Lonesome Dove
By Larry McMurtry
Published 1985
Read April 2026
This reader recalls there was an extremely popular miniseries on TV called Lonesome Dove. This reader was aware that the book was a western. This was the extent of this reader’s knowledge of Lonesome Dove prior to reading The Correspondentt. The Correspondent somewhat regularly wrote to book authors, and she wrote to Larry McMcurty about the book. This reader was struck by three things her letter discloses. 1) She was writing after her third reading of this (843 page) book. 2) She was congratulating the author for his courage to cause his characters pain. 3) Despite the pain, the two main characters had great vitality. These points made this book quite intriguing.
This reader listened to the audiobook read by Will Patton. This edition had a forward by Taylor Sheridan, a writer and director whose TV series this reader has greatly enjoyed. He indicates in his forward that 1) he’s read the book countless times; 2) reading this book made him change his life course towards being a storyteller. So, a second major recommendation for the book.
When this reader started the book, she wasn’t sure she would enjoy Will Patton’s Texas accent, but her worry was quickly felled. Will Patton is a distinguished movie actor as well as audiobook reader and his acting capabilities were well demonstrated by the voices he gave to the many characters in this book.
McMurtry created two remarkable lead characters, Captain Augustus (Gus) Macrae and Captain Woodrow F Call. The men served in the Texas Rangers together for twenty years, “civilizing” Texas by eliminating attacks on white settlers by the indigenous population. After the US Army took over this role, they started the Hat Creek Cattle Company and Livery Emporium in Lonesome Dove, a very small-town Texas border town on the Rio Grande. Gus likes the ladies, gambling, and drinking. Woodrow is happiest working. Although the two seem unlikely partners, they have been partners for thirty years when we first meet them—20 years successfully fighting Indians and 10 years building this company. We learn over the course of the book that their partnership is built on a friendship that runs very deeply in the hearts of both men.
The story starts when Jake Spoon arrives at the Hat Creek establishment. He was a Texas Ranger with Gus and Woodrow but hasn’t seen them since the Rangering days. He’s also a lady’s man and gambler who dislikes hard work and he’s running away from an Arkansas sheriff of Fort Smith Arkansas who is chasing him after Jake accidently killed the sheriff’s brother who is also Fort Smith’s dentist. He speaks of marvelous land in Montana and the opportunities that would await the first cattle ranch started there. Woodrow Call’s interest is stirred, and he decides that the Hat Creek company should be that first cattle ranch. Thus begins the start of a 3000-mile cattle drive across multiple rivers and through a variety of perils.
But the perils and adventures are, in some ways, a small part of the book’s attraction. McMurtry fills the pages with a large, but manageable, cast of memorable characters to whom this reader became attached in addition to Gus and Woodrow. Some of them, like Jake Spoon, aren’t very sympathetic, generally due to their treatment of other characters.
Most of the characters, as expected for a cattle drive, are men—Gus and Woodrow of course and their various cowboy cattle handlers and cook. Pea Eye and Deets were Rangers with Gus and Woodrow and have worked with their Hat Creek company ever since. Pea Eye isn’t very bright but he is kind and loyal. Deets eventually remembers his first name is Joshua. As a black man, others on the cattle drive look a bit down on him. But Deet’s ability to tell the weather, find water, and track anything and anybody makes him invaluable and respected. Newt Dobbs, a teen-ager, has lived with Gus and Woodrow since his mother, Maggie, a prostitute died when he was a child. Newt doesn’t know the identity of his father. Bolivar, a Mexican, is the cook at the Hat Creek company. He starts out on the cattle drive but leaves to go back to his family in Mexico. There are a variety of other men that Woodrow recruits for the cattle drive who play various roles in the story, including being killed by some of the perils.
A parallel story develops around July Johnson, the Arkansas sheriff pursuing Jake Spoon. As soon as he leaves town to pursue Jake Spoon, his wife of only a short time leaves Fort Smith to head north. Roscoe, Jake’s deputy, is hounded by his sister-in-law to either chase after the wife or find Jake and tell him about his wife. He pursues the latter course with his horse, pack, and no knowledge of how he will find Jake. This story eventually intersects the main story in addition to the Jake Spoon connection.
McMurtry gives us four notable women characters. Lorena Wood is a major character. She is a beautiful young woman who ends up in the “sporting life” and is the only whore in the small town of Lonesome Dove. She is captivated by Jake Spoon when he comes to town. She demands Jake to fulfill his promise to her to take her to San Franscico. They follow the Hat Creek cattle drive for awhile but Jake leaves her and she is captured by Blue Duck, a wicked Indian. Gus, with whom she already had an interesting relationship—he loves to talk and paid Lorena well to spend time with him after the poke,–rescues her.
Clara Allen is a second major character although partly because Gus talks about her as much as she is active in the story. She is still loved by Gus even though she chose a dull horse trader over him to marry. Gus is willing to go on the cattle drive in part so that he can stop and see her in Nebraska.
Janey plays a role in the Roscoe subplot. She is a young girl who escapes from the man who bought her. Her skill with throwing stones keeps alive Roscoe when she joins him. Finally, Elmira Johnson escapes her marriage to July Johnson, the Arkansas sheriff, when he leaves to chase Jake Spoon.
Each woman demonstrates strength and courage but in very different ways. Lorena and Clara are the female characters most completely developed.
Lonesome Dove is likely re-read by people because it is a character-driven book that has a great story. The author lets readers in on the internal conflicts that various characters are working through as they face various external issues driven by the geography they are travelling—the weather, the rivers they must cross, the availability of water, the threat of attacks by Indians and bad white guys. Readers can luxuriate listening to the internal thoughts of Gus, Lorena, Clara, Newt, Woodrow, and others as they move along the trail, or in Clara’s case, make their way through the chores of the day.
Theme topics abound including unrequited love, loyalty, marriage, friendship, death, betrayal, violence, and more. McMurtry packs a lot into 843 pages and it’s clear some readers are willing to read it multiple times to bathe in his story-telling that wraps these themes around such believable characters. This reader committed 36 hours to listening to this book and is glad she owns this book so she can listen again.
MarshaReads.com 