Lonesome Dove

Winner of the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, McMurtry’s trail drive tale remains one of the most powerful stories about the Old West or any other time or place. Woodrow Call and Augustus McRae and their cowboy crew experience friendship, love, hardship, life, and death as they drive a herd of cattle from Texas to Montana. A book worth reading and rereading, as I have done.

This book is written basically as a western road movie. The two main protagonists, former Texas Rangers, decide, on little more than a whim, to assemble a cattle herd and drive it north from the Rio Grande to Montana, with the author providing some wonderful descriptions of the topography and hardships they encounter. 

What makes it a classic for me is how the central characters explore their own mettle from the dichotomy of Woodrow, who is moralistic but happily rustles Mexican cattle and won’t acknowledge his son because the young man’s mother was a prostitute.

Gus has a more enlightened… show more.

I saw a well-used copy of this book in the bunkhouse of real cowboys. That totally confirmed the way I felt–that this book is authentic. Yes, it has the feel of the mythical West I fell in love with as a girl, but it’s gritty and quirky, too.

Who would guess that Augustus, a tough-as-leather former Texas Ranger, would bring two pigs on a hundreds of miles-long cattle drive? Not for eating, but because he couldn’t leave those friendly pets behind. His heart is tender, though he’s tough as any Western man you ever imagined.

Whenever I (unwillingly) think of… show more.

Because I have a hard time letting go of a great read and committing my time and emotions to a new one, I love a big, fat book. My choices could all occupy first place, so I’ll list them according to girth. 

At 843 pages, Lonesome Dove more than qualifies and instantly committed me to the long haul. The writing is simply great, and the plot head spinning. The main characters, Augustus McCrae and W.F. Call, are aging Texas Ranger retirees who are stoic, brave, and restless.

It’s their foolish restlessness that gets them in serious trouble as they determine… show more.

This is my favorite book of all time, by far. It’s a sprawling, epic Western for people who don’t like Westerns. But that’s just one of the many things it does brilliantly.

McMurtry was the master at finding humor in every character, no matter how loathsome or pitiful, and in every situation, no matter how heart-breaking or violent, without sacrificing or undercutting anything for a laugh. He makes the humor seem as natural as breathing, crying, or bleeding, which is a vital coping mechanism for dealing with life…it certainly is in my own.

But McMurtry taught me how to incorporate… show more.

McMurtry’s 1985 novel follows two former Texas Rangers as they drive a herd of cattle from Texas to Montana. This is an epic in every sense as McMurtry effortlessly shifts from one character’s point of view to another. All are as captivating and authentic as the landscape and world of the old West.

The story itself is actually quite unconventional but it is impossible not to be caught up in these dramatic lives and this most dramatic of worlds. 

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… show more.

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… show more.

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. 

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!