Pulitzer Prize winning novel is a powerful, triumphant portrayal of the American West as it really was. From Texas to Montana, it follows cowboys on a grueling cattle drive through the wilderness.
It begins in the office of The Hat Creek Cattle Company of the Rio Grande.
It…
Why read it?
11 authors picked Lonesome Dove as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
I chose this for characters and setting. Larry McMurtry was one of the greatest American writers and a chronicler of life in Texas, and he won the Pulitzer Prize for Lonesome Dove, the story of two aging Texas Rangers on a final adventure together.
McMurtry immerses the reader in his world, but more importantly he immerses his characters in that world. The relationships are amazing: between characters who face deeply personal and tragic life-or-death decisions, but also between characters and the novel’s savage, lethal world.
McMurtry’s stories are character-driven slices of life, but authors of plot-driven books can learn…
From David's list on elements of historical adventure fiction.
This Pulitzer Prize winner was one of the first Western epics I ever read, and I was gripped from the first paragraph.
There is a reason this won the world’s top literary prize, and Larry McMurtry uses his considerable skill and makes it look easy.
An epic telling of a cattle drive, and the women and men to make the trek, the narrative is both sprawling in its scope, and intimate in its understanding of its characters. Nothing here is overwrought or predictable, no cardboard-cut-out characters or cheesy dialogue.
Every scene feels like it is unfolding before your eyes, the…
From Baron's list on discovering a great new thriller series.
Lonesome Dove won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and it is a well-deserved honor. In a genre where most authors pass off gamblers, outlaws, lawmen, gunfighters, and other characters as “cowboys” even though there is seldom a cow in sight, McMurtry’s characters in Lonesome Dove are the real thing. He captures the essence of the historic cattle-drive era in powerful prose, and Gus McRae and Woodrow Call are timeless characters who ride an unforgettable trail.
From Rod's list on cowboys who are actually cowboys.
What can you say about this fabulous story that hasn’t been said? You can’t beat cattle drives, Texas Rangers, strong women, and a wagon-load of action and adventure. I only wish I could read it for the first time again! The miniseries was great, and introduced so many of us to Larry McMurtry’s enduring story, but the book has nuances and scenes that can’t be duplicated on screen. A must-read!
From D V's list on westerns to read if you don’t read westerns.
I’ll tell you a secret… I wasn’t sure if I was going to recommend this book when I first started it. I only recently read it, and it took me a looooong time to get into the story. The writing didn’t draw me in, to begin with, but eventually, it grabbed me and I decided this novel belonged on my list. The characters are really well-rounded and it was Clara Allen who stood out for me. If I wanted to mention the strong women of the Wild West, I could not leave her out. She is clever, brave, and down-to-earth.…
From Chantal's list on the Wild West and the ladies who rule it.
I saved perhaps the best for last. This is an epic story, so grand in scale that it made the list of top 50 books ever written and won a Pulitzer Prize. It’s also one of fewer than five books that almost made me cry. And that’s saying something. The book tells the story of two Texas Rangers, who are just a touch beyond their prime. But not by much. They’ve got more than enough experience to handle anything that comes their way, except for aging and boredom. It’s these two things that they can’t whip, but damn do they…
From Stan's list on the Wild West.
Westerns are often about a lone hero or antihero who rides into town and saves the day before riding off into the sunset. Lonesome Dove shows that a traditional western can be about relationships. Loads of variations are possible when the story is about characters tied together fighting off the bad guys. This is especially true for a multi-book saga. The West was wild, and security often depended on surrounding yourself with others you knew you could trust in a fight.
From James' list on westerns where friendships drive the story.
This book is the first of a four-part series written by Larry McMurtry. Lonesome Dove inspired a fabulous television mini-series starring Robert Duval, Tommy Lee Jones, and Danny Glover.
Lonesome Dove is about two former Texas Rangers who leave their sunbaked speck of a town on the Texas-Mexico border to make a 1,500-mile cattle drive to Montana. The story is as big as the western landscape McMurtry describes, with storms and stampedes and rivers full of water moccasins, but it’s the characters that draw me in. I hold a particular place in my heart for old Pea Eye, who “never…
From Julia's list on that will make you fall in love with Montana.
Lonesome Dove is ostensibly about an 1870s cattle drive from Texas to Montana. As premises go, that one isn’t exactly a huge draw for a lot of people I know. But Larry McMurtry does an amazing job at winning readers over with his writing, story, and characters. Once the actual cattle drive begins (and to be honest, you need to stick with this one a bit to get to that point), the whole book really takes off. This one really set the mold for me, in terms of books that might surprise you if you give them a chance.
From Chris' list on you’d never think were so compulsively readable, but are.
“What a boring, obvious choice” you might be saying to yourself. “This guy wants to tell me about great Western novels and he starts with the most popular Western of the last 50 years?” To which I say: You bet! There’s a good reason Lonesome Dove is so beloved. It’s fantastic — simple as that. Larry McMurtry takes what might seem like a thin and tired premise — aging cowboys have to make one last cattle drive together — and turns it into an enthralling historical epic. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry (I did!), you’ll develop saddle sores from sitting on…
From Steve's list on Westerns that will take you to the frontier.
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