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Lonesome Dove

(Lonesome Dove #1)

Larry McMurtry

4.47 · Rating details · 152,742 ratings · 7,810 reviews

A love story, an adventure, and an epic of the frontier, Larry McMurtry’s Pulitzer Prize— winning classic, Lonesome Dove, the third book in the Lonesome Dove tetralogy, is the grandest novel ever written about the last defiant wilderness of America.

Journey to the dusty little Texas town of Lonesome Dove and meet an unforgettable assortment of heroes and outlaws, whores and ...more

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Paperback, 960 pages

Published October 1st 1999 by Pocket Books (first published 1985)

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Sep 04, 2017 Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, own

Update: Finally able to talk about the book.

This book touched my heart, made me laugh so many times, made me mad and made me cry.

There are a lot of books I would never have read if it wasn't for my Goodreads friends, but the two most memorable and that have made it to my favorites list are:

The Conte Of Monte Cristo and Lonesome Dove

I loved so many characters in this book and I feel like I have been on that journey with them. I kept wishing they would have stayed in Texas or at least stopped ...more

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Jul 26, 2007 Aaron rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: any human

I was only willing to read this book because a friend told me I had to. When I was thirty pages into it and complaining to him about being unable to handle any more discussion about horses and beans, he made me a bet: If I got to page 101 (out of 900, mind you) and I still didn't enjoy it, he'd take me out to dinner at any restaurant I wanted in New York City. If at page 101 I had warmed up to it, I had to finish. I don't think I made it past the 60th page before I knew I had "lost" the bet.

The ...more

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Jun 08, 2017 Brina rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: long-reads, classics, pulitzer-winner, western

Larry McMurtry is considered one of America's master story tellers. His novels include Terms of Endearment and The Last Picture Show, as well as the screenplay to Brokeback Mountain, which later became award winning films. A revered author in Texas, he was invited by former First Lady Laura Bush to be a special guest speaker at the first annual Texas Book Festival. It seems fitting that I began his definitive work, Pulitzer winning Lonesome Dove, on his birthday, June 3. A story of Texas Rangers Larry McMurtry is considered one of America's master story tellers. His novels include Terms of Endearment and The Last Picture Show, as well as the screenplay to Brokeback Mountain, which later became award winning films. A revered author in Texas, he was invited by former First Lady Laura Bush to be a special guest speaker at the first annual Texas Book Festival. It seems fitting that I began his definitive work, Pulitzer winning Lonesome Dove, on his birthday, June 3. A story of Texas Rangers and winning the western frontier, which later encouraged McMurtry to create a tetralogy, Lonesome Dove is considered the foremost work of American western fiction.

Augustus "Gus" McCrae and Woodrow F. Call ride as Texas Rangers for nearly thirty years, keeping the new state safe from Indians, Mexicans, and ruffians following the completion of the Civil War. By the time of the volume's opening, however, Mexicans decided to stay on their side of the Rio Grande and most Indians had cleared out of south Texas, leaving the area to law abiding citizens. Even though the two never tired completely of rangering, they founded the Hat Creek Outfit, a stables outside of Lonesome Dove, a settlement close to the Mexican border. It is here that McCrae and Call got their team of Rangers back together for one final adventure before they ride off into the sunset.

Creating a large cast of characters and multiple storylines that eventually meet up, McMurtry creates a western novel that is more than the story of cowboys and Indians. Former ranger Jake Spoon, a good guy turned outlaw, convinced Call to move thousands of cattle and start the first ranch north of the Milk River in Montana. At the time unexplored territory, Call is up for the challenge and assembles a team of cowboys to make the journey north. The group, full of colorful personalities, got more than they bargained for on the trip. Most thought it was to be a journey, get paid, and then return home to Lonesome Dove. They did not sign up for river crossings, sandstorms, and skirmishes with Indians and grizzly bears. Yet, Call desires to conquer virgin territory and make a name for himself as one of the pioneers of the Montana land grab.

McCrae signs up for the journey as a last hurrah with his lifelong friend. Yet even he gets more than he asked for on the trip. A carefree persona happy to sit back with a glass of whiskey and a deck of cards, McCrae would rather be outside a saloon in Lonesome Dove than on a two thousand mile journey north. Yet, the thought of seeing the love of his life Clara Allen at the midway point of the trek, spurs McCrae to join up. Along the way, he saves a whore named Lorena from a vile Indian named Blue Duck and becomes her guardian, only to find himself when he meets with Clara once and for all. This story line tugged on my emotions the most as McMurtry weaves multiple characters' stories together to form a nexus at Clara's ranch. It is here that both the cowboys and their loves must make key decisions that are vital to the duration of the novel.

McMurtry makes Lonesome Dove more than just a story of cowboys by informing his readers of key events that have taken place to change the course of the American west. He touches on the plight of the Indians who in the 1870s are still fighting off the cavalry and cowboys for control of the great land grab. The army, settlers, and Indians all think that the land belongs to them, setting the stage for epic battle scenes, none as brutal as those involving Blue Duck. He also has the cowboys in their dialogue describe how if they are not careful all of the buffalo will be gone soon, so the men enjoy watching and running with the great creatures while they are still able. McMurtry also touches on the place of women in society as he describes in detail the characters of Lorena, Clara, and a wandering soul named Elmira. All three are limited in choices between marriage and whoring, and in the end Clara desires a brighter future for both Lorena and her two daughters.

While I enjoyed the multiple story lines, the place of women, the character studies, and history, the journey from Texas to Montana is what kept me reading this volume. At 750 pages in length, the novel is fast reading as I desired to see the resolution of this complex story that McMurtry has created. Now that I have completed and left behind Lonesome Dove, I am ready to return again as the writing was captivating and held my attention throughout. As I attempt to read through the Pulitzers, I view Lonesome Dove as one of the best. I hope to return to the tetralogy at some point, but I would like to savor this 5 star read for awhile first. ...more

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Feb 02, 2008 Bill Kerwin rated it it was amazing

The account of a cattle drive from Texas to Montana. This is a very long novel which is nevertheless always compelling. It contains memorable characters whose adventures are narrated in a deceptively straightforward style.

What impresses me most about this book is that the fates of the characters are neither cornily predictable nor deliberately surprising. The book's great length allows life to happen to them as it happens to all of us. We have the leisure to observe them carefully, and we are gl ...more

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Nov 19, 2013 David Putnam rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

This is my top favorite book of all time. Its been on top since I read it shortly after it came out in paperback. This is one of those great books where I remember the segment of my life while reading it. That's how strong the Fictive Dream is in this book: Where were you when? The book has two of the most endearing characters of all time, there's action, romance and great story lines. But most of all I think this book is about enduring friendship and loyalty. For years I wondered how McMurtry c ...more

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Feb 08, 2015 Matthew rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Epic Fans and Western Fans

Shelves: classic, own, western, 2018, favorites

Are you looking for the most Western book ever? If so, Lonesome Dove better be in your search!

This was a fantastic epic journey! I am glad I took this one slowly over the course of several months so that I could savor it. You may look at this and say, “Matthew, you took exactly four months to read an 858 page novel? That must have been a chore!” But, it was not. Every chapter was a story in itself, every page added to the characters, atmosphere, drama, etc. No filler. No boring parts. Everything Are you looking for the most Western book ever? If so, Lonesome Dove better be in your search!

This was a fantastic epic journey! I am glad I took this one slowly over the course of several months so that I could savor it. You may look at this and say, “Matthew, you took exactly four months to read an 858 page novel? That must have been a chore!” But, it was not. Every chapter was a story in itself, every page added to the characters, atmosphere, drama, etc. No filler. No boring parts. Everything in Lonesome Dove is there for a reason and helps to make this one of the best Westerns ever.

The Story – The American West was not clean. The American West was not forgiving. This book does not pull any punches when it comes to setting the mood for what life was really like as the American West was settled. Cowboys, bandits, whore houses, fur trappers, buffalo hunters, Native Americans, etc. – all there and not romanticized. I think it did a great job of touching on sensitive topics (women’s role in the old West, Native American treatment, etc.) and keeping it real without making the reader uncomfortable. Those things did happen, so when telling stories about them, it is easy to do it wrong and make a book uncomfortable to read. I did not feel that was the case here even when things were at their most shocking in this story.

The Characters – So many wonderful and interesting characters! I love that McMurtry took the time to flesh all of them out and make sure that even some of the minor characters have more heart and soul than some of the main characters in other books. And, part of what is great about this is how real the characters are; they are not written so we think all the good guys are perfect or all the bad guys are bad. You soon realize that anything is possible for any character and nothing feels forced to make a point. The movement of all the lives together is very organic. Needless to say, a very satisfying character study.

The Atmosphere – You want to feel like you are in the Old West. Read this book. Period!

Summary – I am sure by now you can tell this book blew me away. I would highly recommend it, but it may not be for everyone. If you are not a fan of Epics, it is probably not for you. If you have a hard time with real, raw, and often not pretty scenes in books, this also may not be for you (not quite as bad as Cormac McCarthy in Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West, but still pretty intense!). If you are fans of books like Gone with the Wind by Mitchell or Centennial by Michener and you have not read this book, you must! You really, really, really must read this book! ...more

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Feb 15, 2008 Kemper rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, western, famous-books

This is one of my favoritest books ever. In fact, put a gun to my head and tell me chose just one, and it’d be better than even money that Lonesome Dove would be what I’d name.

It has the bonus of not only being an incredible book but also having an excellent companion piece in the television mini-series based on it that is one of the great all-time fusions of print and film. I can’t read this without hearing the voices of Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones, Anjelica Huston, Chris Cooper, Danny Glov This is one of my favoritest books ever. In fact, put a gun to my head and tell me chose just one, and it’d be better than even money that Lonesome Dove would be what I’d name.

It has the bonus of not only being an incredible book but also having an excellent companion piece in the television mini-series based on it that is one of the great all-time fusions of print and film. I can’t read this without hearing the voices of Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones, Anjelica Huston, Chris Cooper, Danny Glover, Diane Lane and all the rest in my head.* So every couple of years, I do a rereading of the book and then I break out the DVD of the miniseries and I immerse myself in the perfection that is this story.

* I didn’t know this until I was looking up some stuff on the net for this review, but Lonesome Dove was virtually snubbed at the Emmy Awards. War & Remembrance beat it out for best mini-series. It only managed to take best director and a few other technical prizes. Worse yet, none of the actors nominated won. It’s a good thing I never got into any bar wagers about this, or I would have bet my house that Robert Duvall won best actor for a mini-series , and when I lost that, I would have bet my car that it had to be Tommy Lee Jones. Nope. Anjelica Huston and Diane Lane and Danny Glover all lost, too.

Hey, Emmy voters of 1990! WTF??

Why do I say the story is perfect? Start with the characters. Augustus McRae and Woodrow Call are two retired Texas Rangers who run a rinky-dink cattle company in a speck of a town called Lonesome Dove on the Texas/Mexico border. Gus and Call couldn’t be more unlikely friends. Call is a dour workaholic who has spent his life trying to be the perfect leader of men while Gus is a good-natured and lazy soul who likes to drink whiskey, play cards and spend time with Lonesome Dove’s beautiful but distant whore, Lorena Wood. Gus also delights in giving Call grief about young Newt, a boy they took in after the death of his mother. Newt’s mom was a whore that Call had visited regularly for a short time, and he may be the boy’s father but refuses to acknowledge it.

Their dull routine is broken when their old friend and fellow ex-Ranger Jake Spoon shows up. Jake, who is another candidate to be Newt's dad, is looking for a hiding place after accidentally shooting a man in Arkansas, and he fears that the sheriff, July Johnson, will be after him. Jake’s idle remark about having been to Montana and that it’s a cattleman’s paradise for the first men to risk the hostile Indians starts a fever in Call. He wants to be the first to drive a herd to the Montana territory and start a ranch there.

Call soon has started hiring men and stealing Mexican cattle for the drive. Gus says that Call is going to get them all killed just to have another adventure in a wild frontier, but he goes along to see his old sweetheart Clara who is living in Nebraska. Jake has taken up with Lorena and decides to travel along with the herd, much to Gus’s amusement and Call’s aggravation. The large cast of characters carry their hopes, fears and limitations with them out onto the vast plains of the American Midwest, and the drive turns out to be dangerous in ways they couldn’t even imagine.

This book has everything that anyone could want in a story. It’s epic in scale, but relatable through it’s shifting point of view through a variety of vivid characters. There’s intense western action and heart breaking love stories. It’s incredibly profound and amazingly simple. It’s hilarious at times but could reduce the toughest man in the world to tears at some points. And all of this is set during those last moments when America was still half-wild and anyone with the gumption to do so could throw together a herd of cattle and go out into the wilderness to make history or lose their scalp. ...more

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Feb 14, 2020 Michael Finocchiaro rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: pulitzer-winning-fiction, fiction, western, american-20th-c, pulitzer-fiction

This was such a surprisingly wonderful read, well beyond the traditional stereotypes of westerns with realistic, lovable (and hateful) characters and an incredible scenario. I am not sure how to present my review of this 1000 page masterpiece. Perhaps we start with the town of Lonesome Dove itself.

It is a small settlement next to the Mexican border. There is the Hat Creek crew with their horses (a collection of which is a remuda) and cattle. In charge of the crew are Captain Woodrow Call and Cap ...more

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Jun 17, 2020 Elyse Walters rated it it was amazing

Pulitzer Prize winner: 2010.

I’ve made some unexpected -surprisingly great -choices these past couple of months.
1- I never planned on watching the Netflix series “Anne With An E”....
It turned out to be so darn good...I was crushed when it was over.
It’s NOT....though.... I recently learned another season will be returning.
Happy-dancing!

2- Other friends raved to me about “Poldark”, years ago....(both the books and the series)....but I didn’t plan on diving in. Well.....
I just finished the first ...more

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Jun 01, 2014 Arah-Lynda rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Absolutely everyone!

Shelves: prize-winners, top, lets-get-real, killer-prose, i-said, to-the-island

Hands Down my Favourite Book in 2014

First of all the physical; the book I see looking up at me from my coffee table. It looks worn, well thumbed, well read, pages and cover alike, beginning to curl up, and soiled by use. Well that and all the casual (I take books with me) acquaintances, to the one, they all had to pick it up, look it over. It may look well rode, but it still feels soft, warm and pliant in my hand. The stars twinkle up at me from the cover and I wish, I wish, I wish it wasn’t ov
Hands Down my Favourite Book in 2014

First of all the physical; the book I see looking up at me from my coffee table. It looks worn, well thumbed, well read, pages and cover alike, beginning to curl up, and soiled by use. Well that and all the casual (I take books with me) acquaintances, to the one, they all had to pick it up, look it over. It may look well rode, but it still feels soft, warm and pliant in my hand. The stars twinkle up at me from the cover and I wish, I wish, I wish it wasn’t over. I long to go back…….

When Augustus came out on the porch the blue pigs were eating a rattlesnake – not a very big one. It had probably just been crawling around looking for shade when it ran into the pigs. They were having a fine tug-of-war with it, and its rattling days were over. The sow had it by the neck and the shoat by the tail.

“You pigs git” Augustus said kicking the shoat. “Head on down to the creek if you want to eat that snake.” It was the porch he begrudged them not the snake. Pigs on the porch just made things hotter and things were already hot enough. He stepped down into the dusty yard and walked around to the springhouse to get his jug. The sun was still high, sulled in the sky like a mule, but Augustus had a keen eye for sun, and to his eye the long light from the west had taken on an encouraging slant.

And so it begins. I have read a number of different reviews; many of which discuss how long it took for them to get invested in the story. Not so for me, I gotta say that I latched on to Augustus McCrae pretty early on and even though I can feel, quite acutely, Captain Call’s presence every time he crosses the page with Hell Bitch, it is Gus’s company I seek on this trail. Makes sense I guess, I met him first, back in 1876 in Lonesome Dove, Texas.

It has been quite a journey. Make no mistake; I spent time with all of the Hat Creek Cattle Company, not just the ex-rangers, as they drove their herd out of Texas and across the Great Plains, bound for Montana. I pined with Dish, listened to the Irish sing, and the remuda nicker and whinny. I ate dust with Newt on the heels of the herd and scouted for water and crossings with Deets. I was there for the water moccasins, the grizzlies and the cloud of grasshoppers, not to mention Blue Duck, one of the most frightening, sinister men ever; he made the hair on the back of my neck, my arms and everywhere else stand, stock still at attention. I seethed at Jake, swam with Pea Eye and felt Lorena’s despair way down deep in my bones. I am just skimming the surface here, there are others with tales to tell, like July Johnson, the painfully shy sheriff from Arkansas, searching for his wife and Clara, the dark haired beauty with the scorching tongue in Nebraska, who may just sear you with her words.

But back at the fire I would curl up and listen to Gus talk, reassured by his very presence, as we have a drink, play a hand or two and prepare to bed down. Amid all the words, in all the books, on all of the pages I have ever travelled, never before have I met a man so damn finely crafted, so carefully rendered, so agonizingly authentic as Augustus McCrae. It is as though I know him for real. Honestly. I enjoy his company and even now, miss his conversation. Yes, I want to go back……….. Ride one more time with the Hat Creek Cattle Company, who don’t rent pigs.

I god, folks, seriously, what is happening here? I do not read westerns. Fact is, were I not a member of this wonderful on line community of book lovers, chances are pretty good that I would never have read this book. Do not make that mistake and yes, I Thank You one and all!
...more

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Mar 03, 2019 Richard rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: current-lit-us

I approached Lonesome Dove with some trepidation. It’s a very, very long novel about cowboys and set in the 1860’s - not a literary comfort zone for me!
Investing a few weeks could have been risky .......
I needn’t have worried however, all the hype for this Pulitzer Prize winning novel is deserved.
The plot is full of incident and high excitement, the human stories are emotionally gripping and there is a lovely, wry humour throughout.
The book is also surprisingly brutal in places. Life is often ...more

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Aug 20, 2018 Matt rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: old-west, epics, classic-novels, historical-fiction

“‘I don’t like sending that boy off to sit up with a whore,’ [Woodrow Call] said.

‘He’s young and innocent,” Augustus [McCrae] said. ‘That’s why I picked him. He’ll just moon over her a little. If I’d sent one of the full-grown rowdies, Jake might have come back and shoot him. I doubt he’d shoot Newt.’

‘I doubt he’ll even come back, myself,’ Call said. ‘That girl ought to have stayed in Lonesome Dove.’

‘If you was a young girl, with life before you, would you want to settle in Lonesome Dove?’ Aug ...more

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Oct 25, 2020 Julie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: paperback, classics, western, historical-fiction, 2020

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry is a 1985 Pocket Books publication.

A little background- I do not read westerns- with the occasional exception of western historical romances here and there over the years. When it comes to movies or television shows- again, that would be a big, fat, no- except for the movie Tombstone.

However, after reading a nonfictional book about Dodge City, I thought I might finally be ready to try a fictional western.

Overwhelmingly, my Goodreads friends recommended I read t ...more

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Jul 09, 2017 Joe Valdez rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: western

My introduction to the fiction of Larry McMurtry is Lonesome Dove, consistently ranked as one of the best westerns whether the conversation is print or television. Published the year of the Texas Sesquicentennial in 1985 and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction the following year, the magnum opus is a magnificent exploration of male friendship, with a dozen supporting characters of both genders who McMurtry could've dedicated a novella to (and often attempts to over 857 pages). The bantering ...more

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Dec 13, 2010 Fabian rated it really liked it

I enjoyed reading it, but McMurtry asks way too much. This epic tale spans thousands of miles from the Old West (Texas) to the as-of-yet-up-for-grabs land of Montana. The characters are endearing; these are the premiere & authentic cowboys. The best stuff here is the campfire philosophy of Gus, and his incredible relationship with the solemn Woodrow Call is the stuff that legend is made of. The book refuses to end though, and despite the authenticity of this far away world (it is the Lord of the ...more

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Feb 17, 2020 Paul Bryant rated it it was amazing

Shelves: novels, modern-western

Larry McMurtry is as surefooted as any cowboy’s favourite horse. He never trips or stumbles. It doesn’t take many pages before you know this is a 5 star book.

As you know this is the enormous story of a big old cattle drive from Texas to Montana. That’s kind of it. Bits get added on here and there but the main idea is to get these thousands of cows across 3000 miles of dangerous territory, through sandstorms, blizzards, bandits, droughts, through Indian nations, across rivers, via grizzly bears a ...more

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Dec 09, 2014 Em Lost In Books rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 5-star, group-books, massive-tomes, 1980-89, awards, 2015

“If you read only one western novel in your life, read Lonesome Dove.”
—USA Today

Above statement seemed a bit too much to me before reading the book but not after reading it.

My first time reading a Pulitzer winner and it is truly an epic story in every sense. A book that left me happy, sad, angry, and teary at times.

Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call are two retired rangers who run a cattle company in a small town called Lonesome Dove. Whereas Augustus is very talkative Call is the opposite, t “If you read only one western novel in your life, read Lonesome Dove.”
—USA Today

Above statement seemed a bit too much to me before reading the book but not after reading it.

My first time reading a Pulitzer winner and it is truly an epic story in every sense. A book that left me happy, sad, angry, and teary at times.

Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call are two retired rangers who run a cattle company in a small town called Lonesome Dove. Whereas Augustus is very talkative Call is the opposite, talking only when it is necessary. An odd pair to be friends. Everything is going fine and suddenly out of nowhere an old friend, Jake Spoon, makes an appearance out of nowhere. Jake Spoon by mistake has murdered a doctor in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and is now wanted for same. Jake in his conversation tells Call about how he’d been to Montana and its beauty. How green it is and there is no one to claim it. Call gets all anxious to be to first to claim it and soon he starts his journey from Texas to Montana with some 3000 cattle.

I absolutely love the characters in the book. McMurtry has done a wonderful job in carving them. He has paid an equal attention to primary and secondary characters telling us about their backgrounds and how it effects their present.

It’s such a huge book and so many characters that at first I have a little trouble in remembering all in starting but soon I got addicted to them. I laughed with them, I cried with them, felt their pain, indecisiveness, sometimes I hated them for their foolishness but in the end I loved them all.

This review will be incomplete if I didn’t mention my favorite character from the book. & I think I am not alone in this, as far as I know he is everyone’s favorite from the book. Augustus McCrae, a non-stop talker, someone who can argue on a subject for countless hours. Fellow rangers worship him, though not for his talkativeness, but for he is a good man. I came to love his truthfulness and boldness. He is blunt but also helpful. Someone who keep his promises and has a good heart.
So a request to everyone who has this one on their tbr, please read it asap and if you don't have it on your tbr even then go ahead and read it for this is an awesome read. ...more

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Feb 10, 2019 Robin rated it really liked it

Recommended to Robin by: Julie

Shelves: 2019, american, buddy-read, pulitzer-prize-winner

I've always had a soft spot for western movies. In high school, I roped my friends into watching the ones starring this guy:

Later, I swooned over the epic starring this guy:

Westerns haven't featured heavily in my reading life, but Cormac McCarthy sure got my attention last year with All the Pretty Horses and No Country for Old Men.

This one, written in 1985, and winner of the Pulitzer prize, is about a million pages long. So you gotta love westerns if you're gonna love this. Cowboys, guns, whores, whiskey and plenty of adventure, much of it involving man vs. the elements. If that ain't your bag, you've come to the wrong saloon.

As I was saying, this book is a zillion pages long, and it takes about 17 million of them for the story to actually start. So the beginning is painfully slow. Twenty six chapters go by before the characters pick up and leave Lonesome Dove for their grand undertaking - bringing their cattle to set up a ranch in Montana.

I struggled with the slow beginning, and was a little bit underwhelmed by the plain prose, until in section 3, when I came to a belated realisation of what I was actually reading: a STORY. I know this sounds really stupid, like duh, what did I think I was reading? I guess the Pulitzer label and the 5-star constellations that abound for this book had me expecting something different. But what this is, ladies and gents, is a high calibre, old-fashioned STORY. No fancy writing, but an epic, all-American adventure, filled with characters who get under your skin in the most insidious manner.

It sneaks up on you, but before you know it, you suffer when they suffer, your heart soars when they succeed, you understand and forgive when they fail. And you wish you had about an ounce of their grit - because these men and women are all tougher in their sleep than I could ever be on my toughest day.

I think I still prefer McCarthy's style (though McMurtry gets just as dark and violent), because of the poetic depth in his writing, plus he gets there in far less pages. But I tip my hat to Larry McMurtry - what an accomplishment! Yee haw!! ...more

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Mar 04, 2015 Dan Schwent rated it it was amazing

Shelves: man-tears, western, 2015, kitten-squisher, pants-shittingly-awesome

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Retired Texas Rangers Woodrow F. Call and Augustus McCrae leave behind their sleepy lives in the Texas town of Lonesome Dove to drive a herd of cattle to Montana. Will they make it alive?

When I was a lad, around the time the glaciers receded and civilization began, I was enthralled with a certain TV miniseries. It was, in fact, Lonesome Dove. Though it took a couple decades, I finally made myself read the book the miniseries was based on and I've very glad I did.

Lonesome Dove is an epic set in t Retired Texas Rangers Woodrow F. Call and Augustus McCrae leave behind their sleepy lives in the Texas town of Lonesome Dove to drive a herd of cattle to Montana. Will they make it alive?

When I was a lad, around the time the glaciers receded and civilization began, I was enthralled with a certain TV miniseries. It was, in fact, Lonesome Dove. Though it took a couple decades, I finally made myself read the book the miniseries was based on and I've very glad I did.

Lonesome Dove is an epic set in the dying days of the Old West. On the surface, it's the story of two men entering old age and going on one last adventure. Digging a little deeper, it's a story about friendship, loyalty, obsession, and carving out a new place for yourself in a world that's moved on without you.

The tale of a cattle drive across three thousand miles of prairie doesn't sound that interesting on the surface but McMurtry's tale is populated with a colorful cast of characters. Aging lady's man Augustus McCrae and duty-bound Captain Call contrast one another nicely. While being opposite in terms of personality, they both still have enough grit to be believable as former Texas Rangers and I have no trouble believing in their friendship.

The supporting cast also has its share of gems, like gambler and former Texas Ranger Jake Spoon, Arkansas sheriff July Johnson, former whore Lorena Wood, Gus's former love Clara, and Newt, the son of a dead whore whose father has yet to acknowledge him. While the book has an epic scope, the shifting viewpoints and colorful characters make it very accessible and a quick read for a book of its size.

While I'd seen the miniseries a couple times, this book managed to wring a few man-tears out of me. Knowing the deaths were coming made it harder somehow. I held out hope that a couple people would survive despite dying in the miniseries but it was not to be. The bottom line is that deep down, all men wish we had a friend that would haul our carcass from Montana to Texas if that was our dying request.

Five out of five stars. Go read the son of a bitch. ...more

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Nov 03, 2018 Dem rated it it was amazing

Shelves: adventure, recommended, 5-star, favorites, prize-winner

What a phenomenal read, enormous and brilliant, witty and heartbreaking, a mamoth tale that touches the reader's emotions on so many levels. This is a book that honestly did not appeal to me in the slightest but 100 pages in I was hooked, invested, facinated and brought back in time to the Wild West of the 1870s and the adventures of a bunch of unforgettable and unique characters. I can definatley see why this is a Pulitzer Prize Winner.

The story focuses on a the relationship amount a bunch of What a phenomenal read, enormous and brilliant, witty and heartbreaking, a mamoth tale that touches the reader's emotions on so many levels. This is a book that honestly did not appeal to me in the slightest but 100 pages in I was hooked, invested, facinated and brought back in time to the Wild West of the 1870s and the adventures of a bunch of unforgettable and unique characters. I can definatley see why this is a Pulitzer Prize Winner.

The story focuses on a the relationship amount a bunch of Texas Rangers and takes the reader on an epic cattle drive from The Rio Grande to the highlands of Montana in the closing years of the Wild West days, A triumphant portrayal of the American West as it really was.

I came across this book on a " What Should I read next" Podcast by Anne Bogel, It was reviewed on several of her shows as one of those books you just have to read. When I realised that the novel was close to 850 pages and was a Western I put it on the top shelf and decided it could not possibly be worth the time and commitment. However January can be a long month and when my husband was looking for a good book to read and something that would hold his interest I reached for Lomesome Dove and we decided it was to become our January reading challenge and what a remarkable surprise this book turned out to be for both of us.
Western Novels are totally out of my confort zone however I do like a challenge and this book reminded me of The Pillars of the Earth in the sense that it is an epic monumental novel, with a wonderful sense of time and place, the most amazing and extremely well formed characters that you grow to love and root for and a book that suprises the reader in so many ways.
The prose is simple yet effective, the descriptions of the countryside and are vivid and transporting, uplifting and inspiring. This is a story of heroism, love, honour, loyalty and betrayal.

I gave this one 5 stars because it, educated me, made me laugh out loud, made me fall head over heels in love with Agustas McCrae and I couldn't wait to come home from work every evening to spend time with the boys and gals from Lonesome Dove.

I think there should be a list on goodreads for Books that you would never dream of reading but will end up absolutely loving

I read this in paperback and also purchased an audio copy as well and I can highly recommend the audio as very well paced and narrated. ...more

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Sep 07, 2016 Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it

Shelves: epic, fiction, adventure, 20th-century, historical, classics, love-strories

Lonesome Dove (Lonesome Dove #3), Larry McMurtry

‎Lonesome Dove: a novel‬ ‎by Larry McMurtry, ‎New York‬: ‎Simon and Schuster‬, ‎2000 = 1379‬. 857p, ISBN: ‎068487122X‬

A love story, an adventure, and an epic of the frontier, Larry McMurtry’s Pulitzer Prize— winning classic, Lonesome Dove, the third book in the Lonesome Dove tetralogy, is the grandest novel ever written about the last defiant wilderness of America.

Journey to the dusty little Texas town of Lonesome Dove and meet an unforgettable as ...more

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May 04, 2019 Brian rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

“It’s a fine world, though rich in hardships at times.”

What does one say about “Lonesome Dove”? Seriously?
This epic novel is sprawling, contains a large cast of characters (in every sense of the word) and tells a story that combines the strongest elements of love that we can understand, those of a physical and intellectual nature.
This novel begins on the Rio Grande in Lonesome Dove, Texas, makes a long journey to practically Canada by way of Montana, and ends back in Lonesome Dove. The main dri “It’s a fine world, though rich in hardships at times.”

What does one say about “Lonesome Dove”? Seriously?
This epic novel is sprawling, contains a large cast of characters (in every sense of the word) and tells a story that combines the strongest elements of love that we can understand, those of a physical and intellectual nature.
This novel begins on the Rio Grande in Lonesome Dove, Texas, makes a long journey to practically Canada by way of Montana, and ends back in Lonesome Dove. The main drivers of the story are former Texas Rangers, and business partners Augustus McCrae and Captain W.F. Call. I cared deeply about these two men. And Gus McCrae has to be one of the most quotable characters I have come across in all of literature. Honestly, “Lonesome Dove” is their story. It is a story of love and friendship. It does not sentimentalize either emotion, which makes it even more palpable, and true.
Larry McMurtry does a stellar job of deftly interweaving three or four plot lines into a story that eventually converges. The writing is beautiful and concise (a rare combination) and McMurtry does not belabor points. And in an 858 page novel that is a mean feat!
As for the characters, I can say I am a bit in love. No spoilers here, but McMurtry depicts the brutality of frontier life with a savageness that is realistic, quick, sudden, and then moved past. The reader will be jarred from time to time.
McMurtry also helps create voice and point of view in this third person novel with subtle stylistic changes in the text as the omniscient narrator jumps from one character’s head to another. Just the manner in which the text was written (depending on the POV) would let you know what character’s head we were in. As a feat of writing McMurtry succeeds brilliantly in this book.
As a feat of storytelling, “Lonesome Dove” is more than brilliant. Not one time when I picked up this text did I want to set it down because I was tired of reading it, or because the story dragged. Rather it was because life got in the way. Work, family, chores, etc.
This text is funny (hysterically so at times) heartbreaking, exciting, hold your breath tense…I could go on and on. I won’t. It took me forty years to read “Lonesome Dove”. Do not make that mistake.
I will revisit this text because I love some of these characters, and I miss them.
I can’t wait to meet up with them again. ...more

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May 28, 2015 Dirk Grobbelaar rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own, favourites, western

Gus and his pig were aggravating company.

When I finished this, yesterday evening, I was filled by a tremendous sense of melancholy, not just because the book was finally finished, but because of its introspective nature. By far one of the best I’ve read, Lonesome Dove is a dense book in more ways than one, and runs a gamut of emotions that will leave you feeling giddy. Hysterically funny the one moment, heartbreakingly tragic the next, it alternately delighted and depressed me to an extent I hav ...more

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Apr 01, 2011 Julie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorite-books, pulitzer-prize-for-fiction-winner, book-club, larry-i-love-you, big-sky-montana, you-ll-need-a-hankie, westward-ho, worthy-of-another-read

Looking for the Great American Novel? It's right here. Read this book before you die. It's as simple as that. ...more

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Jan 21, 2013 Maciek rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: Everyone who enjoys reading

Recommended to Maciek by: Tressa

Shelves: owned-books, historical-fiction, own-in-paperback, read-in-2013, big-tomes, favorites, reviewed, pulitzer-prize-for-fiction, western

All America lies at the end of the wilderness road, and our past is not a dead past, but still lives in us. Our forefathers had civilization inside themselves, the wild outside. We live in the civilization they created, but within us the wilderness still lingers. What they dreamed, we live, and what they lived, we dream.

This is an epic novel, and the quotation by T.K. Whipple which I provided above is indeed an appropriate epigraph. It's interesting that Larry McMurty originally devised it as a ...more

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Jul 30, 2007 Steve rated it it was amazing

It was quite a few years ago that I read this epic tale, and I’ve read a lot of great books since then. Even so, Lonesome Dove continues to hold a spot in my top ten. I’m thinking as a tribute to this longstanding favorite that I should do something different. So this will not be a run-of-the-mill review; it’ll be a meta-review instead. I’ll be distilling the wisdom of the crowd in a kind of ensemble piece, finding repeated observations from the book’s top ten Goodreads reviews to emphasize its ...more

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Jul 28, 2007 Tressa rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: westerns

Lonesome Dove is my favorite book of all time and, when asked, is what I consider to be the greatest American novel ever written. It was so engrossing and the characters so compelling and the adventures so entertaining, that I wanted to read it in one sitting. It's one of those reads that I envy others who have yet to read it.

Gus and Call are two of the most memorable characters in American fiction. They are the yin & yang of cowboys: one caring and comical, the other cold and unemotional.

Blue D ...more

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Sep 15, 2016 Tim rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, wild-west

Quite simply a stunning achievement, the most compelling novel I’ve read all year. The relationship between the two old Texas Rangers, Call and McCrae has to be one of my favourites in all literature. Both are brilliant character studies of archetypal men – Cal, infuriatingly silent, emotionally shy, almost retarded in his refusal to allow feeling, McCrae, prone to excess drinking, lazy and vain about his scant erudition. The bond they share becomes more and more moving as the novel progresses. ...more

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Jan 20, 2010 tim rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The earth is mostly just a boneyard. But pretty in the sunlight.

During a recent trip to the local bookstore, a discount stack of Lonesome Dove caught my distracted eye. Picking up a copy, I randomly flipped through to read three separate passages. And like an amnesiac, I promptly forgot all about the books I sought to find in the first place. Because this here was the book I didn’t know I needed to read right now.

At its core is a simple enough story—an epic cattle drive, not long after the Civ The earth is mostly just a boneyard. But pretty in the sunlight.

During a recent trip to the local bookstore, a discount stack of Lonesome Dove caught my distracted eye. Picking up a copy, I randomly flipped through to read three separate passages. And like an amnesiac, I promptly forgot all about the books I sought to find in the first place. Because this here was the book I didn’t know I needed to read right now.

At its core is a simple enough story—an epic cattle drive, not long after the Civil War, from southern Texas to northern Montana—but there’s nothing simple or subtle about the effects the various undercurrent narratives had on me.

As wild and raw as the vivid landscapes were continuously invoked, it is with the characters where this novel truly excels. Among a handful of major characters, I often forgot many of them were constructs made of words. That they seemed more real than the sum of a limited amount of words continually amazed me. Even minor characters came to life quickly and lingered long after exiting stage left, leaving behind solemn shadows.

Death and humor are doled out abundantly and in roughly equal measures, striking a necessary balance. For as commonly as death occurs, it often occurs violently. Not quite with the same force-fed frequency as found in Blood Meridian, but at times on the same level of intensity. That’s where the humor here helps temper the unexpected and ubiquitous death.

More than a good deal of this book’s humor emanates from one, if not the main character—Augustus McCrae. A man…I mean, a fictional character not likely to leave my thoughts anytime soon. Crowding around Gus in this harsh and brutal world are many other prominent characters, not least of all a couple of especially strong-willed women woven into the essence of this long tale.

As long as this story may be, it reads more like a novella, so quickly do the pages fly by. And when the last page passes, it passes by without complete closure—highlighting the way we all experience life outside these books. Life coming and going, surrounding everyone until abandoning us one by one. As though death were life’s joke on us all. ...more

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Oct 01, 2019 Pedro rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: pulitzer-prize-winner, favourites

I wish books could get married too, because I really would like to see ‘Lonesome Dove’ and ‘Gone with the Wind’ getting married and living happily forever. Raising their tiny little books which would certainly grow to become epic novels like their parents. Perfect.

These two books have so much in common it’s actually hard to believe they haven’t been written by the same author.
They’re both Pulitzer Prize winners, big in size, great in scope and character development and they’re both written in p ...more

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About Larry McMurtry

Larry McMurtry

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Larry McMurtry was born in Wichita Falls, Texas on June 3, 1936. He is the author of twenty-nine novels, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lonesome Dove, three memoirs, two essay collections, and more than thirty screenplays.

His first published book, Horseman, Pass By, was adapted into the film "Hud." A number of his other novels also were adapted into movies as well as a television mini-serie ...more

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Lonesome Dove (4 books)

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Quotes from Lonesome Dove

“If you want one thing too much it’s likely to be a disappointment. The healthy way is to learn to like the everyday things, like soft beds and buttermilk—and feisty gentlemen.” — 294 likes

“It ain’t dying I’m talking about, it’s living. I doubt it matters where you die, but it matters where you live.” ~spoken by Augustus McCrae” — 266 likes

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