Lonesome Dove (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author) "WHEN AUGUSTUS CAME OUT on the porch the blue pigs were eating a rattlesnake-not a very big one..." (more)
Key Phrases: Pea Eye, Blue Duck, Lonesome Dove (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Larry McMurtry, in books like The Last Picture Show, has depicted the modern degeneration of the myth of the American West. The subject of Lonesome Dove, cowboys herding cattle on a great trail-drive, seems like the very stuff of that cliched myth, but McMurtry bravely tackles the task of creating meaningful literature out of it. At first the novel seems the kind of anti-mythic, anti-heroic story one might expect: the main protagonists are a drunken and inarticulate pair of former Texas Rangers turned horse rustlers. Yet when the trail begins, the story picks up an energy and a drive that makes heroes of these men. Their mission may be historically insignificant, or pointless--McMurtry is smart enough to address both possibilities--but there is an undoubted valor in their lives. The result is a historically aware, intelligent, romantic novel of the mythic west that won the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

Review

Weaves a dense web of subplots involving secondary characters and out-of-the-way places, with the idea of using the form of a long old-fashioned realistic novel to create an accurate picture of life on the American frontier. . . . The Great Cowboy Novel. -- New York Times Book Review, Nicholas Lemann

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 960 pages
• Publisher: Pocket (December 15, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067168390X
• ISBN-13: 978-0671683900
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 3.7 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (402 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #18,516 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 92 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One word: magnificent, November 9, 2002

By	Candace Scott (Lake Arrowhead, CA, USA) - See all my reviews

I have never been a fan of the literary western genre and confess that I read this book solely because I watched the movie based upon this book. Incredibly, the book supercedes the movie and McMurtry's characterization of Woodrow and Gus are truly stunning. It's the characters that turn this book into a compelling classic, rarely does the reader encounter such deftly-drawn and intriguing men as McCall and McCrae. You feel as if you are in Lonesome Dove with these men, and with them every step of the way from Texas to Montana. It's a magnificent journey and McMurtry is a superlative writer.

Even if you've never read a western book in your life, this is a literary masterpiece, the Shakespeare of the range, so to speak.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the great American novels!, August 8, 2006

By	Bill Pullman "Book reviewer" (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I just reread this book again and was reminded how truly wonderful it is. I originally read it years ago and if anything enjoyed it more this time. I don't read many westerns, but this is truly something more. A book all Americans should read. For a great eread set in the modern American west do try "Across the High Lonesome," a book I picked up after seeing it recommended by Mr. McMurtry.

75 of 99 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tolstoy on the Range, August 21, 2000

By	Ted Ficklen (Saint Louis, MO USA) - See all my reviews

Stay with me here. I'm serious. I think Lonesome Dove can standcomparison to Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace. Of course, I've only read Tolstoy in translation, so chances are I've missed alot, but there is no question that McMurtry creates something here very close to that impossible dream: The Great American Novel. I dont know that any other American writer has ever suceeded on this scale, which is why I go to Tolstoy.

McMurtry uses the Western as a starting point, but there is a little of everything here. Surely there has never been another American Western with so many varied characters, both men and and women. McMurtry juggles many different points of view, but manages to give each of his characters a unique voice. Most remarkable of all, I think, are the women in the book, who manage to escape the usual stereotypes of madonna or whore, even though many of them are, quite literally, prostitutes.

Lonesome Dove is written in a deceptively simple, unpretentious style. I've just finished reading it for the second time. Despite its length it is really a fast read, since it is one of those books that demands to be taken with you where ever you go until you are done.