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I know I will not be able to do this EXCELLENT book justice, but I am going to try.

Cowboys, cattle and whores are the main characters in this book. Sometimes the book is sad, sometimes it is funny. Not everyone gets out alive.

Lonesome Dove is a small town in Texas. The Hat Creek Boys are the cowboys. They are led by Captain Woodrow F. Call. He is a man who lives to work. His latest project is to drive 3000 cattle to Montana.

Other Characters and there are MANY, all memorable. From Wikipedia:
Captain Woodrow F. Call � Co-owner of the Hat Creek outfit and former Texas Ranger. A largely silent leader of men who believes in discipline, duty and honor, he is a foil to his best friend Gus. McMurtry describes Call as a Stoic.
Captain Augustus "Gus" McCrae - Co-owner of the Hat Creek outfit and former Texas Ranger. A lazy, loquacious and charismatic rake with a fondness for alcohol, gambling and whores, he is nonetheless a brave and competent fighter when required. He is tall and lanky, famed for his excellent eyesight, and has had silver hair since his twenties. He serves as a foil to his best friend Call, and is described by McMurtry as an Epicurean.
Pea Eye Parker � The wrangler and blacksmith of the Hat Creek Cattle Company, Pea Eye served as a corporal in the Rangers under Gus and Call. Pea Eye (his real first name long forgotten) is not especially bright, but he is reliable, brave, and kind. He follows Call's lead without question.
Joshua Deets � An African American former Ranger, Deets is a ranch hand at the company. On the drive, he serves as scout.
Newt Dobbs � A 17-year-old orphan raised by Gus and Call. His mother was a prostitute named Maggie, who died when he was a child. He knows his mother was a prostitute but has no idea who his father might be. Most observers, notably Gus and Clara Allen, are confident Call is his father. McMurtry refers to Newt as "the lonesome dove of the title."
Jake Spoon � A former Ranger who left his friends ten years ago to travel around America, returning to Texas near the beginning of the novel. Like Gus, Jake is a drinker, gambler and womanizer, and possesses a great personal charm.
Dishwater "Dish" Boggett � Though only 22, Dish is a cowboy of great skill and the "top hand" for Call's cattle drive. He suffers greatly from unrequited love for Lorena Wood. His nickname derives from once having drunk dishwater on a cattle drive, being so thirsty that he could not wait for the water barrel.
Bolivar � A former Mexican bandit and the cook for the Hat Creek Cattle Company. He is obsessed with loudly and unnecessarily ringing the dinner bell to call the company for dinner. Bolivar is uneasy about venturing far from the Rio Grande and abandons the cattle drive before it leaves Texas.
Po Campo � The cattle drive's enigmatic new cook, hired by Call in San Antonio after Bolivar's departure. He uses exotic ingredients like grasshoppers in his meals and refuses to ride animals. He hints at being well-traveled, and also offhandedly remarks that he killed his wife.
Lorena Wood � A beautiful young woman from Alabama who was coerced into prostitution by a former lover, later washing up in Lonesome Dove, where she works as the town's only whore. Lorena is taciturn, strong-willed and intimidating, generally viewing her clients and admirers with contempt. Discontent with her life, Lorena harbors a dream of traveling to San Francisco.
Blue Duck � The son of Comanche war chief Buffalo Hump and his Mexican captive, Blue Duck leads a band of renegade Indians and Caucasian bandits. He is feared across the plains as a murderer, rapist, and slaver. He has managed to evade the law even as the West gradually grows safer and more civilized.
July Johnson � The sheriff of the town of Fort Smith, Arkansas. July is a kind young man recently married to Elmira, whom he deeply loves despite her being openly disdainful of him. After his brother Ben is accidentally killed by Jake Spoon, July sets off in pursuit of him.
Elmira Johnson � a former whore from Kansas, recently married to July Johnson. She is unhappy with her life and suffers from depression, eventually leaving Fort Smith to seek out her old love Dee Boot.
Roscoe Brown � The deputy sheriff of Fort Smith, Arkansas. Roscoe is a simple man in his forties who is content to spend his life minding the sleepy town's jail, but is bullied by July's sister-in-law into tracking down the sheriff and his missing wife.
Joe � Elmira's son who travels with July to find and arrest Jake Spoon.
Janey � Young girl Roscoe meets on his journey to find July. She was a slave to an old man living alone in the woods but when Roscoe arrived she escaped from her captivity and traveled with Roscoe, proving herself useful by her abilities to catch animals to eat, and in other resourceful ways.
Clara Allen � Gus's former love, she declined his repeated marriage proposals during their youth in Texas - for reasons that were never entirely clear to Gus - instead marrying the horse trader Bob Allen and moving to a ranch near Ogallala, Nebraska. She still grieves for her sons who died of respiratory disease from the sod house she and Bob first lived in, and treasures her daughters.
Jimmy and Ben Rainey, Bill and Pete Spettle, Soupy Jones, Needle Nelson, Jasper Fant, Bert Borum, Lippy Jones, Sean and Allen O'Brien � Other hands hired by Call to work the cattle drive.

This is a VERY long book: 946 pages. I set a goal of 40 pages a day, so it took me a month to read it. I feel like I have climbed Mt. Everest. Finishing this book is that big of an accomplishment for me.

If you have the fortitude and conviction to finish this book, PLEASE have at it. It is VERY good. A 6 star I will NEVER forget.

6 stars