Larry McMurtry American Author Challenge

"Larry McMurtry was born on June 3, 1936, in Wichita Falls, Texas. He is an American novelist, essayist, bookseller and screenwriter whose work is predominantly set in either the old West or in contemporary Texas. He grew up on a ranch outside Archer City, which is the model for the town of Thalia that appears in much of his fiction. He is known for his 1975 novel Terms of Endearment, his 1985 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Lonesome Dove, a historical saga that follows ex-Texas Rangers as they drive their cattle from the Rio Grande to a new home in the frontier of Montana, and for co-writing the adapted screenplay for Brokeback Mountain.

**This is part of our American Author Challenge 2015. This author will be read in August. The general discussion thread can be found right here:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/185195

I adore Larry McMurtry. Despite the fact, that I have read very little of him in the past 10 years, he remains one of my favorite American authors. Lonesome Dove is one of the best novels, I have ever read. It may hold the second spot, after The Grapes of Wrath, which is about as good of an endorsement, as I am capable of. I also highly recommend The Last Picture Show.

This time around I am finally going to read/listen to Pretty Boy Floyd.

What are your plans? If you have not read Lonesome Dove, START THERE, for crying out loud.

I think I've picked Boone's Lick. There are two copies available on the shelf at the public library so hopefully I can snag one of them.

>4 thornton37814: Have you read McMurtry before, Lori? If so, what is your favorite?

I read Lonesome Dove years ago. I have a copy of his travel book Roads: Driving America's Great Highways, but I haven't read it. If I can locate the box it is in, I may try to get to it this month too.

Any Lonesome Dove love to share? Hmmmmm?

I read and loved Lonesome Dove many years ago. I was thinking of reading Comanche Moon but I'm still undecided.

The only McMurtry I've ever read is Books: A Memoir, which focused on his career as a bookseller.

Oops, I take that back. I've also read his Roads: Driving America's Great Highways and also his Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen.

Right now, I'm about 20 percent of the way into The Last Picture Show and I'm liking it.

>8 EBT1002: If you can find a copy of The Last Picture Show, go with that one, Ellen. It is short and packs a helluva wallop!

>9 lindapanzo: You picked a perfect one, Linda! And the film version is outstanding. You have to make room for Lonesome Dove, one of these days. It's a game-changer!

Update: I found Roads: Driving America's Great Highways, and it is short (206 pages). I guess I'll see if I can manage to get it read with all the others I want to read this month and with having to go back to work.

I have never read McMurtry but I have a copy of Terms of Endearment I will try to read this month.

I plan to read Books: A Memoir. I'll get to Lonesome Dove some day, but not in August. It's one of the busiest times of the year for me with the beginning of a new academic year.

I'll be reading The Last Picture Show. I didn't realize that he co-wrote the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain!

>10 msf59: Mark, I had the DVD of The Last Picture Show in my hand at the library today but decided to hold off on it til I'm finished reading it. Cybill Shepherd? Who knew?

I think I have a copy of Lonesome Dove and, at some point soon, will want to get to it.

>15 lindapanzo: The Last Picture Show had an amazing cast: Jeff Bridges, Ellen Burstyn, Ben Johnson, Cloris Leachman and Randy Quaid. All shot in gorgeous B & W. Great film.

Lonesome Dove is near the top of my favorite books of all time. I will re-read it one day but I have wanted to give the sequel Streets of Laredo a try and that is probably what I will do.

>4 thornton37814: I read Boone's Lick about a decade ago and liked it (It is short and sort of McMurtry-lite)

I can see my copy of Lonesome Dove. I started it two years or so ago, was enjoying it, but just not in the mood for a long slow book, so I set it aside. I shall probably pick it up next week.

I read Hud aka Horseman Pass By a couple of years ago. Lonesome Dove has been taking up 3/4 inch of shelf space for years; Judi read it, but not Bill. I bought a copy of The Last Picture Show at a library sale in May, specifically to read this month.

So Last Pic is first, followed by Lonesome Dove.

Have to say, I haven't grasped until now just how many good novels McMurtry has written. Another alum of Stanford's creative writing program. Another Wallace Stegner Fellow.

Lonesome Dove is one of my favorite novels; and the mini-series was so fine it hurt. I nearly had to give my husband a tranquilizer when he realized which one of the two main characters was in that coffin. The only unread McMurty in the house is a non-fiction short form biography of Crazy Horse written as part of a series called Penguin Lives. I will surely read it this month, and maybe find something else in the public library. I have already read Comanche Moon, Streets of Laredo and Terms of Endearment. I can't remember whether I read Last Picture Show or just saw the movie, so that's a definite possibility if I can find it.

>19 weird_O: Good to see you on board, Bill and reading 2 of my favorites. He truly is an American treasure.

I'm glad that a few of us are going with The Last Picture Show. I've got my copy from the library, and I'm itching to get started.

Karen O.

>17 RBeffa: I find myself reading Streets of Laredo "with extreme prejudice". If the novel is good I'm sure I'll like it but I'll give McMurtry credit for po-ing a Lonesome Dove lover within the first couple dozen pages. I really liked the first chapter but in the second he drops all these bombs about what has happened since Lonesome Dove. He throws off a few sentences here and there which could have been an entire book. Sheesh.

I really like it when I find new books and authors via LT. I had no idea Lonesome Dove was based on book(s), or of McNulty's other work. I'm most tempted right now by his book on being a bookseller though, as I do love book about books. Thanks everyone.

>23 RBeffa: I remember being somewhat disappointed in Streets of Laredo, but it's been so long since I read it I don't know what it was that let me down. Other than it being nearly impossible to follow Lonesome Dove with anything that wouldn't be a disappointment, of course.

>20 laytonwoman3rd: "and the mini-series was so fine it hurt." Well said, Linda! The mini-series of Lonesome Dove is fantastic and the 2 leads are absolutely perfect.

McMurtry has adapted very well to the big-screen. The Last Picture Show and Terms of Endearment are great films. And we can not forget about Hud, which was based on Horseman, Pass By.

>25 laytonwoman3rd: I had similar feelings about Streets of Laredo and the other sequels and prequels. Not bad but nothing like the Granddaddy!!

I stayed up late last night finishing The Last Picture Show. Loved it.

Sometime soon, I'd like to read the follow-up, Texasville to see what happens to these characters years later.

Lots of good words for The Last Picture Show so I've put it on hold at the library. I'm first in the queue so I should get it pretty quickly!

Oh, and I was looking at a McMurtry in one of our local little free libraries the other day (I don't recall which one but I didn't take it). I had no idea he had written Terms of Endearment.

It is funny how sometimes a film or TV can imprint an actor on a book. From the first page of Streets of Laredo Tommy Lee Jones was in my mind as the character Woodrow Call even though it has been many years since I watched the miniseries of Lonesome Dove. The opening of "Streets" felt very familiar to me and I wondered if I had perhaps read part of the novel long ago. Today it hit me. There was a later miniseries that cast James Garner as Woodrow Call. I can't remember anything of it other than the opening scene and perhaps I didn't watch it all. I distinctly remember thinking Garner was waaaay too old to play Woodrow - now in the novel I see this is set perhaps 20 years after Lonesome Dove and Woodrow is in fact quite advanced in years. Dummy me.

I don't have one favorite novel - I have a group of favorites and I'm not sure how many there are if I sat down and tried to list the most important/favorite/whatever novels I ever read. But in that top ten Lonesome Dove would surely reside. I think I never read any of the other McMurtry novels set in the Lonesome Dove series because I just knew they could never measure up (and also because of how Lonesome Dove ends) but I'll try and fix that now with "Streets."

I finished The Last Kind Words Saloon early this morning. Lonesome Dove remains one of my all time favorite novels and I am looking forward to reading more McMurtry in the future. Anyways, here is my review of The Last Kind Words Saloon:

What can I say about this one? McMurtry effortlessly captures the essence of the American West: its cowboys, is broad sweeping frontiers and its lawlessness as only he can. Billed by Joyce Carol Oates as being a "comically subversive work of fiction" I appreciated the banter that McMurtry has his characters engage in and their rather "ho-hum" approach to any disaster that seems to occur, from an enormous cattle stampede to sandstorms. McMurtry's story evokes a sparseness in both prose and description, almost as if the memories are no longer as sharply depicted as they once were. The story tends to jump around a fair bit, with more than one loosely-knit storyline to follow. McMurtry's female characters continue to be strong, determined and independent women, with underlying insecurities that occasionally bubble to the surface. The men, except for Doc Holliday, are taciturn and dare I say, a bit hen-pecked, at least the married ones seem to be. Problem with the book, for me anyways, is that after having dined at the succulent and abundant banquet that is Lonesome Dove, The Last Kind Words Saloon comes across as a poor man's sparsely-laden salad bar, leaving this reader craving so much more than this book has on offer.

A quick read, written almost as a last hurrah of the American Wild West before being assigned to the dusty shelves of history.

>31 lkernagh: when a writer has an iconic book, almost all their other work tends to get overshadowed I think, unless you are a Dickens or a Tolstoy, or an Austen perhaps. I liked the 'poor man's sparsely-laden salad bar'!

>31 lkernagh: It sounds like The Last Kind Words Saloon is no, Doc or Epitaph. I think MDR has the Doc Holliday/Wyatt Earp legend locked down.

>34 msf59: LOL

Oh, my, in the midst of my Total Life Upheaval, which is moving my home from one spot on the planet to another, I did not want to put another book on my plate. But who can resist an author as excellent? And since I've been on an Western USA kick for a little while, why not some more. I need to finish Benediction and then put Larry McMurtry into my shelf of Read This Soon, right next to the Ivan Doig, and Kent Haruf books. I imagine I might read The Last Picture Show if I can find a copy easily. (not lazy, just way too busy to go book hunting)

I am so far behind on the challenges, I was going to skip this month ... however, well you know.

I thought I could fit in one more audiobook, so I'll be listening to one of his later ones, Boone's Lick. I had hoped to listen to one of his more well known works, but small town Montana and all that - all the major earlier books in our 30 library lending group were available only in audiocassette. :-) So I'll be joining Lori >4 thornton37814: .

I'll be giving Lonesome Dove a go. The library has me #1 in the queue.

>38 jnwelch: Oooh...Joe has not yet read Lonesome Dove?? I predict you will love it.

>39 laytonwoman3rd: Good to hear, Linda! I've been reluctant to read it for some reason over the years. Maybe too much buzz? I had that happen with The Night Circus, which I ended up loving, so I'll keep an open mind.

Despite my worries I am liking Streets of Laredo. It isn't Lonesome Dove but it IS a good book with good storytelling. My one problem with it is the casual way violence is dealt out on the Texas/Mexico border, I'm guessing the 1890's. Especially towards women. Let's go rape the ten year old. Disturbing is an understatement. Tough to read some of this.

>37 streamsong: I'm almost halfway through reading it.

>38 jnwelch:



Lonesome Dove fans, jumping for joy, that Joe will be reading this epic thing of beauty!

>41 RBeffa: It has been about 20 years since I read Streets of Laredo but I do remember how dark and unpleasant, much of it was. It did not share the same tone of LD!

Now that I've finished The Last Picture Show, I'm considering another McMurtry. Lonesome Dove is a "someday" book but probably too long for me right now.

Come on, Linda, it is only August 4th, for crying out loud!

>46 msf59: I've just started reading volume 1 of the Robert Caro LBJ bios. My other books need to be shorter than that!!

>47 lindapanzo: I would love to get to those LBJ books, one of these days.

I managed to finish Boone's Lick this evening. Westerns aren't really my thing.

I wish I could read Lonesome Dove again for the first time. :) It's one of my all-time desert-island favorites too. In fact, all McMurtry's westerns that I've read so far are pretty wonderful, including the four in the Lonesome Dove series, the four Berrybender novels, Anything for Billy, Buffalo Girls, and Telegraph Days. I've been thinking of reading The Last Kind Words Saloon or Zeke and Ned, so this might be a good time to do it.

I started Lonesome Dove this evening. So far, so good!

>50 Storeetllr: "I wish I could read Lonesome Dove again for the first time. :) It's one of my all-time desert-island favorites too." Sing it, sister!!

>51 katiekrug: A perfect August read, Katie! Enjoy! Gus & Call are indelible...

I just saw a Publisher's Weekly post that readers' three favorite authors whose collections they'd like to have on a desert island were: Shakespeare, Austen and . . . Stephen King. I wouldn't have predicted that last one.

>53 jnwelch: The number one book I'd want on a desert island would be The Bible. I think Shakespeare would make the cut. I'd probably include Agatha Christie as one of the three authors. I think I'd prefer Dickens to Austen.

^Dickens was a runner-up, I recall, Lori. I'm an Austen nut, so her books and Shakespeare would work for me. I do like Dame Agatha a lot. I might make Murakami my third. I love his inventiveness.

>34 msf59: Aww.

I picked up my library copy of The Last Picture Show this morning and I'm looking forward to reading it. I'm finding myself sort of wanting to reread Lonesome Dove with all this praise! But.... too many other August commitments.

Desert island library? Hmm, that is a tough one. Three authors whose oeuvre I could read over and over again with no respite. *thinking*

Streets of Laredo by Larry McMurtry, finished August 8, 2015, 3 1/2 - 4stars (close to 4)


.


Streets of Laredo is billed as the sequel to Lonesome Dove one of the finest novels I have ever read which was turned into one of the finest television series ever made. I've wanted to read this followup novel for a long while and finally I have. Initially I was put off a bit by elements presented at the beginning of the story, and it colored my reading for a short while. The strength of McMurtry's storytelling pulled me in however. To be brief, this story is set close to 20 years after Lonesome Dove ends and is probably in the mid 1890's. Events and characters during the twenty year gap are given short shrift and what little we are told is rather disturbing because they were rather important elements of the first novel and it feels like they have been tossed aside. It felt like there was another complete book there waiting to be told, but the author doesn't want to tell us that story so he tosses off a few sentences here and there and opens with a rather unexpected arrangement. As I said I did get over it after a while.

Streets contains a couple story arcs. There is a lot of grief, pain and worse in this novel with some really bad 'bad guys' and which carries a melancholy air throughout. This is sad and dark, and the violence is everywhere and seems especially towards women in here. It is rather disturbing, perhaps moreso because it is handed out so matter-of-factly. The new and developing characters are sometimes interesting, sometimes a bore. I suppose it isn't fair to expect it, but the magic that came together in Lonesome Dove didn't happen for me here. This is still excellent storytelling and it turns out to be a good but unhappy story that surprisingly manages a little bit of a happy ending. Those who want a synopsis of the story can find a reasonably good one on wikipedia, although it will be spoilersville. I wish I could rate this novel higher, because it is well written. Unfortunately it is such a dark thing and I leave it feeling very sad. Mad slasher horror flicks are happier than the darkness and horror here. I feel bruised and beaten down by this book.

I picked up the DVD set of the miniseries from the library and hope to start watching it tonight. I'm really curious now how it is done.

^ I started the audio of Pretty Boy Floyd yesterday. I like the folksy charm and tone of it. McMurtry, collaborated with screenwriter Diana Ossana, on this one. They originally wrote it together as a film script and decided to expand it, into a novel.

I do not know much about Charles Floyd, so I find this interesting. This also reminds me of The Hot Kid, the depression-era crime novel, by Elmore Leonard, which I loved.

>58 msf59: Pretty Boy Floyd either hid out or lived where I live (Vallejo, Calif) long ago. I don't recall details of the stories, but old-timers here used to talk of him and the stories have been passed on. His son died here 15 years ago. I've been curious about him for a while.

>57 RBeffa: Good review of Streets of Laredo, Ron. I read it, way back, when it first came out. I thought it was a bit of a let down after Lonesome but still worthy. I would like to revisit it, on audio, at some point.

>59 RBeffa: I think you would like, Pretty Boy Floyd.

Well on Desert island Discs you get The Bible (or whatever your sacred book is, I assume), Shakespeare, and can only choose one other ... I think that one other will change through your life. At the moment I'd choose the complete works of Oscar Wilde for the wit, the humour and the truth.

Maybe I'll find the buried books of those who have been before me on the island (there is no promise of immortality) so I'd also get Austen, Dickens, and many others!

I'm probably not going to get to Lonesome Dove til the last week of August, so it will run over.

My father used to tell a story about his grandfather's answer to this question. Apparently my great-grandfather would have chosen the Bible, the works of Josephus, and the dictionary (unabridged, I think). He used to read the dictionary and said it was interesting but it changed topics frequently. :)

'He used to read the dictionary and said it was interesting but it changed topics frequently' funny.

>61 Caroline_McElwee: I am just happy that you will be reading Lonesome Dove. You will not be disappointed, Caroline.

Finished The Last Picture Show this afternoon. Good read. I'll coax out some sort of book report on it this week. Lonesome Dove is in the August lineup, but I'm intending to start Winter's Tale next. And I'm several pages into Anne Frank.

I'm doing the chair dance of joy at the moment. I have some time in between uni assignments for some 'personal' reading. So, I was checking the challenge list of books and got all excited.

For Literary Studies I am studying genre. In a few weeks we are doing 'the western'. The set texts are Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian and the film text is...Brokeback Mountain

>66 jll1976: Wow, that looks like a fantastic class, Jacqui! I want to attend. Both of those books are excellent.

Did you find a McMurtry to read?

>58 msf59: Pretty Boy Floyd sounds like something I'd like, Mark. I'll have to look into getting a copy.

The Last Picture Show

Not particularly interesting, not compelling. I was expecting more.

Enjoying the bookish memoir Books, but want to read all the other memoirs too. Lots of great book geek anecdotes, which is just my thing.

I can't say enough good things about Lonesome Dove. I'm about a quarter of the way through and enjoying it very much. It reads very quickly which makes the length less intimidating. And yes, it's a western, but more than that, it's just a great story with very compelling characters.

>71 katiekrug:

Ha! Because I hadn't started Lonesome Dove, which has been sitting on the shelf for years and years, my wife picked it up. She pointed out to me that my late mother had signed it, and thus we inherited it from her. Then she described a bit from the early pages of the book in which a character puts so much sugar in his coffee that pigs follow him around so they can scarf up his excrement. "I can't believe your mother read this," quoth me Luv. Hmmm. She's right, it doesn't sound like Mom's fare...

I'm partway into Last Picture Show and really enjoying it. McMurtry really sets a scene, and provides humor and drama. Nice mix!

Karen O.

I tackled Roads: Driving America's Great Highways hoping McMurtry's non-fiction would work better for me than a Western. It is one of the worst "travel" books I've ever read. He sticks to the Interstates and barely bothers to stop.

I bailed on The Last Picture Show. I was enjoying it well enough and I remain curious about the developing relationship between Sonny and the older woman (trying not to engage in any spoilage here), and I get that McMurtry's tongue was firmly in his cheek as he wrote this, but the scene with the heifer just sent me over the edge. I may try Comanche Moon some day as I very much appreciated Lonesome Dove, but this absurd teenage sex-fest was not my cup of tea.

I have been looking forward to McMurtry month for a while. Comanche Moon it is for me.

I've finished Hollywood: A Third Memoir and here are my thoughts.

Terms of Endearment



no spoilers

I finished Terms of Endearment this morning. I feel bemused by the whole book. I did not like any of the characters really except a couple and even they had their problems.

The book is divided into two parts. Book I is centered around the 49-year-old widowed Aurora who is self-centered, vain, and just a nag. Emma, Aurora's young, married daughter is pregnant with her first child, and Aurora is only concerned with how being a grandmother will affect her ability to attract suitors even though she already has five of them trailing her around. Book II jumps forward in time to show what happened to Emma, and I was rather disappointed at how she ended up.

Book I is set in 1962 and Book II spans 1971 - 1976. Given that this was an active time period for women's rights I expected stronger women characters. There are many disgusting actions by the men in the book. I kept reading to see if the women ever took any real action but most of them didn't which was extremely frustrating. I am just baffled by what the characters put up with and why McMurtry wrote it this way. I am not sure what his point was especially given that the end seemed to enforce stereotypes about men and women and conventional gender roles.

The eccentricity of Aurora kept me reading because I never knew what she was going to do next. I am disappointed that she never did what I wanted her to do though! So I liked the book and I didn't.

3 stars

ETA: There are lots of book references in this novel and Emma and her husband both love reading and were literature students. Emma's husband goes on to become a college English professor. So there is lots of book-ish things to enjoy.

I finished the audiobook of Boone's Lick and enjoyed it. Although it was narrated by a sixteen year old boy, it had the feel of an oldster yarnin' by the fire - and sure enough it was. I loved this coming of age story and thought reader Will Patton did a great job. It will be 4 stars for me.

I don't read many westerns, but Montana history reads like a western - fur trappers, Lewis and Clark, gold rushes, Indian Wars, copper kings. Although McMurtry's westerns are set in the historical west, they seem to have a lot more going on than what I think of as the standard western shoot em up horse opera.

I haven't read Lonesome Dove although I remember the TV mini series. It's now firmly on my reading radar.

I didn't like my Larry McMurtry. I've heard such good things about Lonesome Dove, both the book and the movie, so I entered this month's American Author challenge with higher expectations. I chose By Sorrow's River - it earned a 2.5 from me. The characters were too outlandish to seem real, and the story was mostly about bed-hopping. I don't see myself reading this author again.

By Sorrow's River wasn't the best choice for a first taste of McMurtry. For one thing, it's the third in a series. For the second, tho I'm a big McMurtry fan, the series was my least favorite of what I've read of his so far. I hope you'll try at least one more of his works on the American West. Maybe Buffalo Girls or Anything for Billy, which are shorter than his absolute best, Lonesome Dove.

It looks like Lonesome Dove will have to roll later in the year, or next. But I will read it.

My comments on Lonesome Dove:

Some people think that for a book to be "worthy" it has to have a complex narrative, plumb the depths of the universe, ponder existential questions of meaning and purpose, etc. etc. etc. That's all fine and good and occasionally important, but at the end of the day, I want a good story. There is more to Lonesome Dove than just a good story, but if one were to read it only for that, the experience would still be well worth it.

I know I am in good hands when a wide cast of characters is introduced fairly quickly but I have no problem keeping them straight in my head; that tells me that the author has developed a distinct personality for each and conveyed it deftly. From cowboys and lawmen to prostitutes and outlaws, McMurtry gives us the whole panorama of the American western experience in the post-Civil War era. But this is not simply The Good versus The Bad because these characters are complex and don't always act or respond as expected.

McMurtry unfolds his story in parallel narratives, weaving the threads in and out of one another as characters meet and circumstances collide. At times funny and solemn, sweet and brutal, the story of these men and women exploring and opening and holding fast to the frontier is quintessentially American - a combination of courage, foolishness, hope, ambition, disappointment, and arrogance.

If you haven't read it, you should - even if you don't like westerns. It's so much more than that.

>84 katiekrug: Great review! So glad you loved the book.

>53 jnwelch: Neither Stephen King nor his books are allowed on any desert islands with me. Ptooey. *Shiver* Dickens would last a while.

I've finished Lonesome Dove. It took me ages to read it. I realize it's a long book, but it still took ages. I finally realized why. Usually I don't read every word of a book. I read every word of this one. I had this sense that every word had value and was important to the mood and the setting and the characters, and I didn't want to miss a thing. I loved it. It's definitely an epic western, but, like KAK says, so much more. Great book. Now I've got to see the film.

>86 nittnut: Me either re Stephen King, but apparently a whole lot of folks see it otherwise. :-)

Good to hear re Lonesome Dove. It's taking me forever to read it, too, but it seems to resonate with folks right through the last page, so on I go.

>84 katiekrug: and >86 nittnut: - YAY for more Lonesome Dove love!

>84 katiekrug: Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Lonesome Dove, Katie. There seems to be some mixed feelings about some of his other work but this one Still Stands Tall. I am so glad you chose this one.

As the month winds down, how is everyone else doing, with Mr. McMurtry?

It is gratifying to see the love for Lonesome Dove. Nothing else I've read by McMurtry can compare. I thought I had already posted my thoughts about the prequel here but apparently I just thought about it! Here is what I said on my thread about Dead Man's Walk:

This book is the prequel to Lonesome Dove but it was the third book written in the quartet. I liked meeting Gus and Call during their Texas Ranger days, when Gus thought being a ranger meant "you could range". Alas, it was more than that. Being a Ranger meant taking orders from men that were power hungry and short on knowledge of the Western Texas land and inhabitants. It meant cold nights, hot days, and lots of suffering from hunger and thirst. McMurtry paints a raw picture of Texas and New Mexico in the days before statehood where death was an everyday thing. There is plenty of action and also plenty of torture. You need a strong stomach and an open mind when reading this book!

Lonesome Dove lived up to all the accolades, and I gave it five stars. If you're interested, review here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/194352#5255338

Found you, jnwelch.

Glad to see all the fans of LD hanging out, talking about what I regard as the Great American Novel. I think by any objective literary criticism (even feminist) it would get positive reviews. Heck, even the Marxist school might have some good things to say about how the "capitalists" (Gus and Call) do not exploit their workers but suffer equally with them. Well, until they establish the ranch in Montana.

Also noted the absence of a McMurtry title that ranks near the top of his oeuvre. It's All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers, which is really the soul of McMurtry's youth embodied in Danny Deck, an aspiring writer and his adventures with three women and the love he shares with them in their individual ways. It's McMurtry in full stride as the master of "dangerous tenderness."

LD is packed with that quality. Here's a fun game for all participating in this thread:

Tell us your favorite scene(s) and the character(s) who exhibit "dangerously tender" moments in LD. Even the smallest of characters display such moments. So, finding a favorite (even many favorites) shouldn't be hard. Starting Hint: Even Call has such a moment (more than one?) -- perhaps the one I'm thinking of is the most dangerously tender act in the entire novel -- but do you think it's the right one?

>92 Limelite: Glad you found me, Limelite! It can be harder to navigate around Librarything than it needs to be.

You're right, IMO, that any objective literary criticism would give Lonesome Dove positive reviews. Even from a race relations standpoint, there's an evenhandedness in the portrayals of Deets and the Indians.

The first thing that came to mind for me in the tender moments category was Clara offering July Johnson a taste of the frosting on her finger. His doofus response kayoed his chances with her for the time being. In his defense, it seemed like Elmira left him in an abyss of incomprehension, unable to trust his instincts. Clara keeps trying to snap him out of it.

>93 jnwelch: Now why does it not surprise me one of your favourite moments relates to food JW. I take a peak on your thread once in a while, but I put on ten pounds just looking!

>94 Caroline_McElwee: Ha! You've got a point there, Caroline! Food moments always move me for some reason. :-)

It's taken me quite a while to get my book report on The Last Picture Show turned in. But if you're interested, it is here:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/196008#5280719

Yahh, I liked it.