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Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

27 reviews

adventurous slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous dark slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Lawd have mercy, this was nearly a DNF so many times! I listened to this audiobook at X1.25 and it was still a slog! Yes, it’s an epic western. Yes, there are great moments and vast complex character development but YES these moments are between MANY OTHER meandering moments of riding the plains and whoring. So many prostitutes. Also got put off by its classic western racism, no matter how realistic it was for the times. I was determined to finish it because I thought I would eventually run into the thing that makes this book so lovable and the GOAT for folks. I never found it. 

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adventurous emotional informative sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

I don't really understand the hype of this book. Well, I do and I don't. The story itself is pretty awful, and none of the characters are people I'd want to befriend. Everyone is out for themselves, and the spirit of the Wild West is in every nook of every person. Some of the story was also quite ridiculous - are Lorena and Clara the only women of value? Even then, they are treated pretty abysmally. 

Of course I couldn't help but think of Taylor Sheridan's 1883, especially given both journeys are to end in Yellowstone. It's also just as littered with tragedy and sorrow.

I can see why people would gravitate toward this book. A lot to ponder and lots to discuss to consider regardless of where you land on the political spectrum. I can see people claiming the book represents all sorts of ideas and ideals. I suppose that's what makes this book brilliant.

I shall probably not read the other three. This book was exhausting!

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challenging dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

It left me empty like the planes filled with Buffalo bones. 

This book was brutal. It plots along and ends in such a hollow place you can't even cry. I feel angry at it because I don't understand the point but that's just it.  Sometimes you don't and I'm choked up now for all the tragedy and horror and pointlessness of it all. There was beauty in spots and the journey felt so alive at the end but each death was blunt and brutal and shocking. You couldn't love them for they were so flawed but how could you hate them? It felt like a journey of life with patches that felt stable and understandable torn into pieces in moments. 

If I had more of an inkling I'd talk about the brutalist poetic prose or the moral complexity or the hostorical lens but I feel so emptied out by the story that I don't want to anymore. I was so hooked that I couldn't be bothered to stop and write and now here I am without the desire. 
If that doesn't say something about Lonesome Doce I don't know what will. 

P. S. The pigs were my favorite part

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adventurous funny tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous emotional funny hopeful medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

McMurtry gives such a realistic depiction of the characters in the story that they are more realized in three paragraphs than the main character of a series might be in three entire books. Even characters doesn't feel like the right term sometimes because they just feel like people. People that make bad decisions and keep making them, or contradict themselves constantly. McMurtry's writing doesn't follow arcs as much as it does the natural way of things. It only goes to serve the dreary nature of the novel, but at times it does give its little moments of cheer. 9.5/10.

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Expand filter menu Content Warnings