A friend recently found out I hadn’t read Lonesome Dove and gave me one of those looks that said, “Have I misjudged you all these years?” He was right. It is amazing. Like Cormac McCarthy if he wasn’t depressed.
Replies
I named my son Augustus, “Gus,” because of Lonesome Dove. It was my father’s favorite book. He was dying and I wanted to memorialize him
apr 19, 2025, 6:11 pm • 14 0 • view
💗
apr 20, 2025, 6:44 am • 0 0 • view
Love this.
apr 19, 2025, 8:47 pm • 2 0 • view
One of my absolute favorite books is by Larry McMurtry (and Diana Ossana). It's called Zeke & Ned. I can not recommend it more than I recommend it. Also, Lonesome Dove is pretty friggin' swell.
apr 20, 2025, 1:31 am • 2 0 • view
Oh yeah. It’s great. And I don’t even enjoy cowboy type novels but this is so enjoyable on many levels. So many different storylines. I’m due for a reread.
apr 19, 2025, 3:17 pm • 1 0 • view
Cadillac Jack is another road story and hilarious. Enduring love for Lonesome Dove
apr 19, 2025, 2:54 pm • 5 0 • view
Have you read "Warlock"? www.google.com/books/editio...
apr 19, 2025, 2:38 pm • 3 0 • view
Added to the list. :)
apr 19, 2025, 2:44 pm • 0 0 • view
I read the entire book starting about 45 minutes after the 94 Northridge earthquake. Scared shitless and couldn't sleep, so I parked myself under a kids play table, for protection of course, and read that fucker. Epic.
apr 19, 2025, 6:59 pm • 6 0 • view
I dismissed larry as the type of fluff my grandpa would read mass paperback style, but then i read a different nyrb piece on him a few years after he passed and i had the realization hes been pegged all wrong. I bought "walter benjamin at the dairy queen" and its great, who knew?
apr 19, 2025, 10:50 pm • 0 0 • view
Good book!
apr 19, 2025, 6:37 pm • 0 0 • view
The whole series is amazing, the sequel streets of Laredo imho is just as good.
apr 19, 2025, 5:48 pm • 2 0 • view
Have just finished it, thought it was brilliant!
apr 20, 2025, 12:29 pm • 0 0 • view
I’m 53. I remember most good books, but I read 2 books in my 20’s that I still think about like it was just yesterday. One is Lonesome Dove, the other is Aztec by Gary Jennings.
apr 19, 2025, 3:06 pm • 8 0 • view
Did not know about this book and now must must read it. Thank you! And Lonesome Dove is unforgettable.
apr 19, 2025, 11:15 pm • 4 0 • view
Be forewarned-it’s pretty gruesome.
apr 20, 2025, 2:31 am • 2 0 • view
AZTEC BY GARY JENNINGS! Me, too! The Flowery Death!
apr 19, 2025, 5:52 pm • 1 0 • view
I’m fangirling, Peter!
apr 19, 2025, 6:01 pm • 0 0 • view
For decades, I have been reminded of this book every time I'm in the produce section of the grocery store.
apr 19, 2025, 2:48 pm • 1 0 • view
I don’t get it now, but hoping that becomes clear shortly.
apr 19, 2025, 2:50 pm • 2 0 • view
Okay, I'll give you a hint: it's in chapter 3. It probably says something about me as a much younger woman that this has stayed with me all this time (and what it says would be correct, too), but as a mature senior citizen I'd like to say I've outgrown all that. I'd like to. I sure would. LOL
apr 24, 2025, 2:33 pm • 0 0 • view
Love the analogy. Was just trying to explain the dichotomy in McCarthy's work yesterday. You nailed it.
apr 19, 2025, 3:15 pm • 1 0 • view
Check out The Last Picture Show. And Reading Benjamin at the Dairy Queen. I would put him more in the category of Wallace Stegner than Cormac. I adore them both but not as much nihilism in McMurtry.
apr 19, 2025, 2:44 pm • 8 0 • view
I've never liked westerns, cowboy movies, the wild west, etc., but I did read Lonesome Dove and found it amazing, a great read.
apr 20, 2025, 2:15 pm • 2 0 • view
Read that as a teen, still haunts me. So so good. Should re-read. And the tv series did a pretty good job too.
apr 19, 2025, 4:27 pm • 4 0 • view
Best book! I give it to everyone who hasn't read it.
apr 19, 2025, 8:48 pm • 5 0 • view
Check out the Berrybender Narrative series.
apr 20, 2025, 2:47 pm • 0 0 • view
Saw it many years ago! Great!
apr 19, 2025, 5:11 pm • 0 0 • view
Such a good book!!! Even my Bible Belt, West Michigan schooling from the 90's had us reading that.
apr 20, 2025, 4:51 am • 2 0 • view
I began writing a book on the American West inspired by one of my ancestors. But I don't read a lot of westerns and wanted to see how authors handled certain things so I read Lonesome Dove. AMAZING.
apr 19, 2025, 4:48 pm • 6 0 • view
Fun fact: Larry McMurtry's son James is a pretty unique country musician. I recommend "Choctaw Bingo" as a good track to start with.
apr 19, 2025, 5:33 pm • 3 0 • view
“Choctaw Bingo” should be the Oklahoma state song, but my favorite is “Charlemagne’s Hometown”. The first time I heard him live, years ago in a small club in Denton, his voice was so resonant it made me think of standing inside a cello. I don’t think I’d categorize him as country, but Austin.
apr 20, 2025, 12:21 am • 3 0 • view
> Like Cormac McCarthy if he wasn’t depressed. That's a sentence I'm going to remember for a long time.
apr 19, 2025, 5:30 pm • 9 0 • view
One of my favorite fiction books ever.
apr 19, 2025, 2:56 pm • 1 0 • view
Hate how he does Newt in the sequel
apr 19, 2025, 9:44 pm • 0 0 • view
The prequels and sequels are also very good.
apr 19, 2025, 8:53 pm • 2 0 • view
Wait til you discover how talented a writer and musician his son James is!!!!!
apr 20, 2025, 2:59 am • 2 0 • view
I'm lucky to have a signed copy from a meeting on the University of Washington campus. The TV series does the book justice. Larry said he didn't watch it.
apr 19, 2025, 6:28 pm • 4 0 • view
best mini-series ever
apr 19, 2025, 3:18 pm • 1 0 • view
@levbutts.bsky.social
apr 19, 2025, 5:12 pm • 3 0 • view
I must be the strange duck out. I liked the TV series even better than the books.
apr 19, 2025, 10:17 pm • 3 0 • view
You’re not alone. The mini series was so well done. I feel like I’ve truly lost my own friend when Gus dies. I mourn for at least a week after I watch it, every time.
apr 20, 2025, 4:30 am • 1 0 • view
If we get the choice “It’s been quite a party, Cudro” Should be everyone’s dying breath.
apr 19, 2025, 4:04 pm • 2 0 • view
An amazing book
apr 20, 2025, 1:26 am • 2 0 • view
Oh man, I wish I could read it again for the first time.
apr 19, 2025, 3:36 pm • 3 0 • view
Generally, everything written by McMurtry is a really great read. Now that you're familiar with Larry, check out his son James McMurtry. He got his dad's writing ability but does it with music instead of novels.
apr 19, 2025, 6:26 pm • 5 0 • view
Picks up where all of Louis L'Amour books leave off. Classic western, with descriptions of the actual countrysides involved.
apr 19, 2025, 10:39 pm • 2 0 • view
Lonesome Dove is one of my all time favorite books. It really is amazing.
apr 19, 2025, 2:41 pm • 14 0 • view
My favorite McMurtry is All My Friend Are Going to Be Strangers and Terms of Endearment (they share the same characters). The latter was unfortunately turned into a terrible film that is nothing like the novel (I hope you haven't seen the film, but if you have it won't spoil the book for you.)
apr 19, 2025, 3:56 pm • 0 0 • view
Oh my gosh! My whole family passed that book around to each other. What a great read. Have you seen the mini-series?
apr 19, 2025, 4:19 pm • 2 0 • view
we don’t rent pigs !!
apr 19, 2025, 3:39 pm • 2 0 • view
...agree 100%, masterful.
apr 20, 2025, 1:38 am • 3 0 • view
Loved Lonesome Dove in all forms ! Cheers! Now read The Cowboy and the Cossack, By Claire Huffaker! My favorite of all time,so far.
apr 20, 2025, 1:22 pm • 0 0 • view
one of my favorite books EVER.
apr 19, 2025, 11:06 pm • 2 0 • view
Absolutely, me too.
apr 19, 2025, 11:12 pm • 4 0 • view
Stunning book. It changed me.
apr 20, 2025, 2:32 am • 4 0 • view
I really like the original miniseries. I’ve been meaning to read the books.
apr 19, 2025, 3:59 pm • 2 0 • view
Absolutely one of my all time favorites!!
apr 19, 2025, 4:17 pm • 3 0 • view
I read it about 30 years ago and loved it. And I started re-reading it a few days ago. Looking forward to being drawn in and deeply impressed all over again.
apr 19, 2025, 2:47 pm • 7 0 • view
LD is a masterpiece.
apr 19, 2025, 2:46 pm • 1 0 • view
An astonishing, stunning work.
apr 20, 2025, 1:52 am • 2 0 • view
The AI summary of the plot when you search on Google is hilarious. Apparently, it's the story of a woman named July who is taking care of her invalid husband and thev story is all about her struggles. Lol.
apr 19, 2025, 3:47 pm • 3 0 • view
That's one of those books I pull out and read again every few years
apr 19, 2025, 6:50 pm • 3 0 • view
An older friend of mine used to gush about McMurtry and McCarthy interchangeably. If Charles Portis had a Scottish patronymic surname we could probably wedge him in there too.
apr 19, 2025, 3:04 pm • 4 0 • view
God I love Portis. Nobody writes dialogue like him. The Coens basically farmed out their screenplay to him and it worked.
apr 19, 2025, 5:53 pm • 3 0 • view
I love the mini series - it was so perfectly cast! I rewatch it about once a year. That's also how often I re-read the book.
apr 20, 2025, 8:34 am • 1 0 • view
fun fact originally robert duvall was cast as woodrow but turned it down to audition as gus
apr 19, 2025, 2:49 pm • 4 0 • view
Now I'm imagining a world where Jones and Duvall's roles were reversed and my brain rejects it as impossible. There has never been a more perfectly cast film.
apr 19, 2025, 5:52 pm • 2 0 • view
Gus Smirkiness was way better portrayed by Duvall than by Jones.
apr 19, 2025, 3:20 pm • 3 0 • view
Jones is an incredible actor, but I don't think he could have played Gus McCrea. But he absolutely nailed Woodrow Call.
apr 19, 2025, 5:53 pm • 4 0 • view
Oddly enough, having never seen it, but knowing Duvall was in it, I assumed he played Call. And it didn’t seem right. But there’s no better actor for Call than Jones. He learned his stoicism at Harvard.
apr 19, 2025, 5:56 pm • 4 0 • view
Within 5 minutes of watching, you'll instantly learn that it was cast perfectly. Both Duvall and Jones buried themselves in the book to play their rolls.
apr 19, 2025, 6:22 pm • 5 0 • view
Duvall *might* have been able to pull off Call. I could believe that. But no way Jones could have played McCrea. I don't think he has the snark and facial expression.
apr 19, 2025, 6:24 pm • 2 0 • view
Exactly. Duvall and Jones made one of the best Duos in TV history with that.
apr 19, 2025, 8:52 pm • 3 0 • view
Couldn't agree more. For all the classic cinema out there, I can't think of a better match for the characters they played in those rolls.
apr 20, 2025, 12:29 am • 2 0 • view
He was right to do so! It’s a better part!
apr 19, 2025, 2:50 pm • 3 0 • view
Robert Duvall is sublime.
apr 19, 2025, 10:26 pm • 2 0 • view
Looking forward to watching it !
apr 19, 2025, 2:44 pm • 8 0 • view
When I was laid off years ago for around 6 months, I watched it daily. Get up late, fry some bacon, crack open a beer, and watch Lonesome Dove. Even 15 years later I can still quote the entire 6.5 hour miniseries.
apr 19, 2025, 5:49 pm • 0 0 • view
Gus ❤️🩹 …
apr 24, 2025, 2:25 pm • 2 0 • view
Well, well worth watching. Extraordinary in it’s own way
apr 19, 2025, 3:18 pm • 7 0 • view
I’m reading it for the first time now in my fifties. It’s so so so good.
apr 19, 2025, 3:06 pm • 5 0 • view
But..you're Peter Sagal. I thought you'd read everything already
apr 19, 2025, 2:48 pm • 0 0 • view
One of my favorite authors.
apr 19, 2025, 2:46 pm • 0 0 • view
I didn’t read Lonesome Dove until I was in my late 30s. Still the only western I have ever read. youtu.be/m3n79Zst9ac?...
apr 20, 2025, 2:28 pm • 2 0 • view
Agreed. Very good book
apr 19, 2025, 4:01 pm • 0 0 • view
Ah, one of the very few true classics of Wild West Fiction.
apr 19, 2025, 3:18 pm • 0 0 • view
My old photography website had the following disclaimer- I don't shoot weddings, and I don't rent pigs. Anyone who understood the reference got a discount just for being groovy.
apr 19, 2025, 10:31 pm • 9 0 • view
Check out his son, James McMurtry’s music. He has his dad’s gift condensed in song.
apr 20, 2025, 1:28 pm • 0 0 • view
It's an amazing read
apr 19, 2025, 5:45 pm • 0 0 • view
I’ve only seen the TV adaptation’s, and they’re terrific. Val Kilmer has a good role.
apr 20, 2025, 1:44 pm • 0 0 • view
Oh man I loved that whole series. A man who loves him some men. In what way I don't know. But it just oozes off the page. He loves their flaws and he loves their mess and he loves their mistakes and he loves their moments of brilliance and bravery.
apr 20, 2025, 2:31 pm • 0 0 • view
Glad you have such good friends.
apr 19, 2025, 2:50 pm • 4 0 • view
So am I!
apr 19, 2025, 2:51 pm • 4 0 • view
One quibble: my commemorative edition has a forward by McMurtry about how he came to write the book and he casually drops a huge spoiler about one of the major characters. WTF, sir?
apr 19, 2025, 2:38 pm • 80 0 • view
Glad you read it. I haven't read a ton of fiction in my adulthood, and I don't really like Southern fiction... but turns out my 4 favorite novels are ALL Southern. Including this one. (Dove + All The King's Men, Kill/Mockingbird, Prince of Tides)
apr 19, 2025, 3:53 pm • 1 0 • view
Now I need to read The King’s Men because I love the other three. Prince of Tides guts me every time I read it.😩
apr 20, 2025, 4:26 am • 1 0 • view
Yeah, 'All The King's Men' by Robert Penn Warren is really something special. 'Prince of Tides' is my favorite. Guts me, too. Inasmuch as it argues that "In families, there are no sins beyond forgiveness," DAMN, it really demands the reader engage that question for their own family. Oof.
apr 20, 2025, 4:41 am • 1 0 • view
I’m glad you mentioned it. I’m always looking for recommendations. Thanks💕
apr 20, 2025, 4:46 am • 1 0 • view
You're welcome. I hope you enjoy it.
apr 20, 2025, 4:50 am • 1 0 • view
Oof is right😕
apr 20, 2025, 4:44 am • 1 0 • view
Oh man…foreword is a must-skip for a classic you’re reading for the first time.
apr 19, 2025, 3:09 pm • 2 0 • view
I came to say this. As a former English prof, I always gave my students that same advice. If you want to catch a classic in all its nakedness, don’t read the re-matter!
apr 20, 2025, 3:45 am • 1 0 • view
Read the same version and couldn't believe that he dropped that in the forward. I felt somewhat robbed of the pure experience, as if "The Crying Game" had included the gender reveal in the opening credits.
apr 19, 2025, 2:53 pm • 0 0 • view
I was going to watch the Crying Game and The Sixth Sense for the first time tonight. What do you mean, "gender reveal"?
apr 19, 2025, 6:35 pm • 1 0 • view
"Oh, and that Dove? He won't be so lonesome by the end of this story."
apr 19, 2025, 2:42 pm • 0 0 • view
You read the forward first?
apr 19, 2025, 2:38 pm • 25 0 • view
I do.
apr 19, 2025, 2:40 pm • 1 0 • view
If it shouldn't be, perhaps it should be placed last?
apr 19, 2025, 2:42 pm • 2 0 • view
They put it at the front of the book, David.
apr 19, 2025, 2:44 pm • 98 1 • view
Nice burn
apr 19, 2025, 6:37 pm • 0 0 • view
😂😂😂😂
apr 19, 2025, 3:44 pm • 0 0 • view
😆😆🤣🤣
apr 19, 2025, 11:07 pm • 0 0 • view
My copy was in Hebrew. Back of the book.
apr 19, 2025, 2:46 pm • 18 0 • view
I think you're being unreasonable. I mean, who reads Lonesome Dove for the first time?
apr 19, 2025, 2:43 pm • 8 0 • view
I always read forwards and introductions after I’ve read the book. Like watching a movie and then the extras on how they made it.
apr 19, 2025, 3:56 pm • 0 0 • view
That description was perfect.
apr 20, 2025, 4:30 am • 0 0 • view
If I'm not mistaken (please note that I could be mistaken) that was an article about the book that was first published elsewhere. I don't think McMurty had anything to do with using it as a forward to the book.
apr 19, 2025, 5:57 pm • 1 0 • view
I loved it. I read it cover to cover one hot and humid August bank holiday on my deck in Brussels knowing that one day, I'd live there too - which I did.
apr 20, 2025, 7:30 am • 0 0 • view
Planning to teach part of McMurtry’s Colonel and Little Missie (about Buffalo Bill & Annie Oakley) next spring and Lonesome Dove keeps coming up as a must-read. Guess I know what I’m reading this summer.
apr 19, 2025, 3:18 pm • 2 0 • view
About 20 years ago I read almost the entire McMurtry canon starting with Lonesome Dove. He was a once-in-a-lifetime storyteller.
apr 19, 2025, 2:41 pm • 13 1 • view
A wonderful read
apr 20, 2025, 9:40 am • 0 0 • view
In the 80s, I bought a $2 paperback version from one of those circular bookstands drugstores used to have so I’d have something to read at the laundromat. 12 hours later, at 2 am, still reading and skipping a Saturday night out with friends, because I could not put it down.
apr 19, 2025, 3:05 pm • 24 0 • view
I miss the ubiquity of the racks. And the squeak they made as you turned tgem
apr 19, 2025, 3:19 pm • 13 0 • view
One of the books that I finished reading and immediately started reading over again because I wasn’t ready to let go of the characters. 💜
apr 20, 2025, 2:54 pm • 0 0 • view
Leaving Cheyenne is a wonderful novel of the changing west. It's my favorite McMurtry novel.
apr 19, 2025, 5:55 pm • 0 0 • view
It is honestly
apr 19, 2025, 3:38 pm • 0 0 • view
It's so goddamn good. Highly recommend the audiobook version while swimming (or, for you, running). The miles just disappear.
apr 19, 2025, 4:37 pm • 2 0 • view
Lonesome Dove is the only book that ever made me cry
apr 19, 2025, 3:12 pm • 13 0 • view
Larry McMurtry's writing has made me shed the most tears of any author, but I don't begrudge him this. He develops complex characters and doesn't use cheap sentimentality manipulating readers. I have learned to welcome those literary crying jags. He is very life-affirming and wise.
apr 19, 2025, 3:47 pm • 4 0 • view
He has no qualms about killing off his main characters. That's my only gripe!😉
apr 19, 2025, 4:20 pm • 3 0 • view
Have you ever grieved a dead character and gone back to read the chapters prior to their demise? That's my sad literary death defense mechanism. 😢
apr 19, 2025, 4:37 pm • 4 0 • view
Yes, but I'm reading again hoping against hope for a different outcome.
apr 19, 2025, 4:39 pm • 2 0 • view
Haha we readers are such weirdos.
apr 20, 2025, 3:49 am • 1 0 • view
The crazy thing was, I read LD when I was 21 and was deep in my cynical college phase … and, boom. I was surprised why I did and that I did.
apr 19, 2025, 11:04 pm • 0 0 • view
I didn’t cry, but I was utterly devastated by one character’s death, and was surprised at the depth of my feeling for a made up person.
apr 19, 2025, 10:51 pm • 4 0 • view
Deets.
apr 20, 2025, 3:46 am • 4 0 • view