Lonesome Dove

I just finished *Lonesome Dove* by Larry McMurtry. I heard about it on TikTok and bought a used copy soon after. I enjoyed it a lot. I laughed, I cried, and at times I struggled to keep reading. 857 pages felt incredibly long and short at the same time.

Gus made me laugh the most. So much so that I hardly had time to feel sad when he died, though his absence is strongly felt in the last stretch of the book. From then on, it’s just Call feeling bad about himself and the son he never named as his son.

Clara is a very compelling character. It’s easy to see why Gus was enamored with her for so many years, and I also understood why she turned him down in their youth. Her assessment of Call, as he left with Gus’s body, was also astute, if a bit harsh and simplistic.

Newt, as McMurtry said in the 2010 preface, is the titular lonesome dove. He’s a lonely and innocent young man plagued by tragedy. Unfortunately, I also learned from the preface that Newt was to die. I expected it to happen in *Lonesome Dove*, but he was still alive at the end, so I guess I have to read the fourth book of the tetralogy, if none else. And here I thought I was done with Westerns!

Some people feel the book is too slow, and at times it was, but I can handle a slow plot as long as the characters are interesting enough to carry it home. I was not disappointed. However, I must admit it’s not my new favorite book of all time. So many people say it’s topped everything they read, but either they haven’t read very many good books or I’ve been lucky enough to read lots. Not that I could tell you what my favorite book is. I have trouble ranking things by giving them a score out of 5 stars or a number out of ten, so elaboration is always necessary. Taste is far too subjective.

TL;DR thumbs up, good read, yes I recommend it, etc etc.