Lonesome Dove

[lurkerwithout]

Man, that was a long book. At first I was worried that the book would lack focus by following too many characters (which it does to some extent for much of Part II) but McMurtry keeps killing people off enough to keep things mostly focused on the cattle drive. For those unfamiliar with the book (and/or movie) it deals with ex-Texas Rangers Augustus McCrae and W.F. Call running a massive cattle drive from South Texas up to Montana. McMurtry writes well and packs a lot of info in, making even minor characters well developed. I can easily see why many fans of the Western genre refer to the novel. It could use a bit more editing down, especially of several scenes in the 3rd part that simply reiterate points made earlier in the book. Still a pretty good book. I should watch the movie version now I guess...