Even better than before, completely believable, and once you get into it you can't put it down. This is McMurty's masterpiece, and it a masterpiece of the west, but even bigger than that. If you haven't read it in a while, pick it up, you'll be surprised. (The audio version is just tops, you forget that you are being read to and believe you are hearing these folks in real life.) If you have never read it, read it. I am fearful that books like these won't ever be written again for two reasons, which really boils down to one reason in the end: pure economics. First, we -- the readers, are afraid of long books. We just won't pick them up anymore. I know it is certainly a struggle for me, but then I am never sorry when I do so I still do it. Second, due to the first, publishers won't pick them up either. What a loss! But at least we have this book.

Lonesome Dove is about men and women that are so believable, wonderful and flawed and normal, good and bad and in between. Captains Augustus McCray and Woodrow Call own a "ranch" down in South Texas. Because of their former partner, Jake Spoon, they go on a cattle drive, in order to be the first cowboys to take cattle into Montana. So many things happen that hinge on Jake Spoon's actions, so many lives changed, but this was life back then, and it is life as I have experienced it. Lonesome Dove gives you all that you would expect from a cattle drive, but so much more. You care about the women and the men, and even the animals that are a part of the story. You laugh and you cry. And you finish it and wonder at the fact that these are the people that you have known and loved in Texas, they are still here and living. ( )

After liking Terms of Endearment so much, I felt like I had to read something else by Larry McMurtry. This was the next logical step since it won the Pulitzer Prize and all.

This is, quite literally, one of the most wonderful books I've ever read. I can't think of a single thing I would change.

The time period isn't really set, but it's probably the 1880s or 1890s. A group of old Texas Rangers who had been sitting around the Mexican border and antagonizing vaqueros for around 20 years. When one of their old acquaintances rides up and tells them that Montana is a cattle paradise and they should grab some land, the Texas Rangers rustle some cattle and head across the great plains to the Canadian border.

I think the thing I liked most about it were all the little stories and nuances between the characters. There was always the fact that the cattle were heading north, but there was also a side story about the acquaintance that started it all, Jake Spoon, being chased by a sheriff from a town where he accidentally killed a man. The sheriff and two or three other parties from the same town intersect the story at various points, Jake Spoon has his own narrative that weaves in and out with the main plot, and even among the cowboys that are driving all the cows, there are many different relationships and strange characters. I've never read a book quite like this where it was so easy to like almost every single character.

The highlight for me was Augustus McCrae, who was the show-stopper, and his partner Woodrow Call. They were the two who owned the Hat Creek Company and the two that started the drive. They're polar opposites, but their friendship is an amazing thing. I suppose it's of the manly sort where it's never acknowledged, but both know how much the other means to them. This is actually proved at the end of the book, where one does the a pretty crazy favor because the other asked him to. The entire ending was pretty sad, actually, and I may have cried through the last 150 or so pages.

The casual violence also made me laugh, even though I'm pretty sure it was never an attempt at comedy. The best example is a scene where Woodrow and Gus walk into a bar with a surly bartender. After hearing a couple snide comments, Gus suddenly bashes the man's face into the bar, pulls out his gigantic pistol, throws a glass up in the air, and fires off a bullet that shatters it. He may have then knocked the man unconscious. When the Sheriff is called in, it's a man who used to Ranger with them a long time ago, and he simply says the bartender had been getting too cocky. It's a great scene.

And again, this was an absolutely wonderful book. I'm definitely going to read the sequels, though I have to admit I'm a little less excited about them if they don't happen to include Gus and Woodrow. I believe there are some prequels which may cover their Texas Ranger days, though. ( )

This review most probably won't do justice to this novel, but it'll have to do. Previous to this, the only thing that I've read that I'd consider a western is Dances With Wolves. Being a movie/DVD buff, I do have quite a bit of knowledge of the genre as I am a fan of western films, but for some reason, I have never been pulled into reading them.

Lonesome Dove was a natural choice for me. Having loved the mini-series, I picked up the book at a book sale some time ago in anticipation of finding the time to read it one day. This is a fairly large novel, over 900 pages, and somehow it got set aside and I didn't get around to it until now.

Once I started the book, I was very quickly immersed into the rich tapestry woven by Mr. McMurtry. The detail and characters are so vivid that they seem to come alive on the page and the storyline flows around in such a way that it becomes very hard to put down. Every character in the book, even minor ones, are fleshed out in such a way that they seem real and memorable.

There are some slow spots here and there in the story, a cattle drive can only contain so much excitement, but whenever things slow a bit, McMurtry takes you to one of the other intertwining storylines and the pace picks up again. I found that you can never dismiss any of the characters that are introduced along the way, as any of them could turn up later in the story and have a large impact on future events.

Lonesome Dove is a grand, sweeping adventure that really brings the Old West to life in a rich and colorful way. I highly recommend it and will continue on my own journey through the rest of the series. ( )