Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry is a western adventure novel with lots of action and written with humor, character building and irony.
Yes, this book about a cattle drive but it’s also a heartbreak in boots.
What did I love? Everything Gus said, for starters. Augustus McCrae is charming, infuriating, wise, and so alive he practically winks off the page. Woodrow Call? As emotionally available as a rock, but I still rooted for him. Their friendship? Beautiful. Toxic. Co-dependent. Hilarious. Kind of like your favorite ex-roommate.
The prose? Gorgeous. McMurtry writes the Texas landscape like it’s poetry dipped in grit. And the side characters? Newt! Lorena! Deets! Clara! Even the pigs are memorable.
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But okay—what didn’t I love? Some pacing drag in the middle. The violence can be brutal (Blue Duck, you menace), and at times the female characters, while strong, still revolve around the men a bit too much. Also, McMurtry kills off your favorites without remorse. Rude.
Still, the emotional resonance is real. You don’t read this book—you live it. You feel the heat.
So… is 900 pages worth it? If you’ve ever loved someone silently then a big—yes. Every damn word.
“It ain’t dying I’m talking about, it’s living.”
Spoiler—
A cattle drive to Montana? Sounds simple—until it turns into a dusty odyssey of death, regret, and emotionally stunted cowboys.
Gus dies painfully from an infected leg (because Call takes forever to bring a surgeon), Deets is killed by a child with a gun, and Jake gets hanged by his old friends for riding with outlaws.
Call can’t say “I love you” to Newt, so he gives him a horse and dips. Gus’s last wish? To be buried in Texas, so Call drags his corpse across the plains. Everyone loses something. Except the blue pigs. Probably.
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About the Author:
Larry Jeff McMurtry was an novelist and author based in America, generally known for his historical west or Texas writings. His books are adapted into films and even won 7 emmys…impressive?
“A love story, an adventure, and an epic of the frontier, Larry McMurtry’s Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, Lonesome Dove, the third book in the Lonesome Dove tetralogy.”
| Genre | Fiction |
| Number of Pages | 960 pages |
| My Rating | 5.0⭐⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| Release Date | January 1, 1985 |
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