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4.59 AVERAGE
4.59 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Damn I’m on my yearning shit I feel like I’m Gus
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Yes
It’s common to get asked for your favourite book of all time. I have a few contenders I usually mention (Philip Roth’s The Ghost Writer, Alfred Lansing’s Endurance, Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, and George Elliot’s Middlemarch), but I’ve always felt like I hadn’t met my actual favourite book of time yet. When I got to the last 100 pages or so of Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove I decided that I was ready to commit to this book as my answer going forward.
I’m a bit surprised because I’m not a big Western guy. I’ve read other McMurtry books before but always held off on this one, because an 800+ page book about a cattle drive just doesn’t interest me that much. For anyone who has been circling this book for a bit, I would argue that you don’t need to be a Western fan to enjoy this. McMurtry isn’t Louis L’Amour; he didn’t just write Westerns. McMurtry wrote books about small town life like The Last Picture Show (great movie), a novel about mothers and daughters like Terms of Endearment (another great movie adaptation), and a funny road novel like All My Friends Are Going To Be Strangers. He was fascinated by people, by how funny, weird, and contradictory they can be. My favourite types of books are big-hearted novels, peopled with interesting characters, that are just as funny as they are sad. McMurtry left it all out on the field with Lonesome Dove.
If I had to pinpoint what made me love this book, you must start with the characters. Augustus “Gus” McCrae is full stop one of the best characters in fiction. He’s one of those people that doesn’t seem to take anything seriously, joking at every opportunity, but all the best pieces of wisdom in this book come from Gus. Clara is another great character. She is Gus’s ex-lover, “the one that got away” basically, and their relationship is alluded to throughout most of the book. When Clara finally enters the picture 550 pages in you wonder how invested you can really get in her character this late in the book, but McMurtry makes you understand why Gus fell in love with her. You see the kindness, feistiness, sense of humour, and pragmatism that kept Gus fascinated for so long. You understand why she’s the only match for a titanic personality like Gus.
Roscoe Brown, the inept deputy, was my favorite side character. Most of my favorite chapters in the book were his. Roscoe Brown is the perfect name for this character. At one point another character reflects that “The name Roscoe don’t inspire confidence. People named Roscoe ought to stick to clerking.” Roscoe is left to take care of things when the sheriff is forced to leave town. You know it’s probably not going to go well, but the start of the next Roscoe chapter was so funny to me that I nearly snorted up my drink: “Six days later responsibility descended upon Roscoe Brown with a weight far beyond anything he had ever felt.” This book doesn’t get enough credit for being funny. The chapter where a widow (twice-over) proposes marriage to Roscoe in the most unappealing terms possible was my favorite chapter I’ve read in years.
Here are a couple moments from the book that I really loved.
Moment 1-The widow Louisa proposes marriage to Roscoe Brown
“I got the solution to both our problems,’ Louisa said. “You let that sheriff find his own wife and stay here and we’ll get married.”
She said it in the same confident, slightly loud voice that she always seemed to use—after a day of yelling at mules it was probably hard to speak in a quiet voice.
Despite the loudness, Roscoe assumed he had misunderstood her. A woman didn’t just out and ask a man to marry. He pondered what she had said a minute, trying to figure out where he might have missed the meaning. It stumped him, though, so he chewed slowly on his last bite of corn bread.
“What was it you said?” he asked, finally.
“I said we oughta get married,” Louisa said loudly. “What I like about you is you’re quiet. Jim talked every second that he didn’t have a whiskey bottle in his mouth. I got tired of listening. Also, you’re skinny. If you don’t last, you’ll be easy to bury. I’ve buried enough husbands to take such things into account. What do you say?”
“I don’t want to, Roscoe said. He was aware that it sounded impolite but was too startled to say otherwise.
“Well, you ain’t had time to think about it,” Louisa said. “Give it some thought while you’re finishing the corn bread…She seemed to be amused, though Roscoe couldn’t figure out what might be amusing.
Note: I love the “seemed to be amused.”
Roscoe ultimately turns down the offer but is left with mixed feelings. This is how the chapter ends:
It seemed to him that he had never met such a curious woman. He gave her a wave that she didn’t see, and rode on west with very mixed feelings. One moment he felt rather pleased and rode light in the saddle, but the next moment the light feelings would turn heavy. A time or two Roscoe could barely hold back the tears, he felt so sad all of a sudden—and it would have been hard to say whether the sadness came because of having to leave Louisa or because of the uncertain journey that lay ahead.
This chapter is a good example of the funny but sad feeling I love in the best books.
Moment 2-Gus and Clara reunited
She stood at the window a minute studying him. To her he seemed not much older. His hair had already turned white when he was young. He had always made her feel keen, Gus—his appetite for talk matched hers. She stood for a moment in the kitchen doorway, a smile on her lips. Just seeing him made me feel keen. She was in the shadows and he had not seen her. Then he took a step or two and Augustus looked around. Their eyes met and he smiled.
“Well, pretty as ever,” he said.
To the huge astonishment of her girls, Clara walked straight off the porch and into the stranger’s arms. She had a look in her eyes that they had never seen, and she raised her face to the stranger and kissed him right on the mouth, an action so startling and so unexpected that both girls remembered the moment for the rest of their lives.
Just perfect writing. I love how the perspective shifts to Clara’s daughters and we get the detail that they would remember that moment for the rest of their lives.
I’m a bit surprised because I’m not a big Western guy. I’ve read other McMurtry books before but always held off on this one, because an 800+ page book about a cattle drive just doesn’t interest me that much. For anyone who has been circling this book for a bit, I would argue that you don’t need to be a Western fan to enjoy this. McMurtry isn’t Louis L’Amour; he didn’t just write Westerns. McMurtry wrote books about small town life like The Last Picture Show (great movie), a novel about mothers and daughters like Terms of Endearment (another great movie adaptation), and a funny road novel like All My Friends Are Going To Be Strangers. He was fascinated by people, by how funny, weird, and contradictory they can be. My favourite types of books are big-hearted novels, peopled with interesting characters, that are just as funny as they are sad. McMurtry left it all out on the field with Lonesome Dove.
If I had to pinpoint what made me love this book, you must start with the characters. Augustus “Gus” McCrae is full stop one of the best characters in fiction. He’s one of those people that doesn’t seem to take anything seriously, joking at every opportunity, but all the best pieces of wisdom in this book come from Gus. Clara is another great character. She is Gus’s ex-lover, “the one that got away” basically, and their relationship is alluded to throughout most of the book. When Clara finally enters the picture 550 pages in you wonder how invested you can really get in her character this late in the book, but McMurtry makes you understand why Gus fell in love with her. You see the kindness, feistiness, sense of humour, and pragmatism that kept Gus fascinated for so long. You understand why she’s the only match for a titanic personality like Gus.
Roscoe Brown, the inept deputy, was my favorite side character. Most of my favorite chapters in the book were his. Roscoe Brown is the perfect name for this character. At one point another character reflects that “The name Roscoe don’t inspire confidence. People named Roscoe ought to stick to clerking.” Roscoe is left to take care of things when the sheriff is forced to leave town. You know it’s probably not going to go well, but the start of the next Roscoe chapter was so funny to me that I nearly snorted up my drink: “Six days later responsibility descended upon Roscoe Brown with a weight far beyond anything he had ever felt.” This book doesn’t get enough credit for being funny. The chapter where a widow (twice-over) proposes marriage to Roscoe in the most unappealing terms possible was my favorite chapter I’ve read in years.
Here are a couple moments from the book that I really loved.
Spoiler
Moment 1-The widow Louisa proposes marriage to Roscoe Brown
“I got the solution to both our problems,’ Louisa said. “You let that sheriff find his own wife and stay here and we’ll get married.”
She said it in the same confident, slightly loud voice that she always seemed to use—after a day of yelling at mules it was probably hard to speak in a quiet voice.
Despite the loudness, Roscoe assumed he had misunderstood her. A woman didn’t just out and ask a man to marry. He pondered what she had said a minute, trying to figure out where he might have missed the meaning. It stumped him, though, so he chewed slowly on his last bite of corn bread.
“What was it you said?” he asked, finally.
“I said we oughta get married,” Louisa said loudly. “What I like about you is you’re quiet. Jim talked every second that he didn’t have a whiskey bottle in his mouth. I got tired of listening. Also, you’re skinny. If you don’t last, you’ll be easy to bury. I’ve buried enough husbands to take such things into account. What do you say?”
“I don’t want to, Roscoe said. He was aware that it sounded impolite but was too startled to say otherwise.
“Well, you ain’t had time to think about it,” Louisa said. “Give it some thought while you’re finishing the corn bread…She seemed to be amused, though Roscoe couldn’t figure out what might be amusing.
Note: I love the “seemed to be amused.”
Roscoe ultimately turns down the offer but is left with mixed feelings. This is how the chapter ends:
It seemed to him that he had never met such a curious woman. He gave her a wave that she didn’t see, and rode on west with very mixed feelings. One moment he felt rather pleased and rode light in the saddle, but the next moment the light feelings would turn heavy. A time or two Roscoe could barely hold back the tears, he felt so sad all of a sudden—and it would have been hard to say whether the sadness came because of having to leave Louisa or because of the uncertain journey that lay ahead.
This chapter is a good example of the funny but sad feeling I love in the best books.
Moment 2-Gus and Clara reunited
She stood at the window a minute studying him. To her he seemed not much older. His hair had already turned white when he was young. He had always made her feel keen, Gus—his appetite for talk matched hers. She stood for a moment in the kitchen doorway, a smile on her lips. Just seeing him made me feel keen. She was in the shadows and he had not seen her. Then he took a step or two and Augustus looked around. Their eyes met and he smiled.
“Well, pretty as ever,” he said.
To the huge astonishment of her girls, Clara walked straight off the porch and into the stranger’s arms. She had a look in her eyes that they had never seen, and she raised her face to the stranger and kissed him right on the mouth, an action so startling and so unexpected that both girls remembered the moment for the rest of their lives.
Just perfect writing. I love how the perspective shifts to Clara’s daughters and we get the detail that they would remember that moment for the rest of their lives.