Lonesome Dove, By: Larry McMurtry

Lonesome Dove, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1986, is a western epic; a tale of the final days of the legendary wild, wild, west. Two retired Texas Rangers, Captain Augustus Mc Crae and Captain Woodrow Call, renowned heroes for their service in protecting the border from Comanche raids, and feared....by most everyone, were idling away their time on a small ranch in the one street village of Lonesome Dove. (Gus Mc Crae is an educated amateur philosopher, a drinker, and a lady's man. Captain Call is a quiet, stubborn, hard working, self-sufficient loner). Everything was going along just fine until a fellow ranger, the smooth talking Jake Spoon showed up and convinced them to make one last adventurous jaunt; a cattle drive to the wilds of the unclaimed territory of Montana. Never mind that they had no cattle. It only took several days to raid ranches south of the border and steal 2000 head of steer and enough horses to make the 3000 mile journey. What's a warrior to do when there are no more battles to fight! They called themselves the Hat Creek Cattle Company, and with a crew of about 15 they packed up, saddled up, and set off for Montana. Crew members included the three Rangers, their young protégé, a Mexican cook, four young farm boys, two Irish brothers, and a handful of experienced cowboys. And at the last minute Jake drags along Lonesome Dove's pretty resident prostitute, Lorena.

Like soldiers of yore who romanticized going off to war, The Hat Creek crew shared an excitement of embarking on this historical adventure. Little did they know the hardship and heartbreak in store; traveling unsheltered during sandstorms, lightening storms, and snow storms, reckoning with wild bears, mosquitoes, and water moccasin snakes, squabbles and conflicts, outlaws and a infamous renegade Indian named Blue Duck who "murdered and raped women, stole children, burned houses, shot men, ran off horses, killed cattle and robbed whenever he pleased".

Lonesome Dove starts slow but mainly because of McMurtry's penchant for detail and heavy character development, which ultimately takes this lengthy tale to a whole new level in the western genre. So don't shy away from this book just because you are not an avid fan of westerns. Unlike most generic westerns, this book is not just an action packed shoot-em-out drama about the good guys outsmarting and out-muscling the bad guys. Lonesome Dove presents a realistic vision of what life was like in the American frontier. Humor, drama, love, loss, sorrow, and tragedy; this book has it all!

Rated 4.5 Stars. I use a rating scale of 1 to 5. Books rated 1, I seldom finish; books rated 2, I usually finish but would never recommend to anyone. 5 is the highest rating.