Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove won the Pulitzer Prize in 1985, and deservedly so.
The story takes place in the late 19th century. Lonesome Dove is a small town near the Texas/Mexico border. Just outside of the town stands the Hat Creek Cattle Company that is owned by Woodrow Call and Augustus "Gus" McCrae.
Once famous Texas Rangers, Call and Gus now deal in cattle and horses. Occasionally, they assume the role of the law again, when vaqueros from south of the border steal their horses.
Their life is not an easy one. This part of Texas is dry and hot. There's not much to see in town, except the whores inside the Dry Bean saloon.
One day, their old acquaintance Jake Spoon comes into town. He's on the run for accidentally shooting a man in Arkansas. While he is passing through Lonesome Dove, he tells Call of his experience in Montana, which is truly the last frontier. At this point in time, there are only some Indians and the last remaining buffalo up there. There are no settlers, just a couple of forts. However, it is the most beautiful sight Jake has ever seen, and he can't stop talking about it.
Call decides to drive the cattle to Montana. Gus thinks he is crazy. But must follow, because half of the cattle are his. In fact, all of the ranch hands think it is a crazy idea. However, the follow for the pay and the desire to see this great land. Also on the trip is Jake Spoon and a beautiful former whore named Lorena Wood, who is determined to leave her past back on the Rio Grande.
Thus, Lonesome Dove is the story of this amazing feat; a handful of men driving thousands of cattle from the bottom of Texas to the top of the country.
They must live off the land and sleep under the stars. They have to worry about deadly snakes down South and bears to the North. There are heat waves, sandstorms and blizzards as they make their way through Texas, the Oklahoma Territory, Kansas, Nebraska, and Montana in a matter of months.
The men of the Hat Creek outfit must also scout ahead for hostile Indians, including the legendary Blue Duck, who kills first and doesn't even bother to ask questions later. All through the drive, Call and Gus maintain the law, even if it means punishing familiar faces. That's just the way it works out West.
In his semi-autobiographical work, Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen, Larry McMurtry discusses his youth and being raised on the family's ranch. This experience obviously helped him in his writing of this tale..
Lonesome Dove is an excellent rebuttal to the pretty, shiny, clean perceptions of cowboy life. The events in the story actually seem quite real. It isn't a depressing book, but the tragedies aren't sugar coated, either. There is some good, some bad, and some things you just can't explain. Such is real life, and that's why I have a lot of respect for the author and his work.
The book is entertaining, yet draining. Though it is about a bunch of hardened men, the story is very moving and descriptive. As a reader, I could almost taste the dust of the cattle drive. I found myself feeling the same solitary feelings the men experienced out on the plains. At the end of the book, I became exhausted as though I had driven those cattle myself. Strange, but true. Mr. McMurtry's writing can have that affect on people.
Lonesome Dove is not a book for sissies. At 900+ paperback pages, it will demand all of your attention for a considerable amount of time. If you feel you're up to the challenge, I highly recommend you take the journey into the Old West. It's worth the trip.
P.S. If you're a stickler for chronological order, I'd like to recommend some other books by Larry McMurtry. Dead Man's Walk (1995) and Comanche Moon (1997) are prequels to Lonesome Dove. The sequel to the novel is Streets of Laredo (1993).
