Lonesome Dove Review: The Best Book I’ve Ever Read
I was roughly halfway through Lonesome Dove when I got the feeling that I might be in the middle of the best novel I’ve ever read. Well, I’ve now finished the book, and I’d argue that Larry McMurtry’s masterpiece is just that. In fact, I find myself overwhelmed by the notion that not only is Lonesome Dove the best book I’ve read, but it might also be the best book I’ll ever read.
I had always heard positive things about Lonesome Dove despite not knowing what the novel was about. It’s even better than I could’ve possibly imagined. I’ve read books that become my favorites and also books that I consider to be of the highest quality. Lonesome Dove is truly both; it’s a book that deeply touches me personally and contains everything I search for as a reader, in addition to being supremely well written.
The story is an epic Western centering on a pair of retired Texas Rangers who undertake a treacherous cattle drive from Texas to Montana. I’m not typically a huge fan of Westerns. It’s definitely not a genre I seek out in the way I do fantasy or science fiction. But the story here is so strong, and its characters so great, that none of that really matters. I don’t think you have to be a fan of Westerns to appreciate Lonesome Dove.
Because really, this is a novel about people. McMurtry’s characters are, without a doubt, when taken collectively, the best group of characters I’ve ever read about. I’ve never had the sense that I was reading about real, actual people the way I did when I was reading Lonesome Dove.
Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call get top billing as the two men leading the cattle drive, and they’re both fantastically written. There’s a justifiable reason many consider Augustus to be one of the best characters ever written. Even minor characters are excellent, though. Every single character in Lonesome Dove feels so distinct and genuine.
McMurtry’s writing style is perfect for this epic story. I’d describe the prose as simple and easy to read, but equally beautiful. You can turn to any page of this 843-page novel, pick a random passage, and you’ll find that it’s masterfully written.
Lonesome Dove is technically the third installment in a four-part series of books, but it’s the first entry in the series that McMurtry wrote, in 1985, and it stands on its own. You don’t need to read the other novels to appreciate it.
Lonesome Dove is beautiful. It is also, at times, brutal. It is heartbreaking. It is unrelenting and honest. I would recommend this one to anyone with any interest (no matter how remote) in reading anything at all. Lonesome Dove is an emotional journey that I won’t soon forget.
Grade: 10/10