欧宝娱乐

Revived review

RIP Larry McMurtry 3 June 1936 - 25 March 2021

He described Lonesome Dove as a "pretty good book".

****


Larry McMurtry is as surefooted as any cowboy鈥檚 favourite horse. He never trips or stumbles. It doesn鈥檛 take many pages before you know this is a 5 star book.

As you know this is the enormous story of a big old cattle drive from Texas to Montana. That鈥檚 kind of it. Bits get added on here and there but the main idea is to get these thousands of cows across 3000 miles of dangerous territory, through sandstorms, blizzards, bandits, droughts, through Indian nations, across rivers, via grizzly bears and hardly a single town in sight the whole way.

It becomes clear that these cowboy guys did not need a 7-Eleven or a Stop & Shop. The whole natural world was their Stop & Shop. If they needed lunch they shot it.

There are a couple of things that might set modern readers on edge a bit. Nearly all the female characters are or were whores (their term). And the Native Americans take the usual beating:

鈥淗ow many Indians were they?"
Pea tried to think. 鈥淎 bunch jumped us,鈥� he said. 鈥淎bout twenty, I guess. Gus shot a few.鈥�

There are a few oddities. There is an awful lot of loping in this book. Horses never canter or gallop or trot, they lope. Loping is also done by coyotes, wolves and men.

There is one of the greatest ninja warrior manic dream pixie girls, a wild child called Janey.

And the cowboys, tough as they are, don鈥檛 swear. They say 鈥淒ern鈥� when provoked.

LOVE IN THE OLD WEST

In a beefy tough guy story like this love looms large. You might not think, but it does. But it鈥檚 the kind of love unknown in the modern world. A man sees a woman two or three times, perhaps doesn鈥檛 even speak to her, and he鈥檚 in love, and stays thinking about her for the next year. He鈥檚 a thousand miles away, it doesn鈥檛 matter. These days the internet allows us to fall in love with people we never met either, so times haven鈥檛 changed that much.

AN EXAMPLE OF MALE FEMALE RELATIONS IN LONESOME DOVE

鈥淲hat was it you said?鈥� he asked finally.
鈥淚 said we oughta get married,鈥� Louisa said loudly. 鈥淲hat I like about you is you're quiet. Jim talked every second that he didn鈥檛 have a whisky bottle on his mouth. I got tired of listening. Also, you鈥檙e skinny. If you don鈥檛 last, you鈥檒l be easy to bury. I鈥檝e buried enough husbands to take such things into account. What do you say?鈥�

THE TOUGH MINDED WOMEN IN LONESOME DOVE :

Clara is looking after someone who is ill :

鈥淥h , you don鈥檛 have to thank me for a washrag,鈥� Clara said. 鈥淚鈥檓 not much of a nurse. It鈥檚 one of my failings. I鈥檓 too impatient. I鈥檒l give a person a week or two, then if they don鈥檛 improve I鈥檇 just about as soon they鈥檇 die.鈥�

THE TOUGH MINDED MEN IN LONESOME DOVE

鈥淚 once drank the urine of a mule. It kept me alive鈥� Po said.

LARRY MCMURTRY鈥橲 EYE FOR DETAIL IN EVERY ASPECT OF LONESOME DOVE :

Some of the cattle were so weak the cowboys had to dismount, , pull their tails and shout at them to get up.

(He knows the cowboys would pull the tails).

A RATHER BAD SCRAPE ONE OF THE CHARACTERS GETS INTO

He was naked, unarmed, without food and something like a hundred miles from the wagon. He didn鈥檛 know the country and was up against some tough Indians who did.

THE OLD COWBOY SONG LONESOME DOVE REMINDED ME OF :

Old Paint

When I die, take my saddle from the wall
And put it on my pony, and lead him out of his stall;
Tie my bones to his back, turn our faces to the west
And we'll ride the prairies that we love the best.

LONESOME DOVE IS LORD OF THE RINGS, ALMOST

And something I noticed 鈥� it could be that this is in the nature of most epic stories, but there was a Lord of the Rings vibe about the shape of the whole thing. The first 100 page is as leisurely and unhurried as the first 100 pages of LOTR leading up to Bilbo鈥檚 birthday party. A little later the Company of the Ring is formed (nine members). In Lonesome Dove the two ex-Rangers put together a Company themselves for their epic task - seven members. There isn鈥檛 a Mordor or a Dark Lord, but the Indians are the Orcs, for sure. Then after the task is accomplished, there is an elegiac, lengthy return to the Shire encountering old faces along the way, exactly mirrored by Captain Call鈥檚 return to Lonesome Dove.

FOOTNOTE : MODERN WESTERNS

This is the 6th I鈥檝e read so far. All either good or great.

True Grit by Charles Portis
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
The Thicket by Joe R Lansdale
News of the World by Paulette Jiles
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy

When I was a kid Westerns were all over the tv (Bonanza, High Chaparral, all those 1940s horse operas) and I more or less despised them. Then Clint Eastwood rescued the whole genre. Then Hollywood and tv mostly got tired of the Western. But now these modern writers have kicked the whole thing back into life.