A review by blobmoz
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

adventurous emotional funny informative inspiring slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I had such high hopes for this book and wow did it deliver. I want to firstly talk about the depiction of women in this book. In the first 200 pages I was really scared that it would continue on where the women are all seen as inferior, and spoken negatively about, used only for pleasure and have no real thoughts or emotions. The cowboys and men alike in this book mainly see women in their world this way, as objects to use, but each time a female character was introduced she was such a strong force. Or turned into one. There were often times more depth in the women we come to know in this book then the cowboys we follow from the beginning. Characters like Lorie and Clara and even Clara's daughters show how strong minded and willed women are and I just adored the depiction of them in this book. It turned out to be a beautiful piece of literature in that sense. The ending of this book was interesting because the main lesson I gathered from it was that its really the friends you keep that can change the course of your life.

It's interesting to see that Call took himself and his best friend of 30 years from their comfortable home in Texas to move to Montana and live there after making money off cattle and being the first to settle in the area. It takes them hardships and time and thousands of kilometres to get to their destination and Gus dies, only for Call to carry out his dying wish and cart his body back to Texas, in which Call becomes lost and uncertain of who he is anymore. He's no longer only driven by work because his best friend is his opposite and hates work. He has no desire to stay in Montana and instead spends one last trip with his other half and arrives right back home in Lonesome Dove where he began.

This story is epic. It lets men and boys cry. It has strong women. It's funny. The characters are diverse. The trip is insane. It's 800 pages of cowboys herding cattle from Texas to Montana which sounds as boring as watching paint dry by I was captivated from the first page to the last. What a masterpiece.