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If you have any interest whatsoever in Westerns as a genre you should read Lonesome Dove. It's about 850 pages but I'd be surprised if it took you more than a w
by defen 6y ago
If you have any interest whatsoever in Westerns as a genre you should read Lonesome Dove. It's about 850 pages but I'd be surprised if it took you more than a week to read. For the longest time I had no interest in reading it because, of all the things, the title put me off (I thought it would be a romance of some sort).
His uncles were cowboys toward the end of the cowboy days, and when they were young, they'd heard stories from the old-timers about how things used to be. Those uncles told Larry those stories and he eventually incorporated that knowledge into his westerns, and it really shows. One thing I find fascinating about Lonesome Dove is that, as the article says, he intended it to deconstruct some of the myths of the West and show what a hard life it was, but everyone who reads it falls in love with the world and the characters.
- TheTrotters 6y agoI’ll also recommend the work of his son, James McMurtry. He’s an outstanding songwriter. See for example: Choctaw Bingo: https://youtu.be/Nggqe-L9ZQ8 https://youtu.be/Nggqe-L9ZQ8 Copper Canteen: https://youtu.be/IM_BjzDCDXs https://youtu.be/IM_BjzDCDXs Painting by Numbers: https://youtu.be/kca5E3xk8II https://youtu.be/kca5E3xk8II Lights of Cheyenne: https://youtu.be/TbSmMeJN8tc https://youtu.be/TbSmMeJN8tc Cutter: https://youtu.be/1jGEedvJMDU https://youtu.be/1jGEedvJMDU Charlemagne’s Home Town: https://youtu.be/AkCNldGIbio https://youtu.be/AkCNldGIbio
- rasfincher 6y agoAgreed, I’ve seen James live a few times and he is a great songwriter.
- flir 6y agoBest of his generation, in my opinion. Ruby and Carlos should be at the top of your list, but there are so many to choose from. Have you watched his recent work? Post-pandemic? He was always acerbic but now he spits out every syllable like he has a personal grudge against it. It's getting to the point where I'm actually worried about him.
- karaterobot 6y agoWow, I feel dense. I didn't know James McMurtry was related to Larry McMurtry. Ruby and Carlos rules. For some odd reason I woke up with it stuck in my head a couple weeks ago, and it stayed stuck for a few days. Hey, there it is again!
- chrissnell 6y agoI'm partial to: You Got To Me https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QNBA5wAyI7c https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QNBA5wAyI7c Lobo Town https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ng_D8b6qfDM https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ng_D8b6qfDM Restless https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iBTkHd8DMo0 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iBTkHd8DMo0 No More Buffalo https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=54u0OlJQB7g https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=54u0OlJQB7g
- arwhatever 6y agoLonesome Dove is the best book you’ll ever read. If you feel uninterested in reading a western novel, consider that it’s primarily a character drama, and would be just as good if the setting were space pirates or whatever else. I spent 5 years living near where Mr. McMurtry lived and wrote about - flat and boring as can be, but holy moley did his writing ever romanticize that area’s history effectively.
- garciasn 6y agoThe best book you’ll ever read? That’s a bit of a stretch but everyone is allowed their opinion. I feel it’s long-winded and, for the most part, incredibly slow moving. The novel would have better been a 180 page western romance novel series than a 900 page behemoth.
- planet-and-halo 6y agoThe way McMurtry articulates this "turnabout" is great (you can find it on his wikipedia page). I get his point—the characters suffer immensely, and you would hope the reader could recognize that it wouldn't be the best world to live in—and yet he portrays the characters with such heart that I don't know why it would be surprising that people fall in love with them. I won't post any spoilers, but there's a moment where one of the characters is leaving the group, and he says something to the effect of, "Most of the cowboys were rude and incompetent, but they were still his compañeros." Those family dynamics, the mixture of love and annoyance we feel with the people around us when we're part of a tribe, is such a hard thing to portray, and McMurtry does it beautifully. So not only do you have these incredibly complex characters, but circumstances bring them together as a family (something I think is often deeply missing in the modern world, and people pine for).