Book Review: Lonsome Dove

After many years on my list of books I intend to read I finally got around to Lonsome Dove by Larry McMurtry.  The book is considered an American classic by many and is also a Pulitzer prize winning novel. For me, the hype is real. The book is fairly hefty at 843 pages and I just ran through it in less than two weeks.

It’s a tale of two long retired Texas Rangers who manage a ranch trading horses on the border with Mexico. Suddenly, they decide to try and strike it big by being some of the first ranchers to set-up in Montana. Montana is described as being on the edges of the frontier, a land where civilization has yet to arrive and Indian tribes are still active. It’s dangerous, but where there is danger there is also opportunity as the land is described as being perfect for ranching. And so the two partners round up over a thousand cattle and begin the long drive from Texas To Montana with a bunch of hired help.

Although the book is considered a classic, I found the prose rather prosaic. Perhaps that is part of the charm of the book, but McMurtry does not take much time describing the setting or any visuals in the book. He does delve into the back story of some of the characters quite deeply, and I appreciated the moments of introspection regarding Cal quite a bit, but overall I never felt I was pulled into the West. What captivated me in the book was the dialogue between the characters. As I said before there is a great many of them, and for some reason the dialogue felt so genuine. It also helps that McMurtry uses a third person omniscient style of writing where points of view are constantly switching inside the same chapter. This gives the feeling of a rapidly unfolding story line that I quite enjoyed. So many books today devote a full chapter to a point of view of some character in a story that I often wish I could skip the chapter entirely without feeling guilty.

It’s an epic adventure, as you can imagine how difficult it must be to move over a thousand cattle over two thousand kilometers in the late 1880s. Cal and Augustus— the two main protagonists— have to battle the weather, Indians, bandits, and occasionally members of their own group to complete this journey. The book has many other characters as well, each dealing with their own struggles. July in particular was one of my favorites. There is no shortage of drama as the book is constantly switching focus between characters and progressing the story of many characters at a rather fast pace.

It’s a great adventure and that alone makes the book a worthy read. But if you are like me and mostly lived the city life you will almost certainly appreciate a look at what living on the frontier was like. Throughout the journey there are moments of sadness, regret, and melancholy for many characters. There are probably many life lessons that can be gleamed from these moments, but that is not necessary to appreciate this book.

I can’t recommend this book enough.