Lonesome Dove
Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry, the author of Terms of Endearment, is his long-awaited masterpiece, the major noel at last of the American West as it really was. A love story, an adventure, an American epic, Lonesome Dove embraces all the West--legend and fact, heroes and outlaws, whores and ladies, Indians and settlers--in a novel that recreates the Central American experience, the most enduring of our national myths. Set in the late nineteenth century. Lonesome Dove is the story of a cattle drive from Texas to Montana -- and much more. It is a drive that represents for everybody involved not only a Darin, even a foolhardy, adventure, but a part of the American Dream--the attempt to carve out of the last remaining wilderness a new life. Augustus McCrae and W. F. Call are former Texas Rangers, partners and friends who have shared hardship and danger together without ever quite understanding (or wanting to understand) each other's deepest emotions. Gus is the romantic, a reluctant rancher who has a way with women and the sense to leave well enough alone. Call is a driven, demanding man, a natural authority figure with no patience for weakness, and not many of his own. He is obsessed with the dream of creating his own empire, and with the need to conceal a secret sorrow of his own. The two men could hardly be more different, but both are tough, redoubtable fighters who have learned to count on each other, if nothing else.
Stats for nerds
36recommend
53mentions
48people
2009–2026years
75% recommend25% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- It always blows my mind that Lonesome Dove is recommended across so many different communities, especially nerd-related ones like HN. I read ~100 books a year on average and it continues to top my all time favorites list; but, in all honesty, I cannot believe it appeals to the wide audience it does due to its content.
That said, here are some of my all time favorites (no particular order):
01. Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
02. Lonesome Dove (Larry McMurtry)
03. A Painted House (John Grisham)
04. A Gentleman in Moscow (Amor Towles)
05. The Great Alone (Kristin Hannah)
06. All the Light We Cannot See (Anthony Doerr)
07. Annihilation (Jeff VanderMeer)
08. The First Law Trilogy (Joe Abercrombie)
* this encompasses three long books; however, I consider them one long epic novel
09. Mailman (Stephen Starring Grant)
10. Demon Copperhead (Barbara Kingsolver)
11. Lessons in Chemistry (Bonnie Garmus)
12. Hench (Natalie Zina Walschots)
13. Personal Librarian (Marie Benedict)
14. In Cold Blood (Truman Capote)
15. Life We Bury (Allen Eskens)
16. Ordinary Grace (William Kent Krueger)
17. God of the Woods (Liz Moore)
18. Maid (Nita Prose)
19. The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell (Robert Dugoni)
20. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store (James McBride)
- Which books did you read at least twice? Please give author, title, and how often you have read it.
For me the (probably incomplete list) is:
Connie Willis: Doomsday Book (three times)
Neal Stephenson: Cryptonomicon, Anathem, Quicksilver, The Confusion, The System of the World (twice or three times)
Frank Herbert: Dune (three times)
Tolkien: Lord of the Rings (three times)
Stephen King: Salem's Lot, The Shining, It (three times each)
Stephen King & Peter Straub: The Talisman (twice)
Vernor Vinge: A Deepness in the Sky, A Fire Upon The Deep, Rainbow's End (each twice)
Tracy Kidder: The Soul of a New Machine (twice)
Larry McMurtry: Lonesome Dove (twice)
Ross Thomas: Chinaman's Chance (twice)
William Gibson: Neuromancer, The Peripheral, Agency (each twice)
- Oh I've got some recs for you if you want meaty! I've been reading classics this year. It started with East of Eden; if you've got a philosophical leaning and appreciate your characters deeply fleshed out, you owe it to yourself to read this book.
The next one was Lonesome Dove, this was my first time reading a western and I didn't think I'd enjoy it as much as I did. The book is also absolutely hilarious and has one of my favorite characters in a book(shoutout to Gus).
I'm currently reading The Count of Monte Cresto and, boy, it's turning out to be quite the epic tale of revenge(no spoilers please!).
- Just finished: "Lonesome Dove", by Larry McMurtry. From the name, I'd somehow assumed it was a romance novel. No, it's absolutely not. If it were released today, I think I'd describe it as "horsepunk": instead of cyberpunk's high tech low-lifes, it's basically horseback low-lifes. That's not entirely fair because there's a lot of moral strength in some of the characters, but they're all living on the brutal edges of a society where any random event might bring death, or worse.
Now reading: "null: $cat /dev/null_", by Dienw Neb[0]. I don't know what it's about yet. I heard about it in an ad in the back of "2600 Magazine" and it caught my attention. Initial impressions are that 1) Neb is really good at dialog, and 2) their recreations of IRC chats is so perfect that I know they had to've spend many hours online in the middle of the night. Basically, the author knows how to write things I want to read. I do so hope they stick the landing and that the story turns out as wonderful as the writing.
- Well, sure! But most westerns don’t give you that much insight into each person’s motivations and inner lives. And others tend to be more optimistic, with a common theme that truth and justice are destined to win out. Lonesome Dove’s freaking grim. The world seems out to get them, but it’s worse: the world just doesn’t care.
People who haven’t read it: Lonesome Dove won a Pulitzer for a reason. It’s very good.
- "Lonesome Dove" was the most surprising book in years for me - I do not like westerns, and that book is a western - but guess what: I loved it!
One of the best books and simply the best imho in its genre.
