Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry - spoiler free book review

[@patricegravino8120]

"Lonesome Dove" is high literature as much as anything by Shakespeare, Dickens, Austen, etc., that you would find on a syllabus for English lit studies, or philosophy or history. And it should be taught as such. It is a mighty novel that is so grand in its scope and ambition and readability that it truly is one of the best novels ever written--not just for Americans. It strikes so many readers so intensely because it is, simply, The Story of Life. It's the best novel I've ever read, and that's coming from a lit major.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

That's a great description of it - it really feels like it covers every part of our existence.

[@markymarkzero]

Cringe

[@DDB168]

Your review has made for a compelling must read for me. Thanks.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Great! I think you'll love it!

[@MIDDLEoftheBookMARCH]

Probably a top five of all time book for me. Great review! 🤓

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Thank you!

[@coreyledin-bristol7068]

I do not like Westerns. Books or movies. However, LD is one of the best books I have ever read. I was completely immersed in the story

[@CriminOllyBlog]

It’s wonderfully done isn’t it. He’s so very good at creating believable characters and that really pulls you in.

[@AnneEWilliamson]

I love the idea of a book both set in a unique setting as well as feeling to be able to be set anywhere. Your review makes me want to read this even more!

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Thanks, Anne! I think you’d really like it

[@n8colt]

Great video Olly :) I haven’t read this book yet but I did find it in a charity shop last week and picked it up specifically because I saw it on your channel. Love your videos

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Hey! Thank you so much :) I still have no idea why people like my videos, but I'll take it :D Hope you enjoy the book as much as I did.

[@MichaelRomeoTalksBooks]

Excellent review. Lonesome Dove is definitely epic. It swept me away into the old west and sent me on a cross country cattle drive. Interestingly when it was given to me as a Christmas gift I expected to hate it. I only stated reading it because I knew at some point the friend who gave it to me would ask if I'd read it yet. Once I started it I couldn't stop.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

It really is a great work of popular fiction. Really glad you enjoyed it too!

[@palebluewave]

I picked this up from a goodwill thrift shop run today after seeing your video. I tried to tag you in the haul video I put together, but I guess my channel isn't big enough yet to tag. bummmmer! looking forward to reading it.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Cool! I’ll check that out. I think you need 100 subs to tag.

[@AJ_Dunn]

This is officially on my future tbr list. I think I would really love this book. Interested in the other books in the trilogy.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

I think you would too, it's wonderfully rich and enjoyable.

[@johnnym4594]

Yeah your gonna wannna read this

[@nickfoster9350]

"Lonesome Dove" is one of those books that's in a class all its own. It was the first and only western I've ever read, and I've been searching for his other books. I'm particularly interested in "The Streets of Laredo."

[@CriminOllyBlog]

I have the others on kindle but haven't tried them yet. I did read The Last Picture Show by him, which was great

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

I honestly have no idea why I haven’t read this yet. Fantastic review.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

I’m kind of amazed you haven’t. It seems like a book you would have read

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

@@CriminOllyBlog I’m going to start it at the end of June on the Range. That seems appropriate.

[@anotherbibliophilereads]

I read it 15 years ago and remember flying through it at a fast pace. Definitely a contemporary classic. I’m not sure about the sequels. I heard mixed reports and feel they may have been written as cash cows.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

I suspect that is the case with the other books. I do think I’m going to try one of them for June on the Range though

[@mindysbookjourney]

I am looking forward to reading this for June on the Range.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

It’s a fantastic pick for that!

[@BookwormAdventureGirl]

Loved hearing your thoughts, Olly. Totally agree about the characters. I think that's what I enjoyed the most. They are so well developed. I also enjoyed the humour and appreciated that the humour was written well but so were the more serious scenes. Thanks again for reading this with me.😊💙

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Thanks, Jolene. It really was a wonderfully rich book, with a bit of everything. Thoroughly enjoyed our first buddy read 😊

[@BookwormAdventureGirl]

@@CriminOllyBlog Me too!!🤗

[@jshaers96]

Olly, have you ever read Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess? On one hand it's a typical Burgess book with lots of obscure vocabulary and showing off, but on the other it's presented as a sort of chunky novel you'd pick up at the airport with lots of humour and action. Worth considering if you've never heard of it, rather a hidden gem. It has one of the most memorable opening sentences I have ever read.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

I haven’t ever heard of that, sounds very appealing though. Just looked it up and I see what you mean about the first sentence 😂

[@fadista7063]

This was a very thoughtful review--thank you! As an American I should have read this--and likely will at some point. God knows I sold a ton of them in the bookstore gig of 10+ years 😁 esp when the tv miniseries came out.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

I’m not surprised it was so successful, it’s one of those great popular novels that really ticks all the boxes

[@jshaers96]

I think I have this lurking on an old Kindle. I'll hunt it out and give it a try because it's not the first time I have seen this recommended.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

It's really great!

[@Pokucollector]

Lonsome Dove is my favorite single book!

[@drnocka-rocksteady]

Best book I've ever read. Every time I eat a biscuit I think about Gus Mc cray. Definitely a page turner. Larry mc crutry does a great job with the flow. Couldn't pit it down.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

It is a cracker!

[@nedmerrill5705]

Hey CriminOlly: About the problems with the indigenous characters...I'll just point out that life was dangerous on the range, especially given the language barrier.

[@TheAnarchitek]

Louis L'Amour wrote great westerns, but Larry McMurtry wrote the Great American Western Novel, a towering saga of the Old West at the moment of a sea-change, never again to be the same. I've read Lonesome Dove seven times, waiting for another six months-year, to read it again. If I only wrote one book, and it was Lonesome Dove, I'd walk around with the biggest smile on my face! For those who haven't saddled up with Call and McCrae, you have missed one of life's most sublime moments, a journey into the heart of the American dream.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

What’s your take on the other books in the series? I haven’t tried any of them yet and am slightly nervous to as they can’t possibly live up to Lonesome Dove

[@TheAnarchitek]

@@CriminOllyBlog The other books are interesting, but not compelling. Anything for Billy is good, and Cadillac Jack is comparable prose, but modern settings. Also, The Last Picture Show is good, the first McMurtry book I read.

[@W3TFART]

Another book to read now thanks 🙏

[@CriminOllyBlog]

My pleasure! Hope you enjoy it

[@michaelmoore6481]

You have tempted me. Kind regards.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Hope you enjoy it, Michael!

[@angelaholmes8888]

Just finished reading lonesome dove it was good soon I will watch the adaptation 🤠

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@jeremyfee]

I love this book. I only have one criticism for your analysis. It's not about "Gus and Call" as you say; it's about Call and Gus, LOL. I love Gus, but in my opinion Call ultimately comes first in their friendship. :)

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Well, obviously you're wrong, but thanks for watching anyway :D

[@Ian-xd2in]

My favourite book as well as favorite movie. They compliment each other so well

[@CriminOllyBlog]

I haven’t seen the movie but I really want to

[@alannagilmore8982]

Subbed bc I LOVE lonesome dove!!!

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Excellent! Hope you find other things to enjoy on the channel

[@johnbertram1537]

I would say your criticism of the treatment of the non-white characters is a matter of scope and perspective. McMurty does go into the same depth of character development for Native American characters in other books for example. If he had tried to devote some of this book to story and character development for those characters in Lonesome Dove, i think there is a strong argument that it would have created far more problems, and the book likely wouldn't have worked. Above all this would not have been that same story because the perspective would have been fundamentally changed, and I think for those reasons would not stand out as the immersive and histroical, character driven work that it is. I honestly think he wrote the book in a more uninhibited way you might say, and that is precisely what made it great.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

That may be true, it's easy to criticise one element of a book without appreciating the fact that changing one part of the equation could knock the rest of it out

[@dead2me82]

I’m very surprised that you would remove a star rating because of how the native Americans and the Mexicans and Deets are portrayed. This is a book written from the perspective of the frontiersman of that day, not from our modern perspective of what we would like frontiersman of that day to have experienced. Larry McMurtry’s writing is perfectly fitting of the historical documents that we have in that time period. It’s these very same viewpoints that you negate the rating that make the book so real and believable. That’s not a fault of the author. Your deduction of a star is the fault of the reader. If you want a book that is sympathetic to the cause of the Native Americans, then you should find a book from the perspective of Native Americans. Lonesome Dove is not that book.

[@johnnym4594]

I have a big problem with this book. It needs to be longer!!!

[@CriminOllyBlog]

At leat there are more in the series