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4.32k reviews for:

Lonesome Dove

Larry McMurtry

4.58 AVERAGE

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

I was dubious when I started but found myself engrossed. It's clearly a classic for a reason: big and melancholy.
adventurous dark informative mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced
adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring lighthearted sad 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

The best novel I’ve ever read.
adventurous 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

I can definitely see why it’s so highly regarded. It’s full of vividly drawn characters, evocative places, and haunting moments. Much more contemplative and melancholy than I expected going in, frequently dwelling on mistakes, regrets, and luck. It also does a great job avoiding predictability and eschewing tidy resolutions, effectively making it feel like a bit of real life rather than something plotted out for dramatic effect.

I was struck repeatedly by the narrative style being unusually omniscient, often jumping in and out of the heads of several different characters in the same scene in a way that seems unusual these days. Don’t know how I feel about this style – it sometimes jarred me out of reading, but also certainly contributed to how well I felt I knew the characters.

All told, a very good start to my reading for the year.
adventurous emotional funny reflective fast-paced
adventurous emotional funny sad
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Lonesome Dove – The kind of book that’s daunting to start due to the size and then when you get to the end you feel your heartbreak because it’s over. Impossible to finish without at least your thought vernacular adjusting to now include reckon, d’ern, and cowboy. And for being a Yankee this is quite the feat. I feel in love with characters and hated others, laughed and cried, friendships, and enemies, unrequited loves, cowboys, Indians and a few whores (seriously would like a count of how many times this word was used in this book). However, as when I started I remain even more firmly grounded in the fact I would not have made a good pioneer woman. Great read, would be a rare one for me that I’d read again down the road! Popsugar Book List 2017: A book over 800 pages (even though this book technically straddled 2016 and 2017, I’m counting it because I don’t pick up books this size too often!)
adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Loveable characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes