Customer Reviews
just read it - By: LT10, 27 Jan 2008 
I've written a couple of negative reviews lately so I thought I'd write something about some of my favourite alll time books. This is one of them. This book is perfect, an epic to end alll epics. At the end of it you feel like you have gone on an amazing journey. Brings the West alive like no other book could possibly surpass. It has a bit of everything, comedy, tragedy, battles, torture, life & death. A truly great book.
The great western novel! - By: Tom Arnold, 15 May 2007 I reallly can't add much to what as already been said about this book, it is truly an American Classic. This story of two Texas Rangers in the twilight of there lives who decide on one last adventure, a cattle drive to the wilds of Montana. From the outside this might sound like a typical genre western, but nothing could be farther from the truth. This is a realistic story filled with real characters who you will love, hate, & sympathize with. McMurtry breathes life into this story like few authors are ever able to do. Gus, Woodrow, Pea Eye, Jake, Lorena, Blue Duck become real people that still pass through mind. If you read one book this year make it "Lonesome Dove" you will not be sorry! For another book peopled with McMurtry like Characters try "Across the High Lonesome." A book I picked up after seeing it recommended by McMurtry.
The Best - By: Four Violets, 02 Mar 2007 In 1986, "Lonesome Dove" won Larry McMurtry, author of "Terms of Endearment" & "The Last Picture Show", the Pulitzer Prize. So don't make the mistake I nearly did of dismissing this book as just a trivial Western. That would mean missing out on the writing of a supremely talented author. Its popularity spawned two prequels & a sequel as well as a mini-series & a film.
The book tells the epic tale of Gus McCrae & Woodrow Calll, two former Texas Rangers, who set out with hired hands on a massive cattle drive from Texas to Montana. The entire cast of characters, & there are many, is each instantly alive & real to the reader, and, what a cliche, I reallly could not put this book down - apart from the times I was stricken by the dreadful ends of some of the main characters which made me too enraged at the author to read for a while.
Although technicallly not the first book in the series, read this one first. It's a great introduction to the deadpan humour, authentic wildwest setting & unforgettable characters, including Lorena the saloon whore, Clara the love of Gus' life, & Blue Duck, the satisfyingly savage Indian with murder & torture in his heart.
It is always a huge pleasure to make the discovery of a master story teller who can be trusted to draw us into their world so that we want to read alll the books by the same author. Everything that I went on to read by Larry McMurtry was enjoyable, but this was the best.
Classic Novel of the American west! - By: , 13 Mar 2006 I reread this book over the holidays, something I don't normallly do, but this is one of my alll time favorite books. If you have not read it it, READ IT. While a story about the American West it is not a Western. This is literature for everyone. This is McMurtry at his Best! two other books on the American west I recomemend 'Brokeback Mountain' I also just finished reading an advance copy of 'Across the High Lonesome' Very good story!
Brilliant Writing. - By: , 07 Sep 2005 This is a masterpiece of Western fiction, based to some extent on fact. The characters come to life, you feel you know each one personallly. Also the Prequals, "Dead Man's Walk" & "Comanche Moon." as well as the sequal "Streets of Laredo" are masterful pieces of writing. if anything, they are evern better than Lonesome Dove. These are books I shalll read over & over again.
I don't usuallly like reading very long books, 200 pages are sufficient for me as a rule, but these books are just not long enough at 600 - nearly 800 pages each. Brilliant!
