Tag: western

Streets of Laredo

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McMurtry, Larry. Streets of Laredo. Simon and Schuster, 1993.

Reason read: to finished the series started in June in honor of McMurtry’s birth month.

By all accounts, no one should love Woodrow Call. He is small-framed, cantankerous, old and weary. He keeps to himself; a self-confirmed bachelor and loner. He does not suffer fools and hates conversation, even with the smarter ones. Since the death of his best friend, Augustus McCrae, in McMurtry’s previous book, Lonesome Dove, Woodrow Call has given up cattle ranching and is spending his twilight years as a bounty hunter. Never one to shy away from danger, he is now on the trail of a young train hustler who has a death wish. Except Call has lost his speed and agility. He is no longer the feared Texas Ranger. He is no longer the spirited cattle rancher. He is only a man hellbent on bringing a violent man to justice.
Streets of Laredo is a return to violence. Luckily, strong women like Lorena play a pivotal role in keeping the plot from becoming a bloodbath.

Missed opportunity: a large gathering of crows is not called a crowd. As cool as that sounds, a group of crows is actually called a murder. That would have been the perfect name for a town.

Line I liked, “He knew that women were sometimes fond of cats, though the reason for the attraction escaped him” (p 42).

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Western Fiction” (p 240).

Lonesome Dove

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McMurtry, Larry. Lonesome Dove. Pocket Books, 1985.

Reason read: to continue the series started in June in honor of McMurtry’s birth month.

This time, it is all about the characters in Lonesome Dove. Romantic entanglings and broken hearts. Unlike Dead Man’s Walk and Comanche Moon, the action moves at a gentler pace from Texas to Montana. Noticeably, there is less violence in Lonesome Dove (the town and the book) from the very beginning. McMurtry brings his characters alive whether they are important to the story or not. People like Dillard Brawley, Lonesome Dove’s barber, is missing a leg due to a centipede bite. Hopping around on one leg while he cuts hair doesn’t bother him one bit. True, he is a minor character but he is developed as if he will be impactful throughout the entire story (which he isn’t, but do not forget about him.)
Back to the people who are important. Call and Gus are now retired from being captains with the Texas Rangers. Bored without wives, children, or families of any kind, they take a journey to the unknown land of Wyoming to start a cattle ranch. Gone are the violent Indian scalpings that were so prevalent in The Long Walk and Comanche Moon. The buffalo herds have all but vanished. Revenge is doled out on a much smaller scale. The first real violence comes when an former prostitute named Lorena is kidnapped by Blue Duck (remember him?). Lorena is sold to the Kiowas who rape and torture her repeatedly. Rest assured, this is nothing compared to the violence in the previous novels.
For fans of Clare, she is back! Her life has changed quite a bit since she ran the general store in Austin, but rest assured, she is still as feisty. She still remains one of my favorite characters.

As an aside, I will not lie. It was tough to lose some characters. Hangings are within the letter of the law.

Quote I liked, “My ears sort of get empty” (p 512).

Author fact: a young Larry McMurtry reminds me of Woody Allen for some reason.

Book trivia: Lonesome Dove is McMurtry’s most famous book.

Setlist: “My Bonny Lies Over the Ocean”, “Buffalo Gal”, and “Lorena”.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Western Fiction (p 240) and again in Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Texas Two-Step (After a Bob Wills Song)” (p 220).

Comanche Moon

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McMurtry, Larry. Comanche Moon. Simon and Schuster Audio, 1997.

Reason read: to continue the saga of Gus and Call. confessional: the book was written after Lonesome Dove but I wanted to read the series in chronological order so that there would be no surprises (people dying, relationships initiated, that sort of thing). For example, in Dead Man’s Walk Gus was smitten with Clara, but in Comanche Moon she marries someone else.

When we join the Texas Rangers in Austin, this time they do not have a particular mission. Their main objective appears to be keeping the Comanche tribe from interrupting the travel of whites headed west across their land. They spend more time burying the dead than they do protecting them when alive. Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call are growing up and developing deeper relationships with women. Like Dead Man’s Walk, Comanche Moon is full of torture and death, but it is the characters that make it the epic tale that it is.
This might be a spoiler alert, but I found myself liking McMurtry for not having the happy endings we all think we need. Maggie and Clara find different men to love. Blue Duck exacts his revenge on his father. Good men die. Despicable men somehow thrive.

As an aside, I think I would have liked to be friends with Clara. She is outspoken, straightforward and intimidating. Cool.
According to various places on the web, a Comanche moon in Texas history is a full moon in autumn. Okay.

Interesting fact: if you want to catch a horse or kill a man, wait until they are relieving themselves. Neither horse nor man can react quickly when they are taking a piss.

Book Audio trivia: Frank Muller was the narrator.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Western Fiction” (p 240).

Dead Man’s Walk

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McMurtry, Larry. Dead Man’s Walk. Simon & Schuster, 1995.

Reason read: McMurtry celebrates a birthday in June. Read in his honor.

As a prequel to Lonesome Dove, this is the reader’s first introduction to Call and Gus and their budding friendship. Together they join an expedition from Texas to New Mexico. They, along with 200 other men, cross a landscape fraught with danger at every turn. Apache and Comanche natives that could steal a captain’s horse or thirty without a sound; slit your throat without disturbing a single sleeping comrade. Mexican armies trying to defend “their land” from the Texans. Hunger and thirst at every mile. There are so many ways to die: falling over a cliff, drowning in a river, bleeding to death as a result of a scalping or throat cutting, arrow or lance through the heart, hanging, burning, whipping, suicide, starvation, freezing, exhaustion, thirst, firing squad, crushed by a horse, snake bite, spider bite, suicide, being run down by a buffalo, or gored by a bear. Things turn from bad to worse when the Rangers are captured and forced into a dead man’s walk across the desert in leg irons. Be forewarned – only a few will survive.
Please keep in mind, Dead Man’s Walk was published in 1995 and takes place years before one needed to be politically correct. In the spirit of authenticity of the era, one will have to endure racism and sexism on multiple levels. In contrast, McMurtry several times acknowledges native ownership of the land Call and Gus travel.
The opening line of Dead Man’s Walk reminded me of a line from Josh Ritter’s song “Myrna Loy” for she had a wolf pup at her heels and a snow white rabbit huddled in her arms. It wasn’t a 200lb prostitute carrying a snapping turtle by the tail…but close.

Book trivia: Dead Man’s Walk is a prequel to Lonesome Dove. Someone mentioned that if you read Lonesome Dove before Dead Man’s Walk you figure out who survives in Dead Man’s Walk.

Author fact: I am reading seven books by McMurtry.

Setlist: “Barbara Allen”, “Buffalo Gals”, and Verdi’s Nabucco.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Western Fiction” (p 240).

Deadwood

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Dexter, Pete. Deadwood. Random House, 1986.

Reason read: the Dakotas were issued into statehood in the month of November.

Things you need to know about Deadwood: most of the characters are real. Some of the events are real. Pete Dexter is funny AF in Deadwood, but take caution because there are just as many of disturbing scenes to match. Taking place in mid 1870s, readers plop themselves down in the middle of the Dakotas during the Gold Rush era. Violence and prostitution rule the plot. This should not be a surprise as Wild Bill Hickok, Charley Utter, Calamity Jane, China Doll, and Bill’s wife, Agnes, all get a chapter in Deadwood. Confessional: I didn’t see much of a point to Deadwood. I never connected with any of the characters and I got weary of all the gunslinging.

Is it a spoiler to say I was surprised Wild Bill died as early as he did in the story?

Lines I liked, “The war didn’t leave anybody the same” (p 30). Isn’t that true of any war?

Author fact: Dexter wrote The Paperboy, which I read in 2007 and Train, which I plan to read in November of 2031. Yes, I plan that far out.

Book trivia: There is a television series of the same name, as well as a movie. Neither are connected to Pete Dexter’s novel.

Playlist: “Battle Hymn of the Republic”, “I Know My Redeemer Liveth”, “The Days of the Forty-Nine”, and “Beautiful Dreamer”.

Nancy said: Pearl called Deadwood well written and funny. Agreed.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “The Great Plains: the Dakotas” (p 105).

On the Night Plain

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Lennon, J. Robert. On the Night Plain. New York: Henry Holt, 2001.

Reason read: April is Sibling month.

Grant Person is a curious character. When we first meet this protagonist, he is leaving his Montana sheep ranching family for somewhere (anywhere?) else. His whole attitude is one of ambivalence. If the train stops he’ll get on board. If not, oh well. He’ll go back to his parents and brother as if nothing happened. He has no clear direction other than he would head due east towards New York. He ends up in Atlantic City, New Jersey for some time then wanders home again when he learns his mother has died.
When Grant returns, he is the exact opposite. He comes home to a sheep ranch barely surviving. After his mother’s death, his father runs away. His brother with dreams of being an artist has one foot out the door himself. By himself, Grant becomes singular in his focus to save the farm. It’s a stark story with barely any color or light.

There were a lot of lines I really, really like. “A smile seemed to think about appearing on Cotter’s face but it never arrived” (p 55),

Author fact: J. Robert Lennon also wrote The Funnies which I have already read for the Challenge. He also wrote a series which I am not reading.

Book trivia: I could see this being a movie.

Nancy said: In Book Lust Pearl jokes Lennon is successful at setting a tragedy of Greek proportions on a failing sheep farm on the Great Plains. In More book Lust Pearl included On the Night Plain as an example of brothers who have loved and hated one another.

BookLust Twist: Pearl liked this one. From Book Lust in the chapter called “Western Fiction” (p 240); also from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Oh, Brother” (p 180).

Ox-Bow Incident

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Clark, Walter Van Tilburg. The Ox-Bow Incident. New York: Signet Classic, 1968.

The Ox-Bow Incident was first published in 1940 but its premise could have been about modern mob mentality. It is the story of a rumor and what happens when a community is whipped into a frenzied need for self-righteous justice. In Nevada someone has been rustling cattle. When two men are pinned for the crime the mob cries for retaliation. Then they find out one of their own has been murdered. Now, they want the men lynched. While this is a western it could take place anywhere a collective group of angry people let their emotions get the better of them. It’s the story of what happens when this group takes the law into their own hands. Clark’s character development is brilliant. Each man in the story is a study in emotion. The tension that builds due to violence and bred by hate and suspicion rings true.

Lines I liked, “Whenever Gil gets low in spirit, or confused in his mind, he doesn’t feel right until he’s had a fight” (p 15), “There is a kind of insanity that comes from being between walls and under a roof” (p 50), and “He’d got beyond me again, chasing his own hate” (p 103).

Reason read: For some reason July is the best time to go to a dude ranch. Not sure why. This doesn’t take place on a dude ranch but it’s a western so…

Author fact: Clark was born in Maine but became Nevada’s best known writer of western fiction.

Book trivia: The Ox-Bow Incident was made into a movie in 1943.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Western Fiction” (p 240).