A rare five star for a fantastic novel. Such an epic story, so well written and well told by the narrator. 36hrs of listening! I had to keep stopping to check the place names and geographical features on the map. So interesting, heart breaking, heart warming and awe inspiring. The book carried me far away in place and time and had me in tears several times! ( )

Impressive, massive western. The characterization is extraordinary. There are larger-than-life figures like retired rangers Augustus McCrae and Captain Woodrow Call and plenty of other memorable characters.

Larry McMurtry writes beautifully. The pace is not always fast, but your patience is generously rewarded. There's always something happening to catch your interest and keep you immersed in this huge story ( )

A treasure. ( )

A group of ex-Texas Rangers living purposeless lives in the small town of Lonesome Dove near the Mexican border decide, almost on a whim, to drive a cattle herd north to Montana to establish a ranch there. Along the way they encounter Native Americans, outlaws, decent settlers and misfits (for good and ill) in the vast emptiness of the late 19th century Great Plains.

I think this book sets out to do two things.

Firstly, it is an elegy for a world about to undergo enormous change, both technological (trains, planes and automobiles) and social (the immigrant influx bringing huge numbers of people and new cultures). All the characters are exposed to change in some sense or other and all recognise that something is slipping away to be replaced by something they know not what. The characters that embrace that change may be seen to prosper, but the ones that do not often become lost in a world that does not want them and punishes them for clinging to something from before.

Secondly, this is an honest look at the world of the American West. It is, I suppose, an attempt to counterbalance the commonplace view of a more gentrified, anodyne, black hat/white hat America - think the films of Randolph Scott, Bonanza and The Little House on the Prairie. Women are generally treated as objects with an uncertain value - rape seems never to her very far from the minds of the women we meet here. Even apparently respectful men who really see women as people regard sex on demand as a given. Of course, love and fidelity are present and are properly praised, but almost always on the man's terms. It is also clear that many men in the West hardly ever came in to contact with a woman, let alone developed a relationship with one, so had a poor understanding of how to act.

Interestingly, racism is less of an issue in this book. True, Mexicans and Native Americans are generally portrayed as 'bad', but even then are acknowledged to have some agency and position in the world. The only significant and overtly black character in the book is treated with respect by his colleagues and mourned when he passes.

This is a long and not always easy read. Many incidents will make the reader recoil in horror or disgust. The overall feeling is downbeat. Having said that, this is a magnificent and majestic story of a way of life in decline. ( )

Epic existential cattle drive from the Mexican to the Canadian borderlands. Two flawed Samurai Texas rangers, a Disney cast of character-type cowboys, and women located somewhere between madonna, harlot and orphan. Best quote by a million miles: "The earth is mostly just a boneyard. But pretty in the sunlight." Well written and pacy, it's an absorbing adventure sustained and developed over 800 pages. ( )