Dead Man's Walk (Lonesome Dove, #3) in Never too Late to Read Classics

Feb 01, 2022 Tim Callicutt rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2022-books

This is my first honest-to-goodness Western, and I started off with a bang. McMurtry does a good job communicating the bleakness of the West without getting bogged down enough. There are more than a few moments when I chuckled. I particularly enjoyed Gus' puppy love for that girl in Austin. McMurtry definitely has literary chops, and I feel like you can see that to great effect in the ending. I won't offer spoilers, but there's a way that scene could have been used as a cop-out, but it ends up w ...more

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Sep 18, 2021 Thomas Ross rated it really liked it

McMurtry's work always had been a hit or miss for me. Lonesome Dove remains one of my favorite books, hands down. Then you have something like The Last Kind Words Saloon and I'm left wondering what the hell happened. But in between he wrote a couple of more books about Gus and Call and I decided to revisit the characters and learn of their origins. The book follows McMurtry's formula, it seems, of the boys and their company of Rangers vs. the awful suffering and death found on the trail (whether McMurtry's work always had been a hit or miss for me. Lonesome Dove remains one of my favorite books, hands down. Then you have something like The Last Kind Words Saloon and I'm left wondering what the hell happened. But in between he wrote a couple of more books about Gus and Call and I decided to revisit the characters and learn of their origins. The book follows McMurtry's formula, it seems, of the boys and their company of Rangers vs. the awful suffering and death found on the trail (whether reading McMurtry, McCarthy or Guthrie, one thing is for sure: the frontier was a place of few pleasures but plenty of psychotic torture and butchery) at the hands of a single sociopathic Native American -- in this case Buffalo Hump of the Comanche, and later Gomez of the Apache. But the Whites are after the Mexican army here, traveling an incredible trail of woe (eventually the title will make sense) as this small American army marches toward an invasion of a well-defended New Mexico, where they believe they will find silver and gold lining the streets. It's a pleasure to meet Gus and Call in their youth, and you see the how they will fledge into the characters we later see again in Lonesome Dove. Call is the most interesting. You see growth, you see learning, you see a hunger to become the best. Gus is Gus, even as a kid. Whoring is on his mind 24/7, and he offers comedic relief and occasional asides of wisdom. We also meet many interesting secondary characters, including Matilda, Shad and Big Foot. One of the more enjoyable ones is a Mexican army captain. His character has a depth to it. I enjoyed the adventure McMurtry maps out here. I got a little tired of McMurtry's habit of repeating himself, or having Gus repeating himself. His obsession with a bear, for instance, is annoying. Yes, we get it. We're all afraid of a killer bear. I get that this is the character, but it just led me to skimming certain passages. I will, however, finish up the life and times of Gus and Call with Comanche Moon. ...more

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Jan 21, 2017 Gin rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: library-r

One thing I enjoy about Dead Man's Walk (and Lonesome Dove as well) is the sheer variety of dangers there are. Weather, inhospitable land, disease, injury, hostile people of all kinds - both as groups and as individuals - stupidity, sheer bad luck... and yet nothing is ever so hopeless that you want to give up and stop reading. McMurtry is very good at "raining shit on the story without letting it stink."

I read this after Lonesome Dove, and while it takes place earlier chronologically, I prefer ...more

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