Lonesome Dove: a great journey to nowhere

Lonesome Dove (1985)- Larry McMurtry (843 pages)

Lonesome Dove follows Woodrow Call and Augustus McCrae (Gus) after their long and successful career as Texas Rangers. The two settled into a life of ranching in Lonesome Dove before eventually deciding to move cattle up from Texas into the great unknown of Montana. The rest of the book follows this journey from the southern reaches of the U.S. into the wilderness of the north. The crew struggles with death, thirst, attacks, and their own minds as they adventure far past many had previously been willing. Before I get too far into the review, I am aware that this was made into a television series. While I try to remark on adaptations of books when I review them I have not watched the show so I will hold off on my review of it. Lastly, while Lonesome Dove was the first book published McMurtry eventually made it into a series of four books with Lonesome Dove fitting in as the third book chronologically.

McMurtry’s writing style is relatively easy to read but it mostly changes from character to character. While characters such as Call are more reserved and seldom speak, Gus the great orator of the group can have some very profound exclamations. McMurtry does have some long narratives of the scenery and the group but nothing too complex.

The themes in Lonesome Dove are surprisingly expansive. Entering the book, I might have trivialized the simplistic nature of the plot and thought that would also be true of the themes, it was not. Sometimes the simplest plots can have the most complex themes. Lonesome Dove’s core themes include mortality and beauty, principles, and the past. Simply put, this book has some of the most gruesome death scenes I’ve read. Sometimes they are quick but McMurtry does a great job painting the picture in your head of the scene, the emotions, and the results. At this point in history, the west truly was the wild west filled with tribes, outlaws, and other gunmen. Death was frequent but still a very serious affair. McMurtry matches these scenes of death with great scenes of the beauty of nature and the simple acts the men grow to enjoy. Death and the contrasting beauty teach the reader to respect death and the dying but do not let it control you, you must live on to remember the dead.

Principles or the law are especially important in a lawless land. Call and Gus have upheld the law for much of their adult lives and they continue it on the journey into Montana. Justice is quick and simple, even a good man with sound decisions throughout their life can make a slip that causes them to be on the wrong side of the law and doomed. Lastly, the past and the hold it has on the present are especially relevant in this adventure. Call and Gus were seemingly created to contrast each other at every point and do so strikingly when thinking of the past. Call torments himself with the past and holds it over himself never allowing himself to grow or learn from it. While Gus enjoys the past, he remembers it but instead of it tormenting him he treasures it.

With these reviews, I try to make my thoughts very clear. I thought the first 700 pages or so of this book were great. I would say an 8 or 9 on my enjoyment scale, but the last 150 or so pages fell short in many regards. The first 700 pages detail the great journey to Montana, while the last 150 pages detail what happens when they arrive. I thought the last portion of the book would be used to resolve relationships, disputes, and issues allowing the crew to create a strong foothold to support the future, this was not the case. I don’t want to spoil the ending but little gets resolved, confirmed, or even mentioned, and the great journey ends into nothingness.

Lastly, I felt this adventure had tons of promise, especially for how much McMurtry set up throughout the book. An author like Charles Dickens will place many subplots and themes throughout the book, as a reader you might think that Dickens forgot about them but he will almost always wrap them back together. It seems strange that McMurtry set up so many strong plotlines just to let them fall by the wayside. Additionally, I felt like the characters lacked strong development. The Call and Gus at the beginning are the same at the end.

As always, my scoring breakdown is below. Thanks for reading!

Score: 7.0- A strong score but driven down by the enjoyment score due to a lackluster ending.

Readability: 8- A relatively easy read.

Thematic Questions: 7- A strong discourse on both the hardships and beauty of life.

Enjoyment: 6- An adventure full of potential but one whose ending squanders a great opportunity.