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Lonesome Dove #3
Il cammino del morto
Una distesa insieme maestosa e spietata, dove né il viaggiatore ben armato né il bisonte più robusto sanno per certo se arriveranno a sera: ecco l'Ovest americano alla metà dell'Ottocento. Gus e Call – l'avventato e il giudizioso, il fanfarone e il taciturno, il donnaiolo e il riluttante – sono come il giorno e la notte, ma hanno una cosa in comune: tanta voglia di avventura. Perché, allora, non entrare nei Texas Ranger? Tutti sono stati giovani, anche gli induriti cowboy protagonisti di "Lonesome Dove": questa è la storia di come tutto ebbe inizio. Tutti sono stati giovani, anche Gus e Call, gli induriti venditori di bestiame protagonisti di "Lonesome Dove". A quell'epoca, gli anni Quaranta dell'Ottocento, le praterie a ovest di San Antonio erano ancora selvagge e dominate dagli indiani. Dunque chi meglio di due ragazzi sbandati e un po' ingenui per rimpolpare la compagnia di Texas Ranger in partenza per El Paso? Un fucile, un cavallo, la promessa di una paga e si va. Ma in giro c'è Buffalo Hump, l'abile e brutale capo comanche, e il battesimo della strada si celebra con il sangue. La vita in città è senz'altro più sicura, ma anche più noiosa. Ecco, quindi, che Gus e Call si rimettono in viaggio unendosi a una spedizione per la conquista di Santa Fe, florida città del New Mexico. A guidarli c'è un ex pirata che della terraferma non si intende molto. È un male, perché stavolta la lista dei pericoli è davvero lunga: ai Comanche con la passione degli scalpi si aggiungono Apache amanti delle torture, messicani più combattivi del previsto e una natura inospitale fatta di orsi inferociti, fiumi in piena e siccità estrema, che mostra il suo lato peggiore nel famigerato «cammino del morto». A partire sono in duecento, ma non tutti faranno ritorno. "Il cammino del morto" fa parte della quadrilogia del West che ha reso celebre McMurtry: pubblicato dopo "Lonesome Dove" e "Le strade di Laredo", è il prequel che racconta come tutto ebbe inizio.
539 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1995
2081 people are currently reading
19254 people want to read
About the author
Larry McMurtry
151 books4,112 followersLarry Jeff McMurtry was an American novelist, essayist, and screenwriter whose work was predominantly set in either the Old West or contemporary Texas. His novels included Horseman, Pass By (1962), The Last Picture Show (1966), and Terms of Endearment (1975), which were adapted into films. Films adapted from McMurtry's works earned 34 Oscar nominations (13 wins). He was also a prominent book collector and bookseller.
His 1985 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Lonesome Dove was adapted into a television miniseries that earned 18 Emmy Award nominations (seven wins). The subsequent three novels in his Lonesome Dove series were adapted as three more miniseries, earning eight more Emmy nominations. McMurtry and co-writer Diana Ossana adapted the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain (2005), which earned eight Academy Award nominations with three wins, including McMurtry and Ossana for Best Adapted Screenplay. In 2014, McMurtry received the National Humanities Medal.
In Tracy Daugherty's 2023 biography of McMurtry, the biographer quotes critic Dave Hickey as saying about McMurtry: "Larry is a writer, and it's kind of like being a critter. If you leave a cow alone, he'll eat grass. If you leave Larry alone, he'll write books. When he's in public, he may say hello and goodbye, but otherwise he is just resting, getting ready to go write."
His 1985 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Lonesome Dove was adapted into a television miniseries that earned 18 Emmy Award nominations (seven wins). The subsequent three novels in his Lonesome Dove series were adapted as three more miniseries, earning eight more Emmy nominations. McMurtry and co-writer Diana Ossana adapted the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain (2005), which earned eight Academy Award nominations with three wins, including McMurtry and Ossana for Best Adapted Screenplay. In 2014, McMurtry received the National Humanities Medal.
In Tracy Daugherty's 2023 biography of McMurtry, the biographer quotes critic Dave Hickey as saying about McMurtry: "Larry is a writer, and it's kind of like being a critter. If you leave a cow alone, he'll eat grass. If you leave Larry alone, he'll write books. When he's in public, he may say hello and goodbye, but otherwise he is just resting, getting ready to go write."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,668 reviews
March 27, 2025
the raw rugged lethal and beautiful West
🏜️ McMurtry never pulls punches. Most have seen Lonesome Dove, a few have read the book (it’s as thick as War and Peace). But whatever you may have found rough there is 100x rougher here and this book, though published after Lonesome Dove, chronologically takes place before the events described in Dove. So McMurtry is more advanced as a writer when he types it and has decided to put to bed Tinsel Town’s romantic take on the Old West forever. This is not chicken soup for the soul.
The writing is lean and fast-paced, the characters raw, colorful and complete, the plot full of twists and wagon wrecks and horrors - whether from grizzly bears, twisters, Comanche, prairie fires, rivers that drown you quickly, leprosy, whippings, corrupt leadership …. the list is endless.
It’s the first in McMurtry’s Woodrow-Gus quartet. Here Gus McRae and Woodrow Call are in their late teens, say, 18 or 19 (according to Comanche Moon). Yet we still see glimmers of the personality traits that will define them decades later.
McMurtry writes Shakespearean tragedies of the West. Here is your Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello and Lear set in the Texas plains. His writing is breathtaking and takes you along at a fast gallop. But the ride is never soft or the sights easy to take in.
🏜️ 🏜️ The title refers to a stretch of desert that is long and murderous. I expect it’s still there.
High quality writing and an unstoppable storyline.
🏜️ McMurtry never pulls punches. Most have seen Lonesome Dove, a few have read the book (it’s as thick as War and Peace). But whatever you may have found rough there is 100x rougher here and this book, though published after Lonesome Dove, chronologically takes place before the events described in Dove. So McMurtry is more advanced as a writer when he types it and has decided to put to bed Tinsel Town’s romantic take on the Old West forever. This is not chicken soup for the soul.
The writing is lean and fast-paced, the characters raw, colorful and complete, the plot full of twists and wagon wrecks and horrors - whether from grizzly bears, twisters, Comanche, prairie fires, rivers that drown you quickly, leprosy, whippings, corrupt leadership …. the list is endless.
It’s the first in McMurtry’s Woodrow-Gus quartet. Here Gus McRae and Woodrow Call are in their late teens, say, 18 or 19 (according to Comanche Moon). Yet we still see glimmers of the personality traits that will define them decades later.
McMurtry writes Shakespearean tragedies of the West. Here is your Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello and Lear set in the Texas plains. His writing is breathtaking and takes you along at a fast gallop. But the ride is never soft or the sights easy to take in.
🏜️ 🏜️ The title refers to a stretch of desert that is long and murderous. I expect it’s still there.
High quality writing and an unstoppable storyline.
February 7, 2023
In order of publication:
Lonesome Dove (1985) *****
Streets of Laredo (1993) ****
Dead Man's Walk (1995) ****
Comanche Moon (1997) ****
In order of internal chronology:
Dead Man's Walk – set in the early 1840s
Comanche Moon – set in the 1850–60s
Lonesome Dove – set in mid-to-late 1870s
Streets of Laredo – set in the early 1890s
Lonesome Dove (1985) *****
Streets of Laredo (1993) ****
Dead Man's Walk (1995) ****
Comanche Moon (1997) ****
In order of internal chronology:
Dead Man's Walk – set in the early 1840s
Comanche Moon – set in the 1850–60s
Lonesome Dove – set in mid-to-late 1870s
Streets of Laredo – set in the early 1890s
August 2, 2018
Dead Man's Walk: Where it all Began
When my Aunt gave my Grandfather Lonesome Dove for Christmas in 1985, I patiently waited for him to finish it before diving into the saga of Texas Rangers Woodrow McCall and Gus McRae. I thought it was a cracking good read. I figured I had seen the last of Call and Gus, though there was plenty more to tell if Larry McMurtry was of a mind to do it. Well, he was. Ended up with a tetralology, messing with my mind in the order in which he published them. Streets of Laredo took up after. Then the present title went back to Call's and Gus's young days in the 1840s when Texas was still a Republic. Finally, Comanche Moon filled in the 1850s-1860s.
I'm a stubborn cuss. As stubborn as a fence post. I figured McMurtry would get around to telling the whole story. So, more than thirty years after Lonesome Dove showed up Christmas Morning in 1985, I just closed the back cover on Dead Man's Walk. It's not Lonesome Dove. But it's a cracking good enough read I figure I'll mosey down to the Friends of my Library Store and thump down $3.00 for a copy of Comanche Moon
When my Aunt gave my Grandfather Lonesome Dove for Christmas in 1985, I patiently waited for him to finish it before diving into the saga of Texas Rangers Woodrow McCall and Gus McRae. I thought it was a cracking good read. I figured I had seen the last of Call and Gus, though there was plenty more to tell if Larry McMurtry was of a mind to do it. Well, he was. Ended up with a tetralology, messing with my mind in the order in which he published them. Streets of Laredo took up after. Then the present title went back to Call's and Gus's young days in the 1840s when Texas was still a Republic. Finally, Comanche Moon filled in the 1850s-1860s.
I'm a stubborn cuss. As stubborn as a fence post. I figured McMurtry would get around to telling the whole story. So, more than thirty years after Lonesome Dove showed up Christmas Morning in 1985, I just closed the back cover on Dead Man's Walk. It's not Lonesome Dove. But it's a cracking good enough read I figure I'll mosey down to the Friends of my Library Store and thump down $3.00 for a copy of Comanche Moon
March 26, 2023
*2nd read - McMurtry's prose is just peak writing, his dialogue, his head hopping, everything is top notch. So much fun to read.
Dead Man’s Walk is the ‘beginning’ of the Lonesome Dove series, though being the 3rd published. I thought it was apt to start chronologically, and boy did I love this fantastically gritty, hilarious and brutal opening. I could not agree more with those who say Larry McMurty is the American Western equivalent of Joe Abercrombie.
“Well, boys," Long Bill said. "I guess here's where I quit rangering. It's rare sport, but it ain't quite safe.”
Larry McMurty is one of the most famous Western writers, and for good reason. Dead Man’s Walk, in my eyes, is a complete success. We follow two young men, ‘Gus McRae and Woodrow McCall, the newest additions of a group of Texas Rangers, as they walk, run, ride, and fall into the dangers and perils of the American West.
It’s the mid 1840s, and Dead Man’s Walk thrusts Gus and Call into two missions. They face a savage band of Comanches and their terrifying (and excellent) leader, Buffalo Hump, the desolate and barren landscape of Mexico and Texas, a Mexican Army, hordes of buffalo and the looming threat of death.
“Love’s a terrible price to pay for company, ain’t it, Matty?” Caleb said. “I won’t pay it, myself. I’d rather do without the company.”
Now, I love this time period, and McMurty has undoubtedly captured the raw and at times poetic beauty of the land and its inhabitants. I was extremely impressed with the polished prose and McMurty’s ability to mould personality and charisma into the characters.
I loved the characters within this book, loved to hate some, felt terror over others. Each character has their own voice. McMurthy has the ability to make a secondary character (or animal) spring to life on the page, and with minimal page time still make a mark on the reader. The dialogue is witty and clever, the relationships are visceral and real, and it is very easy to form a bond with the opposites of Gus and Call - their naivety was fantastically written.
“-she remembered them kindly, for there was a sweetness in boys that didn't last long, once they became men.”
4/5 - One of my favourite reads of the year. The nemesis, Buffalo Hump is a brilliant ‘baddie’, Gus and Call are wonderfully written protagonists. The brutality and horrors of the American West are not glazed over here. I adored my introduction into the world of Lonesome Dove.
Dead Man’s Walk is the ‘beginning’ of the Lonesome Dove series, though being the 3rd published. I thought it was apt to start chronologically, and boy did I love this fantastically gritty, hilarious and brutal opening. I could not agree more with those who say Larry McMurty is the American Western equivalent of Joe Abercrombie.
“Well, boys," Long Bill said. "I guess here's where I quit rangering. It's rare sport, but it ain't quite safe.”
Larry McMurty is one of the most famous Western writers, and for good reason. Dead Man’s Walk, in my eyes, is a complete success. We follow two young men, ‘Gus McRae and Woodrow McCall, the newest additions of a group of Texas Rangers, as they walk, run, ride, and fall into the dangers and perils of the American West.
It’s the mid 1840s, and Dead Man’s Walk thrusts Gus and Call into two missions. They face a savage band of Comanches and their terrifying (and excellent) leader, Buffalo Hump, the desolate and barren landscape of Mexico and Texas, a Mexican Army, hordes of buffalo and the looming threat of death.
“Love’s a terrible price to pay for company, ain’t it, Matty?” Caleb said. “I won’t pay it, myself. I’d rather do without the company.”
Now, I love this time period, and McMurty has undoubtedly captured the raw and at times poetic beauty of the land and its inhabitants. I was extremely impressed with the polished prose and McMurty’s ability to mould personality and charisma into the characters.
I loved the characters within this book, loved to hate some, felt terror over others. Each character has their own voice. McMurthy has the ability to make a secondary character (or animal) spring to life on the page, and with minimal page time still make a mark on the reader. The dialogue is witty and clever, the relationships are visceral and real, and it is very easy to form a bond with the opposites of Gus and Call - their naivety was fantastically written.
“-she remembered them kindly, for there was a sweetness in boys that didn't last long, once they became men.”
4/5 - One of my favourite reads of the year. The nemesis, Buffalo Hump is a brilliant ‘baddie’, Gus and Call are wonderfully written protagonists. The brutality and horrors of the American West are not glazed over here. I adored my introduction into the world of Lonesome Dove.
September 9, 2020
Having thoroughly enjoyed Lonesome Dove, I decided to explore the rest of the books about Gus and Call by McMurtry. My local library's copy of Streets of Laredo had a binding issue, so while they are repairing it, I skipped forward to the 3rd book which is actually stepping back in time to when Gus and Call are young men not yet twenty joining up with the Texas Rangers for what would be a pair of long, storied careers.
The book is split into two missions: one which takes them on an abortive mission where they meet one of McMurtry's great bad guys, Buffalo Hump, who is nearly as mean as Blue Duck. After their first taste with death having lost two of their colleagues, the broken troop heads back, and Call looks across the plain: The land before him, which looked so empty, wasn't. A people were there who knew the emptiness better than he did; they knew it even better than [the scouts] Bigfoot and Shadrach. They knew it and they claimed it. They were the people of emptiness. (p. 82)
Once back in Austin, the two boys have fateful encounters - Gus meets and falls head over heels with Clara Forsythe and nearly quits the rangers to work in her father's store and Call has a quick, disturbing poke with Maggie. I believe that we see more of these two women in the next book, Comanche Moon. I did enjoy the scenes between Gus and Clara especially the first time they met: Gus happened to peek into the store itself - there was a girl standing there by a counter that was so lovely that Gus immediately forgot all about the cap-and-ball muskets, ammunition pouches, and everything else...she caught his glance and looked at him so directly that it unnerved him. (p. 114). One of the great mysteries in the Lonesome Dove series is this mysterious pull of Clara on Gus which is strong enough to tug at his heartstrings but not strong enough to change his fickle and rambunctious personality. "Are you really a Texas Ranger?" Clara asked..."My father says they're rascals, mostly. Are you a rascal, Mr. McCrae?"
"I may have done a rascally thing or two," Gus said. (p. 118) And thus, the unfulfilled love between Clara and Gus starts with honesty on both sides.
The ill-fated troop leaves Austin and approaches the first of many catastrophes while Gus continues to think about Clara. Gus tried to keep Clara in mind, but the thought that he had fallen in love with a girl, in a dusty little general store in Austin, had come to seem far away and insubstantial, like the dust motes that had floated down the sunbeams in the store. The girl and the store had been for the day - the great plain was forever. (p. 211)
Needless to say, few of the 200 Texans that set out with their inept and treacherous leader survive the trip to Santa Fe. There are good moments once in a while, but deus ex machina move at the end with the leprous noblewoman did not sit well with me. The writing was good, but not as good as Lonesome Dove and the plot was also more uneven. I hope that the other two books will be an improvement over this one which left me wanting despite some moments of beauty and drama.
The book is split into two missions: one which takes them on an abortive mission where they meet one of McMurtry's great bad guys, Buffalo Hump, who is nearly as mean as Blue Duck. After their first taste with death having lost two of their colleagues, the broken troop heads back, and Call looks across the plain: The land before him, which looked so empty, wasn't. A people were there who knew the emptiness better than he did; they knew it even better than [the scouts] Bigfoot and Shadrach. They knew it and they claimed it. They were the people of emptiness. (p. 82)
Once back in Austin, the two boys have fateful encounters - Gus meets and falls head over heels with Clara Forsythe and nearly quits the rangers to work in her father's store and Call has a quick, disturbing poke with Maggie. I believe that we see more of these two women in the next book, Comanche Moon. I did enjoy the scenes between Gus and Clara especially the first time they met: Gus happened to peek into the store itself - there was a girl standing there by a counter that was so lovely that Gus immediately forgot all about the cap-and-ball muskets, ammunition pouches, and everything else...she caught his glance and looked at him so directly that it unnerved him. (p. 114). One of the great mysteries in the Lonesome Dove series is this mysterious pull of Clara on Gus which is strong enough to tug at his heartstrings but not strong enough to change his fickle and rambunctious personality. "Are you really a Texas Ranger?" Clara asked..."My father says they're rascals, mostly. Are you a rascal, Mr. McCrae?"
"I may have done a rascally thing or two," Gus said. (p. 118) And thus, the unfulfilled love between Clara and Gus starts with honesty on both sides.
The ill-fated troop leaves Austin and approaches the first of many catastrophes while Gus continues to think about Clara. Gus tried to keep Clara in mind, but the thought that he had fallen in love with a girl, in a dusty little general store in Austin, had come to seem far away and insubstantial, like the dust motes that had floated down the sunbeams in the store. The girl and the store had been for the day - the great plain was forever. (p. 211)
Needless to say, few of the 200 Texans that set out with their inept and treacherous leader survive the trip to Santa Fe. There are good moments once in a while, but deus ex machina move at the end with the leprous noblewoman did not sit well with me. The writing was good, but not as good as Lonesome Dove and the plot was also more uneven. I hope that the other two books will be an improvement over this one which left me wanting despite some moments of beauty and drama.
September 8, 2025
[4.5 stars] God I just love these characters so much. It was fun to see the beginnings of Gus + Call and their friendship. This was so well paced, I wasn't bored for a single second of this nearly 500 page novel. In fact, it just makes me want to pick up the next one (my last in this series!) sooner rather than later.
April 18, 2015
Dead Man's Walk couldn't POSSIBLY be a more apt title, as this book mainly consists of two things: walking and dying. This, the chronological first of the Gus & Call stories, is a surprisingly harsh and brutal series of expeditions in the Southwest, usually involving hostile Mexicans, Apache and/or Comanche. The titular stretch of hostile ground in modern-day New Mexico is so fucking desolate and uninhabitable that it was even used for the Trinity atomic bomb test in 1945! The aforementioned expeditions range from a really dumb, abortive attempt to capture Santa Fe to simple "Indian fighting", usually involving lots of tracking and extended chases on horseback.
So based off of that knowledge I did expect some typically western rough times...but christ. It seemed like McMurtry was going for his own personal Blood Meridian at times. I've only seen the (insanely good) movie adaptation of Lonesome Dove, and I assume they cut out some violent content on that one--but there's no way that characters were getting scalped and unceremoniously emasculated right and left like in this novel. It was kind of a bummer, because I was trying to read something a little lighter and easier than the usual morbid fare I enjoy and then within like 3 pages Buffalo Hump is carving some guy's cock and balls off and then running around with his corpse flopping bloodlessly on the back of his horse. So yeah, I didn't get that nice vacation-book I was looking for.
Despite the lack of a focused, concise plot this was still an enjoyable book. It's really about the characters and how they interact in this kind of wasteland setting rather than momentous events and that kind of thing. And McMurtry does characters very well! There are several memorable and likable characters here other than Gus & Call. Some of the characters are obvious redshirts for the unending combination of hunger, thirst and hostile humans to dramatically kill off, but others are genuinely good inventions on the author's part. I especially liked Matilda (a prostitute colloquially called the Great Western) and had a genuine investment in her fate. Buffalo Hump was a great villain, which brings me to a minor quibble...and not even one with the book, though.
I really don't get some of the reviews calling this book racist when it comes to the native characters--why the FUCK would they not be hostile and savagely violent towards the protagonists? These are not normal, village-dwelling natives, these are brutal and ruthless warriors that live outside of normal native society and make their living off of slavery and looting. The white characters that live the same life are equally violent and remorseless--I don't remember their names, but the two white slavers in the book were a couple of the most vile characters in it. It's honestly more racist to say that native peoples like the Apache and Comanche weren't capable and often inclined to this kind of thing--humans in every group on earth have people that act like this.
So not a terribly well-rounded experience, and not one I loved--but one I definitely did like. As always, Gus & Call are a fictional duo for the ages and their banter and friendship is constantly rewarding. The details of western life are all there as well for those who like that kind of thing (I'm assuming most readers of westerns.) But ultimately this novel was almost exactly like its setting for me--brutal, sometimes monochromatic and often too dry. I'll continue on with Comanche Moon soon and look forward to it, but I'm also hoping for something I can sink my teeth into a little more comfortably next time.
So based off of that knowledge I did expect some typically western rough times...but christ. It seemed like McMurtry was going for his own personal Blood Meridian at times. I've only seen the (insanely good) movie adaptation of Lonesome Dove, and I assume they cut out some violent content on that one--but there's no way that characters were getting scalped and unceremoniously emasculated right and left like in this novel. It was kind of a bummer, because I was trying to read something a little lighter and easier than the usual morbid fare I enjoy and then within like 3 pages Buffalo Hump is carving some guy's cock and balls off and then running around with his corpse flopping bloodlessly on the back of his horse. So yeah, I didn't get that nice vacation-book I was looking for.
Despite the lack of a focused, concise plot this was still an enjoyable book. It's really about the characters and how they interact in this kind of wasteland setting rather than momentous events and that kind of thing. And McMurtry does characters very well! There are several memorable and likable characters here other than Gus & Call. Some of the characters are obvious redshirts for the unending combination of hunger, thirst and hostile humans to dramatically kill off, but others are genuinely good inventions on the author's part. I especially liked Matilda (a prostitute colloquially called the Great Western) and had a genuine investment in her fate. Buffalo Hump was a great villain, which brings me to a minor quibble...and not even one with the book, though.
I really don't get some of the reviews calling this book racist when it comes to the native characters--why the FUCK would they not be hostile and savagely violent towards the protagonists? These are not normal, village-dwelling natives, these are brutal and ruthless warriors that live outside of normal native society and make their living off of slavery and looting. The white characters that live the same life are equally violent and remorseless--I don't remember their names, but the two white slavers in the book were a couple of the most vile characters in it. It's honestly more racist to say that native peoples like the Apache and Comanche weren't capable and often inclined to this kind of thing--humans in every group on earth have people that act like this.
So not a terribly well-rounded experience, and not one I loved--but one I definitely did like. As always, Gus & Call are a fictional duo for the ages and their banter and friendship is constantly rewarding. The details of western life are all there as well for those who like that kind of thing (I'm assuming most readers of westerns.) But ultimately this novel was almost exactly like its setting for me--brutal, sometimes monochromatic and often too dry. I'll continue on with Comanche Moon soon and look forward to it, but I'm also hoping for something I can sink my teeth into a little more comfortably next time.
April 21, 2023
So great to revisit the characters of Lonesome Dove, Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call as young Texas Rangers signing on with the Texas-Sante Fe expedition. Battling Comanches, Apaches, Mexicans and the forces of nature, lots of fun to be had here! They made this into a TV mini-series also. Something I didn't realize. Now I must watch!
September 25, 2021
This is the first chronologically of the Lonesome Dove novels, but the third written. I think it is also the first Western novel I have read. It introduces McCrae and Call the central characters in Lonesome Dove just as they join the Texas Rangers, both are about twenty. This is set in the 1840s and involves two expeditions into the wilderness and several encounters with Native Americans (some of whom feature in future books), Comanche and Apache. Both expeditions are shambolic.
McMurtry is a creative writer and his powers of description are good. The characters did feel a bit flat at times and I suspect some of this is backfilling for the later novels in the timeline. There is no idealising or romanticizing the old west and there is plenty of brutality from all sides. McMurtry can carry a story and this is easy to read, containing all the things you would expect from a classic western.
Some of this was a bit surreal and by the end it felt like the author had painted the surviving characters into a bit of a corner. The device used to get them out of it is completely unbelievable. McMurtry does manage to treat both sides of the conflict with Native Americans fairly equitably without exploring the real tensions present. The focus is on the action. I think a lot of the point of the book was to get McCrae and Call from A to B. But I will read more.
McMurtry is a creative writer and his powers of description are good. The characters did feel a bit flat at times and I suspect some of this is backfilling for the later novels in the timeline. There is no idealising or romanticizing the old west and there is plenty of brutality from all sides. McMurtry can carry a story and this is easy to read, containing all the things you would expect from a classic western.
Some of this was a bit surreal and by the end it felt like the author had painted the surviving characters into a bit of a corner. The device used to get them out of it is completely unbelievable. McMurtry does manage to treat both sides of the conflict with Native Americans fairly equitably without exploring the real tensions present. The focus is on the action. I think a lot of the point of the book was to get McCrae and Call from A to B. But I will read more.
September 24, 2024
Dead Man’s Walk is the prequel in the tetralogy of the epic western Lonesome Dove and featuring protagonists, Augustus McRae and Woodrow Call, both age 19 as they take their first journey with the Texas Rangers. Because this book is too about a journey, this one a journey to the Jornada Del Muerte, a two-hundred mile stretch of desolate New Mexico called the journey of death. But Dead Man’s Walk is about the lasting frontier myth in that it is about promise and the openness to possibility. Violence and the primal lack of order is the color of the landscape. McMurtry writes about Buffalo Hump, a Comanche war chief and his Apache counterpart, Gomez as they plague and stalk Woodrow Call and Gus McRae on their perilous journey. This is a fictional expedition based loosely on the Texan Santa Fe Expedition of 1841. This is the gritty American West as only Larry McMurtry can do.
”Full moon,” Bigfoot said. “It’s what they call the Comanche moon. They like to raid into Mexico, down this old war trail, when the moon is full. They like that old Comanche moon.,”
“He was looking across the plain where the Comanches had gone, thinking about Buffalo Hump. The land before him, which looked so empty, wasn’t. A people were there who knew the emptiness better than he did; they knew it even better than Bigfoot or Shadrach. They knew it, and they claimed it. They were the people of the emptiness.”
“There is the Jornada del Muerto,” he said. “The dead man’s walk.”
June 2, 2021
While it was great to read about Gus and Call again - two of literature's more vivid characters - there seemed to be little point to DEAD MAN'S WALK other than "here's some more Gus & Call." While LONESOME DOVE contains not only great characters and stirring developments, but also meditates on themes of change, age and regret, here McMurtry seems content to just revisit his two leads and kick them around the old west for a few hundred pages.
Most disappointingly, in this novel Gus and Call are passive characters - primarily bystanders in their own adventure. It seems the only reason they survive while others don't is that they need to be around for LONESOME DOVE in 30 years or so. They don't even really arc, and the novel ends with the two pretty much back where they started, presumably a little wiser but without having done anything of note (other than being lucky) or having grown in any discernible way. While it's understandable that the novel starts them out as naive, tentative protagonists, it barely advances them. They even remain quiet observers through the unusual climax, as far as such an inactive resolution can be referred to as "climactic." I suspect this whole endeavor is largely prelude to COMANCHE MOON, which hopefully contains a more satisfying resolution. At the very least, I hope it contains a resolution.
McMurtry's prose is easy on the eyes, and he does have a great facility for language and observation, particularly when filtered through Gus. But this book is a pale shadow of LONESOME DOVE.
Most disappointingly, in this novel Gus and Call are passive characters - primarily bystanders in their own adventure. It seems the only reason they survive while others don't is that they need to be around for LONESOME DOVE in 30 years or so. They don't even really arc, and the novel ends with the two pretty much back where they started, presumably a little wiser but without having done anything of note (other than being lucky) or having grown in any discernible way. While it's understandable that the novel starts them out as naive, tentative protagonists, it barely advances them. They even remain quiet observers through the unusual climax, as far as such an inactive resolution can be referred to as "climactic." I suspect this whole endeavor is largely prelude to COMANCHE MOON, which hopefully contains a more satisfying resolution. At the very least, I hope it contains a resolution.
McMurtry's prose is easy on the eyes, and he does have a great facility for language and observation, particularly when filtered through Gus. But this book is a pale shadow of LONESOME DOVE.
June 6, 2011
It's not Lonesome Dove. . . but for those of us who can't get enough of Gus McCrae and Woodrow Call. . . well, it's worth the visit.
September 11, 2024
According to Larry McMurtry, one has not read a great novel until challenging oneself to War and Peace. All other novels are mere attempts to writing a classic novel. After selecting McMurtry as one of the master authors that I would honor this year, I beg to differ with the American master writer; selections of his own writing would classify as great novels, and I have been privileged to read through his tetralogy of life in the old west during the course of this year. As a connoisseur of biographies, I read Larry McMurtry: A Life just before the close of the previous school year. During thr summer months when I crave books about the south and west, I read all of McMurtry’s memoirs and Streets of Laredo, the second installment of the Lonesome Dove tetralogy where the story of Captain Woodrow Call came to an epic close. The story was such a memorable one for me that I could not pick up another work of fiction for over six weeks. Certain literary characters will do that to me, and Call as well as Pea Eye and Lorena Parker left me craving more of McMurtry’s tales of the west. Enough time had elapsed and I even read another work of fiction, so I returned to the story that begins the tale of Woodrow Call and his Texas Ranger running mate Augustus McCrae. As with the other two books in this saga that I have read thus far, I knew that I was in for a story that I would savor for weeks.
When he first started out in the literary profession, McMurtry did not want to tell the story of the west. He grew up “in town” and did not feel qualified to tell the story of how the west was won. Before his family moved to town, McMurtry grew up regaled by stories that his grandfather, uncles, and their cowboy acquaintances told of life in the west before homesteaders started to fill in the plains with settlements. McMurtry might not have grown up on the range, but between the stories he knew well, the western dime store novels that he grew up reading, and the English language degree he earned, McMurtry might have been uniquely qualified to write about the west. He notes that there is not a wide array of western fiction because until the turn of the 20th century, westerners farmed and served as cowboys, and many were not that literate. Wallace Stegner began the western literary fiction movement, and McMurtry studied under him for a year after college. McMurtry as a teacher would encourage students to write about what they knew. When he started writing novels, he followed his own advice, which is why the bulk of his novels occur in Texas or the west. By the early 1980s, he challenged himself to telling the story of the old west, and he birthed Lonesome Dove into the world. Hollywood loved cowboys and rangers and turned Call and McCrae into a miniseries, and the industry begged for more, even as McMurtry grew skeptical, having won the Pulitzer for Lonesome Dove, unsure if his memorable characters merited another book. Their tale would grow to span four books over nearly sixty years of western history, as the region changed from unsettled expanses ruled by native Americans to a modernizing land dotted by homesteads and small, growing towns. Over those years, McMurtry treated readers to an unforgettable saga.
Dead Man’s Walk is the first book chronologically in the Lonesome Dove tetralogy, published ten years after Lonesome Dove. By this point, McMurtry thought he had finished the story of Call and McCrae, having moved onto other projects. Hollywood demanded more, and his agent signed him up for two more books, the first of which would take place in the 1840s. While McMurtry might have been tired of his most famous characters, his writing partner Diana Ossana was not, and she would help him craft the story of Call and McCrae as nineteen year olds when they first joined the Texas Rangers on an expedition to annex New Mexico from the Mexicans. In 1841 Texas was not yet a portion of the United States, known as the Republic of Texas since gaining its own independence from Mexico in 1836. The Rangers formed as a governing body meant to keep the peace in the new republic and to deny the natives including the feared Comanche and Apache tribes the right to more territory. By the early 1840s, Texas had designs to annex New Mexico from the Mexicans. Rumor had it that Santa Fe was a city full of gold and silver, and winning the territory for the republic would be a boon; Rangers immediately signed up to join the Texas Santa Fe Expedition of 1841, Call and Gus included. The expedition would have natives, Mexicans, fighting, and women in a well crafted tale that gave readers insights into the two heroes’ characters from the time of their youth. After a few chapters, I thought that I was back on the Lonesome Dove trail. Call and McCrae might have been young and green, but they were the same people that I had grown to love. From the beginning pages, I knew that the tale of Dead Man’s Walk would be a fitting beginning to a now classic epic tale.
Although McMurtry might have grown tired of his characters by the time he started with Dead Man’s Walk and then Comanche Moon, Ossana as aforementioned was just getting started. Other than Call and McCrae who were the same as young men as they were as the epic came to a close, the more memorable characters in this book were women, perhaps Ossana’s feminine touch to the novel. Before leaving on the expedition from Austin, McCrae is smitten with a young Clara Forsyte, and he is determined to marry her. Readers who experienced the tetraology in publication order know that this was not to be because Gus was just as married to rangering as he was to women. If he needed a woman, Gus would find whores, with houses of prostitution cropping up throughout the west as the 19th century moved forward. Traveling with the Rangers was a whore named Matilda Roberts, who had more sense than most of the rangers put together. Although she was there for whoring, she mothered the rangers the entire way along the expedition even when the outlook looked bleak. Late in the novel, McMurtry introduces an equally important female protagonist in Lady Lucinda Carey. She did not merit many pages in the novel, but her presence and resourcefulness might have been the most important facet to the novel that otherwise would have ended in a cliched manner. Cliched is not in McMurtry’s writing blood for this tale, and Call and McCrae would have to make it out alive or there would be no Lonesome Dove. How they persevered and lived to tell the tale as well as the novel’s closing sentences became the stuff of legend, but I finished knowing that another equally memorable book to close the tetralogy would be awaiting me soon.
By 1845, the United States annexed the Republic of Texas, and Texas entered the union as a slave state. A decade prior to the civil war, the United States signed a treaty with Mexico and gained a vast territory that is today many of the southwestern states, including New Mexico. Had the rangers had foresight to know how historical events unfolded, there would have been no need for the Texas Santa Fe Expedition in 1841. Call and McCrae would go on to become some of the most epic Texas Rangers ever as they waged battles against the native Americans, who continued to wreak havoc against new Texas settlers. Prior to starting the Lonesome Dove Company, they fought off advances of Buffalo Hump and his band of Comanche warriors. Later they would face his son Blue Duck in equally epic skirmishes. Yet, Dead Man’s Walk, La Jornada del Muerto, is the tale that started it all, with readers encountering Woodrow Call and Gus McCrae for the first time as young men. I chuckled and oohed along with them and the group of Rangers, knowing that I would have one more adventure in store later in a year that I have chosen to read the works of Larry McMurtry. As a young author, McMurtry did not feel capable of telling the tale of the American west. As his career progressed, he grew to weave a western like few others, including a tetralogy that is now part of American pathos.
4.5 stars
When he first started out in the literary profession, McMurtry did not want to tell the story of the west. He grew up “in town” and did not feel qualified to tell the story of how the west was won. Before his family moved to town, McMurtry grew up regaled by stories that his grandfather, uncles, and their cowboy acquaintances told of life in the west before homesteaders started to fill in the plains with settlements. McMurtry might not have grown up on the range, but between the stories he knew well, the western dime store novels that he grew up reading, and the English language degree he earned, McMurtry might have been uniquely qualified to write about the west. He notes that there is not a wide array of western fiction because until the turn of the 20th century, westerners farmed and served as cowboys, and many were not that literate. Wallace Stegner began the western literary fiction movement, and McMurtry studied under him for a year after college. McMurtry as a teacher would encourage students to write about what they knew. When he started writing novels, he followed his own advice, which is why the bulk of his novels occur in Texas or the west. By the early 1980s, he challenged himself to telling the story of the old west, and he birthed Lonesome Dove into the world. Hollywood loved cowboys and rangers and turned Call and McCrae into a miniseries, and the industry begged for more, even as McMurtry grew skeptical, having won the Pulitzer for Lonesome Dove, unsure if his memorable characters merited another book. Their tale would grow to span four books over nearly sixty years of western history, as the region changed from unsettled expanses ruled by native Americans to a modernizing land dotted by homesteads and small, growing towns. Over those years, McMurtry treated readers to an unforgettable saga.
Dead Man’s Walk is the first book chronologically in the Lonesome Dove tetralogy, published ten years after Lonesome Dove. By this point, McMurtry thought he had finished the story of Call and McCrae, having moved onto other projects. Hollywood demanded more, and his agent signed him up for two more books, the first of which would take place in the 1840s. While McMurtry might have been tired of his most famous characters, his writing partner Diana Ossana was not, and she would help him craft the story of Call and McCrae as nineteen year olds when they first joined the Texas Rangers on an expedition to annex New Mexico from the Mexicans. In 1841 Texas was not yet a portion of the United States, known as the Republic of Texas since gaining its own independence from Mexico in 1836. The Rangers formed as a governing body meant to keep the peace in the new republic and to deny the natives including the feared Comanche and Apache tribes the right to more territory. By the early 1840s, Texas had designs to annex New Mexico from the Mexicans. Rumor had it that Santa Fe was a city full of gold and silver, and winning the territory for the republic would be a boon; Rangers immediately signed up to join the Texas Santa Fe Expedition of 1841, Call and Gus included. The expedition would have natives, Mexicans, fighting, and women in a well crafted tale that gave readers insights into the two heroes’ characters from the time of their youth. After a few chapters, I thought that I was back on the Lonesome Dove trail. Call and McCrae might have been young and green, but they were the same people that I had grown to love. From the beginning pages, I knew that the tale of Dead Man’s Walk would be a fitting beginning to a now classic epic tale.
Although McMurtry might have grown tired of his characters by the time he started with Dead Man’s Walk and then Comanche Moon, Ossana as aforementioned was just getting started. Other than Call and McCrae who were the same as young men as they were as the epic came to a close, the more memorable characters in this book were women, perhaps Ossana’s feminine touch to the novel. Before leaving on the expedition from Austin, McCrae is smitten with a young Clara Forsyte, and he is determined to marry her. Readers who experienced the tetraology in publication order know that this was not to be because Gus was just as married to rangering as he was to women. If he needed a woman, Gus would find whores, with houses of prostitution cropping up throughout the west as the 19th century moved forward. Traveling with the Rangers was a whore named Matilda Roberts, who had more sense than most of the rangers put together. Although she was there for whoring, she mothered the rangers the entire way along the expedition even when the outlook looked bleak. Late in the novel, McMurtry introduces an equally important female protagonist in Lady Lucinda Carey. She did not merit many pages in the novel, but her presence and resourcefulness might have been the most important facet to the novel that otherwise would have ended in a cliched manner. Cliched is not in McMurtry’s writing blood for this tale, and Call and McCrae would have to make it out alive or there would be no Lonesome Dove. How they persevered and lived to tell the tale as well as the novel’s closing sentences became the stuff of legend, but I finished knowing that another equally memorable book to close the tetralogy would be awaiting me soon.
By 1845, the United States annexed the Republic of Texas, and Texas entered the union as a slave state. A decade prior to the civil war, the United States signed a treaty with Mexico and gained a vast territory that is today many of the southwestern states, including New Mexico. Had the rangers had foresight to know how historical events unfolded, there would have been no need for the Texas Santa Fe Expedition in 1841. Call and McCrae would go on to become some of the most epic Texas Rangers ever as they waged battles against the native Americans, who continued to wreak havoc against new Texas settlers. Prior to starting the Lonesome Dove Company, they fought off advances of Buffalo Hump and his band of Comanche warriors. Later they would face his son Blue Duck in equally epic skirmishes. Yet, Dead Man’s Walk, La Jornada del Muerto, is the tale that started it all, with readers encountering Woodrow Call and Gus McCrae for the first time as young men. I chuckled and oohed along with them and the group of Rangers, knowing that I would have one more adventure in store later in a year that I have chosen to read the works of Larry McMurtry. As a young author, McMurtry did not feel capable of telling the tale of the American west. As his career progressed, he grew to weave a western like few others, including a tetralogy that is now part of American pathos.
4.5 stars
February 3, 2012
My review for those who do not want to read this book:
Hungry, thirsty, lost, hungry, thirsty, lost, hungry, thirsty, Comanches, hungry, thirsty, lost, hungry, thirsty, Mexicans, hungry, thirsty, walking, hungry, thirsty, walking.
My Review for those who may:
This book, while entertaining, is rather repetitive. I'm not sure how entertaining it would be without having read Lonesome Dove first (a clearly superior novel). Strangely, both Gus and Call are bystanders rather than protagonists in this novel. McMurtry does give us what we want though, the genesis of Gus and Call's friendship and adventures. He just doesn't involve them in any significant way, which is a bit of a let down.
Part IV is also a bit odd as there is a POV shift for half of the remaining 7 chapters. We are now seeing some events through the Comanche's eyes, and once from the perspective of a slave trader. I wonder why the change after 440 pages?
I am assuming that Comanche Moon is the volume where Gus and Call do a lot of the growing up and killing to get them to the point where we meet them in Lonesome Dove (which is set about 30 years later).
Hungry, thirsty, lost, hungry, thirsty, lost, hungry, thirsty, Comanches, hungry, thirsty, lost, hungry, thirsty, Mexicans, hungry, thirsty, walking, hungry, thirsty, walking.
My Review for those who may:
This book, while entertaining, is rather repetitive. I'm not sure how entertaining it would be without having read Lonesome Dove first (a clearly superior novel). Strangely, both Gus and Call are bystanders rather than protagonists in this novel. McMurtry does give us what we want though, the genesis of Gus and Call's friendship and adventures. He just doesn't involve them in any significant way, which is a bit of a let down.
Part IV is also a bit odd as there is a POV shift for half of the remaining 7 chapters. We are now seeing some events through the Comanche's eyes, and once from the perspective of a slave trader. I wonder why the change after 440 pages?
I am assuming that Comanche Moon is the volume where Gus and Call do a lot of the growing up and killing to get them to the point where we meet them in Lonesome Dove (which is set about 30 years later).
December 4, 2022
It isn’t Lonesome Dove (how could it be?!), but boy I loved spending more time with Gus and Call again. Dying to read Comanche Moon now! 4.5 stars.
June 15, 2024
The start of the epic Lonesome Dove story. 4.5*, a bleak adventure across the empty plains of the Texas-New Mexico border, a story of death and survival. The portrayal of the Native Americans ans Mexicans feels one-dimensional, hence the half star off, but this is a world of myth and parable rather than realism and the wildness of the landscape is mirrored in the lives that play out within the vast emptiness. Epic in scope and feel, with idiosyncratic characters and unexpected twists.
March 17, 2024
“Salazar indicò il sud. Erano già in un territorio quasi brullo. Il giorno prima non avevano visto neanche un animale e le riserve d’acqua scarseggiavano.
– Lí c’è la Jornada del Muerto. Il cammino del morto.
– Di cosa sta parlando? – chiese Johnny Carthage. Vedendo che era in corso un conciliabolo, parecchi texani si erano avvicinati, compreso Bigfoot Wallace.
– Oh, allora è qui, – disse Bigfoot. – Il cammino del morto. Ne sento parlare da anni.
[…]
– Quant’è lungo? – chiese Long Bill. – Io cammino piano, ma se è cosí difficile cercherò di non restare indietro.
– Duecento miglia. Forse di piú. Presto ci toccherà bruciare il carro, magari già stanotte. Non c’è legna là dove andiamo.
Le voci erano penetrate nella rossa oscurità in cui viveva Call. Aprí gli occhi e si vide intorno tutti i texani.”
Il cammino del morto è il terzo volume della tetralogia scritta da Larry McMurtry ed è il prequel di Lonesome Dove.
E questa è una fortuna per me, perché finalmente inizio una tetralogia dal terzo volume che in realtà è il primo, cioè l’inizio della storia.
I due protagonisti Gus e Call sono due giovani ventenni che si avventurano in questo lungo viaggio, in cui saranno a contatto con la natura selvaggia
“Nessun uomo saggio incrociava lo sguardo di un cane rabbioso, di un lupo, un orso o un puma. L’animale poteva uscire e causare uno spargimento di sangue, anche solo per un’occhiata.”
Larry McMurtry, in questa storia ambientata nel 1840, non risparmia al lettore alcuna crudezza: ci sono delle scene che mi hanno scossa non poco (come ad esempio quella dei lebbrosi o quella dei cento colpi di frusta inferti a Call).
Insieme a tanta crudezza, c’è a mio avviso anche tanta bellezza e tanta poesia: quella delle vastità incontaminate e sconfinate
“Anche lui trovava eccentrico che Lady Carey interrompesse il viaggio per un giorno intero, solo per poter dipingere i colori del tramonto nel deserto man mano che apparivano sulle rupi a nord. Il giorno prima avevano viaggiato sotto una parete di roccia e si erano accampati proprio al tramonto. Lady Carey non era riuscita a tirare fuori cavalletto e pennelli in tempo per catturare le sfumature rosee e dorate che il sole gettava sulle rupi.
– Caspita, non c’è niente di simile al mondo, – aveva detto. – Devo dipingere.”
Gus e Call dovranno superare tantissime prove: affronteranno gli indiani crudeli di Buffalo Hump, i soldati messicani, il freddo, la fame e non ultimo il deserto.
Un romanzo duro, spietato e al tempo stesso molto avvincente.
– Lí c’è la Jornada del Muerto. Il cammino del morto.
– Di cosa sta parlando? – chiese Johnny Carthage. Vedendo che era in corso un conciliabolo, parecchi texani si erano avvicinati, compreso Bigfoot Wallace.
– Oh, allora è qui, – disse Bigfoot. – Il cammino del morto. Ne sento parlare da anni.
[…]
– Quant’è lungo? – chiese Long Bill. – Io cammino piano, ma se è cosí difficile cercherò di non restare indietro.
– Duecento miglia. Forse di piú. Presto ci toccherà bruciare il carro, magari già stanotte. Non c’è legna là dove andiamo.
Le voci erano penetrate nella rossa oscurità in cui viveva Call. Aprí gli occhi e si vide intorno tutti i texani.”
Il cammino del morto è il terzo volume della tetralogia scritta da Larry McMurtry ed è il prequel di Lonesome Dove.
E questa è una fortuna per me, perché finalmente inizio una tetralogia dal terzo volume che in realtà è il primo, cioè l’inizio della storia.
I due protagonisti Gus e Call sono due giovani ventenni che si avventurano in questo lungo viaggio, in cui saranno a contatto con la natura selvaggia
“Nessun uomo saggio incrociava lo sguardo di un cane rabbioso, di un lupo, un orso o un puma. L’animale poteva uscire e causare uno spargimento di sangue, anche solo per un’occhiata.”
Larry McMurtry, in questa storia ambientata nel 1840, non risparmia al lettore alcuna crudezza: ci sono delle scene che mi hanno scossa non poco (come ad esempio quella dei lebbrosi o quella dei cento colpi di frusta inferti a Call).
Insieme a tanta crudezza, c’è a mio avviso anche tanta bellezza e tanta poesia: quella delle vastità incontaminate e sconfinate
“Anche lui trovava eccentrico che Lady Carey interrompesse il viaggio per un giorno intero, solo per poter dipingere i colori del tramonto nel deserto man mano che apparivano sulle rupi a nord. Il giorno prima avevano viaggiato sotto una parete di roccia e si erano accampati proprio al tramonto. Lady Carey non era riuscita a tirare fuori cavalletto e pennelli in tempo per catturare le sfumature rosee e dorate che il sole gettava sulle rupi.
– Caspita, non c’è niente di simile al mondo, – aveva detto. – Devo dipingere.”
Gus e Call dovranno superare tantissime prove: affronteranno gli indiani crudeli di Buffalo Hump, i soldati messicani, il freddo, la fame e non ultimo il deserto.
Un romanzo duro, spietato e al tempo stesso molto avvincente.
February 5, 2021
'Dead Man's Walk' by Larry McMurtry is sort of a prequel, but it can be read as a standalone.
Beloved (❤️) characters and best friends Augustus 'Gus' McCrae and Woodrow Call were introduced in a previously published novel, Lonesome Dove. That book is about their lives when they were older experienced ex-Rangers who had settled down to run a business in Texas. But they both were once young men unknown to each other who were eager for adventures in the West. That is where 'Dead Man's Walk' begins.
The two greenhorns meet and decide to sign up with the Texas Rangers together. Despite the fact the two young men appear to Texans to be like young pups, and that they are almost completely ignorant of horses, camping outdoors and hunting, tracking, the Indian nations, guns, and what killing is like, the Rangers accept them. They take anybody.
Gus and Call are thrilled! However, what follows is greatly shocking to the boys and very entertaining for us! It soon becomes clear rangering is dangerous business for the characters, gentle reader. The excursions are often led by crazy and incompetent 'generals'. There is no training or planning. Almost none of the Rangers ever know what is happening around them or why they are going on a journey, or where they are going, or how to get there, or how long the journey will be (no maps, no skills at 'reading' the landmarks), whenever they are contacted and invited to come along on some harebrained scheme. Some of the invited scouts fortunately know how to track, hunt and can speak the languages of local tribes.
The boys endure their first Indian attack and see their first scalping on one excursion. In other excursions, they experience for the first time the deaths of their fellow Rangers from attacks - not only from Indians, but from crazed plainsmen. They see mistakes in judgement from panic and drunkenness and lack of planning. They find the bodies of children murdered by Indians or psychopathic White men or Mexicans. They discover a very lucrative business in slave trading by Indians, Mexicans and White men. They find murdered Indians. Dead horses are everywhere, and not because of being shot or accidents, but because the animals are mistreated and are in poor shape. Their guns do not fire because they are old and wrecked, but even if they have a working gun, they don't shoot because of the shock of attacks. Horrible sudden deaths and mutilations freeze them like statues. Some of their company die slowly from shootings and injuries from spears and arrows when they are miles and weeks from any town. Walking is often their only option since they lost their horses in attacks and nighttime thievery and plain ordinary negligence. Starvation and thirst kills many of their fellow Rangers on trips because the men do not carry canteens or even think to plan for long stretches between watering holes. Many of the men do not have proper shoes, blankets or slickers and only one change of clothes. Meeting the disciplined Mexican troops for the first time shocks them as they had heard only racist gossip about Mexicans. The Mexicans quickly educate the ridiculously ignorant Rangers about the laws of Mexico in regards to American yahoos assuming they can overthrow Mexico with a hundred Rangers.
Call and Gus realize they have a lot to learn! It is pure luck Gus and Call survive. Wow.
'Dead Man's Walk' is very entertaining and somewhat graphic. It starts slow, but by the end it is exciting and awesomely revelatory for the boys and us readers! The Wild West was more interesting and less heroic in truth than the movies show!
Beloved (❤️) characters and best friends Augustus 'Gus' McCrae and Woodrow Call were introduced in a previously published novel, Lonesome Dove. That book is about their lives when they were older experienced ex-Rangers who had settled down to run a business in Texas. But they both were once young men unknown to each other who were eager for adventures in the West. That is where 'Dead Man's Walk' begins.
The two greenhorns meet and decide to sign up with the Texas Rangers together. Despite the fact the two young men appear to Texans to be like young pups, and that they are almost completely ignorant of horses, camping outdoors and hunting, tracking, the Indian nations, guns, and what killing is like, the Rangers accept them. They take anybody.
Gus and Call are thrilled! However, what follows is greatly shocking to the boys and very entertaining for us! It soon becomes clear rangering is dangerous business for the characters, gentle reader. The excursions are often led by crazy and incompetent 'generals'. There is no training or planning. Almost none of the Rangers ever know what is happening around them or why they are going on a journey, or where they are going, or how to get there, or how long the journey will be (no maps, no skills at 'reading' the landmarks), whenever they are contacted and invited to come along on some harebrained scheme. Some of the invited scouts fortunately know how to track, hunt and can speak the languages of local tribes.
The boys endure their first Indian attack and see their first scalping on one excursion. In other excursions, they experience for the first time the deaths of their fellow Rangers from attacks - not only from Indians, but from crazed plainsmen. They see mistakes in judgement from panic and drunkenness and lack of planning. They find the bodies of children murdered by Indians or psychopathic White men or Mexicans. They discover a very lucrative business in slave trading by Indians, Mexicans and White men. They find murdered Indians. Dead horses are everywhere, and not because of being shot or accidents, but because the animals are mistreated and are in poor shape. Their guns do not fire because they are old and wrecked, but even if they have a working gun, they don't shoot because of the shock of attacks. Horrible sudden deaths and mutilations freeze them like statues. Some of their company die slowly from shootings and injuries from spears and arrows when they are miles and weeks from any town. Walking is often their only option since they lost their horses in attacks and nighttime thievery and plain ordinary negligence. Starvation and thirst kills many of their fellow Rangers on trips because the men do not carry canteens or even think to plan for long stretches between watering holes. Many of the men do not have proper shoes, blankets or slickers and only one change of clothes. Meeting the disciplined Mexican troops for the first time shocks them as they had heard only racist gossip about Mexicans. The Mexicans quickly educate the ridiculously ignorant Rangers about the laws of Mexico in regards to American yahoos assuming they can overthrow Mexico with a hundred Rangers.
Call and Gus realize they have a lot to learn! It is pure luck Gus and Call survive. Wow.
'Dead Man's Walk' is very entertaining and somewhat graphic. It starts slow, but by the end it is exciting and awesomely revelatory for the boys and us readers! The Wild West was more interesting and less heroic in truth than the movies show!
November 11, 2017
i am not into Westerns but i have become a fan of Larry McMurtry. this is the second book in this series and i LOVE his style. i feel like i know the characters and wish them well. Cowboys vs Indians vs Mexicans. i recommend this and Lonesome Dove, so far. Nail biters for sure.
April 25, 2025
Me puse muy contento cuando me enteré que Valdemar iba a sacar en su saga Frontera, otro libro más de la serie Lonesome Dove (Paloma Solitaria), que había leído recientemente.
Paloma Solitaria es una novela extraordinaria, redonda, épica...ganadora del Pulitzer en 1985 o 1986, aunque leí en algún sitio que Larry McMurtry estaba un poco decepcionado, ya que pretendía reflejar el infierno que era vivir en esos territorios de frontera en aquella época, y la novela y la serie de televisión que hubo después, casi glorificaban aquellos tiempos.
Larry McMurtry ha sido un escritor muy prolífico, con novelas de ficción, biografías, guiones de cine, etc.
Bueno...vamos al tema...es muy buena novela, pero no llega a alcanzar momentos sublimes que si consiguió Paloma Solitaria. Esta es la tercera novela de la saga, pero la primera en términos cronológicos. Gus y Call son unos jovencitos, que se alistan en los Rangers de Texas. McMurtry aprovecha las expediciones históricas de 1841 a Santa Fe (para la conquista de ese territorio para Texas) y la expedición de Mier en 1842, situando a Gus y Call en esas misiones, aunque difieren el nombre de alguno de los personajes (en Paloma Solitaria, hizo lo mismo con la expedición de Goodnight para llevar ganado desde Texas a Montana..)
La novela se divide en dos partes...una primera expedición buscando una ruta a El Paso, donde Gus y Call a duras penas sobreviven a las penalidades del viaje y a los comanches (aquí el malo malísimo es Joroba de Búfalo, un comanche sanguinario), y la segunda parte más extensa, relata la expedición formada por unos 200 texanos para conquistar Santa Fe....Mcmurtry narra de manera fenomenal las peripecias del viaje donde se enfrentan al clima, al terreno, a los comanches, a los incompetentes al mando y al ejército mexicano...es una novela más lineal que Paloma Solitaria, que tenía más tramas paralelas...dato: lo de las alubias negras y blancas ocurrió de verdad.
Si has leído Paloma solitaria, seguro que acabaste amando los personajes de Gus y Call y esta novela aunque no alcanza a la original, no te va a decepcionar.
Paloma Solitaria es una novela extraordinaria, redonda, épica...ganadora del Pulitzer en 1985 o 1986, aunque leí en algún sitio que Larry McMurtry estaba un poco decepcionado, ya que pretendía reflejar el infierno que era vivir en esos territorios de frontera en aquella época, y la novela y la serie de televisión que hubo después, casi glorificaban aquellos tiempos.
Larry McMurtry ha sido un escritor muy prolífico, con novelas de ficción, biografías, guiones de cine, etc.
Bueno...vamos al tema...es muy buena novela, pero no llega a alcanzar momentos sublimes que si consiguió Paloma Solitaria. Esta es la tercera novela de la saga, pero la primera en términos cronológicos. Gus y Call son unos jovencitos, que se alistan en los Rangers de Texas. McMurtry aprovecha las expediciones históricas de 1841 a Santa Fe (para la conquista de ese territorio para Texas) y la expedición de Mier en 1842, situando a Gus y Call en esas misiones, aunque difieren el nombre de alguno de los personajes (en Paloma Solitaria, hizo lo mismo con la expedición de Goodnight para llevar ganado desde Texas a Montana..)
La novela se divide en dos partes...una primera expedición buscando una ruta a El Paso, donde Gus y Call a duras penas sobreviven a las penalidades del viaje y a los comanches (aquí el malo malísimo es Joroba de Búfalo, un comanche sanguinario), y la segunda parte más extensa, relata la expedición formada por unos 200 texanos para conquistar Santa Fe....Mcmurtry narra de manera fenomenal las peripecias del viaje donde se enfrentan al clima, al terreno, a los comanches, a los incompetentes al mando y al ejército mexicano...es una novela más lineal que Paloma Solitaria, que tenía más tramas paralelas...dato: lo de las alubias negras y blancas ocurrió de verdad.
Si has leído Paloma solitaria, seguro que acabaste amando los personajes de Gus y Call y esta novela aunque no alcanza a la original, no te va a decepcionar.
April 27, 2016
Some years ago, my friend Tressa finally convinced me to read a western and that book was Lonesome Dove. It is now one of my favorite books of all time.
Recently, I signed up for Audible, (to get a free audiobook, if I'm to be completely honest), and when I went to cancel the trial, they convinced me to stay on for a reduced price.
I agreed to it and immediately went book shopping. Thanks to my lovely GR and BL friends, (mostly I'm looking at you Bark and Spare Ammo), I stumbled upon and recognized the name Will Patton. The book was Dead Man's Walk and featured my two favorite characters from Lonesome Dove. I downloaded this bad boy and I was hooked!
Sometimes in a sequel, (which in this case is actually a prequel), the story isn't as good, or the characters aren't as compelling, but I didn't find any of that to be the case. Plus, this tale had the added enhancement of Will Patton's wonderful voicing and narration.
Gus and Call are young and just getting to know each other in this story and it was kind of neat to see how they got together. Gus and Call, among over 200 other men, are forced on a 200 mile march across Mexico, through an area called the Dead Man's Walk. Here, this book becomes much bloodier than Lonesome Dove was.The death toll is extremely high. Instead of Blue Duck, this time around we have Buffalo Hump and a ghostly Apache named Gomez. Not to mention the even worse white men, pirate turned "colonel" Caleb Cobb and the French Major LaRoche.
With Will Patton's voice adding both humor and horror throughout, I had a fine time listening to this book. I was disappointed to learn that he does not narrate the other books in this series. Which, despite how much I love the stories, discourages me from listening to them. I just can't see how anyone else could live up to this performance. I will probably read them instead.
Lastly, a warning to those that are easily offended. This book is populated with all kinds of stuff that is not politically correct. There are whores and lots of them, there are all kinds of names and terms that were used at the time that are not commonly used or accepted now. If that kind of thing bothers you, you should probably take a pass. In this context, it did not bother me.
I loved listening to Dead Man's Walk, and I am already looking forward to listening to it again in the future. The story isn't perfect, and perhaps it's a bit too bloody, even for me, but I loved it anyway and I learned some things. (Mostly that I love Will Patton's voice, but other things as well.) If you enjoyed Lonesome Dove, I believe that you'll enjoy this book too. And if you can get it with Will Patton's narration, you really can't go wrong.
Highly recommended!
Recently, I signed up for Audible, (to get a free audiobook, if I'm to be completely honest), and when I went to cancel the trial, they convinced me to stay on for a reduced price.
I agreed to it and immediately went book shopping. Thanks to my lovely GR and BL friends, (mostly I'm looking at you Bark and Spare Ammo), I stumbled upon and recognized the name Will Patton. The book was Dead Man's Walk and featured my two favorite characters from Lonesome Dove. I downloaded this bad boy and I was hooked!
Sometimes in a sequel, (which in this case is actually a prequel), the story isn't as good, or the characters aren't as compelling, but I didn't find any of that to be the case. Plus, this tale had the added enhancement of Will Patton's wonderful voicing and narration.
Gus and Call are young and just getting to know each other in this story and it was kind of neat to see how they got together. Gus and Call, among over 200 other men, are forced on a 200 mile march across Mexico, through an area called the Dead Man's Walk. Here, this book becomes much bloodier than Lonesome Dove was.The death toll is extremely high. Instead of Blue Duck, this time around we have Buffalo Hump and a ghostly Apache named Gomez. Not to mention the even worse white men, pirate turned "colonel" Caleb Cobb and the French Major LaRoche.
With Will Patton's voice adding both humor and horror throughout, I had a fine time listening to this book. I was disappointed to learn that he does not narrate the other books in this series. Which, despite how much I love the stories, discourages me from listening to them. I just can't see how anyone else could live up to this performance. I will probably read them instead.
Lastly, a warning to those that are easily offended. This book is populated with all kinds of stuff that is not politically correct. There are whores and lots of them, there are all kinds of names and terms that were used at the time that are not commonly used or accepted now. If that kind of thing bothers you, you should probably take a pass. In this context, it did not bother me.
I loved listening to Dead Man's Walk, and I am already looking forward to listening to it again in the future. The story isn't perfect, and perhaps it's a bit too bloody, even for me, but I loved it anyway and I learned some things. (Mostly that I love Will Patton's voice, but other things as well.) If you enjoyed Lonesome Dove, I believe that you'll enjoy this book too. And if you can get it with Will Patton's narration, you really can't go wrong.
Highly recommended!
January 15, 2025
Stunning, amazing, harrowing, and romantic all at once. Had an absolute blast reading it. Contrary to Lonesome Dove, this book was very fast paced and kept me on the edge of my seat most of the time. The suspense of knowing enemies were near, literally hiding in plain sight, killed me!! LOVE this author.
April 4, 2017
I really loved this "prequel" to the Western Classic LONESOME DOVE. In this story, Texas Rangers Woodrow Call and Gus McCrae are not seasoned veterans in the Wild West of the 1870's when the buffalo herds are gone and the Indian tribes nearly vanished. Instead they are boys in their teens, inhabiting a post-Alamo Texas where buffalo herds number in the millions and raiders of the mighty Comanche tribe can appear anywhere and inflict sudden death and unspeakable torture at any moment.
You might think that this novel would be less dark and less poignant than LONESOME DOVE, just because the two main characters are young and carefree, and because readers obviously know that they won't be killed (since they have to grow up and become legends in another book.) But McMurtry is able to show so much terror and horror on the frontier, with boys the same age as the heroes meeting horrible death in the most unexpected ways. The suspense of the first Ranger patrol is almost unbearable, especially when Gus wanders off guard one stormy night and nearly walks right into the camp of legendary Comanche chief Buffalo Hump!
It's very exciting to read this book, but sometimes frustrating, because the most interesting characters tend to lurk in the shadows. This story fills in more details about Buffalo Hump, explaining how he came to father the devious, indestructible devil-child who will become Blue Duck. We also meet a colorful band of Comanche warriors who have never yet known defeat, including the crafty and cruel horse-thief Kicking Wolf, who tortures with great skill but remains a strangely admirable character. The only flaw in this book is that there aren't enough Comanches, and that the females they interact with are only ever portrayed as voiceless, faceless victims.
By the same token, the white women in the book are all sentimentalized to some degree. Either they're rugged, uncomplaining, good-hearted whores, like Matilda "The Great Northern" who exists only to proves that she's a pal over and over, or they're sickeningly sweet ingenues like Clara Forsythe. Personally, I would have loved to see a lot more about Rosa among the Comanches, and a lot less about Clara keeping store. But that's just me! Overall this book is a near-classic, sure to please any Western fan.
You might think that this novel would be less dark and less poignant than LONESOME DOVE, just because the two main characters are young and carefree, and because readers obviously know that they won't be killed (since they have to grow up and become legends in another book.) But McMurtry is able to show so much terror and horror on the frontier, with boys the same age as the heroes meeting horrible death in the most unexpected ways. The suspense of the first Ranger patrol is almost unbearable, especially when Gus wanders off guard one stormy night and nearly walks right into the camp of legendary Comanche chief Buffalo Hump!
It's very exciting to read this book, but sometimes frustrating, because the most interesting characters tend to lurk in the shadows. This story fills in more details about Buffalo Hump, explaining how he came to father the devious, indestructible devil-child who will become Blue Duck. We also meet a colorful band of Comanche warriors who have never yet known defeat, including the crafty and cruel horse-thief Kicking Wolf, who tortures with great skill but remains a strangely admirable character. The only flaw in this book is that there aren't enough Comanches, and that the females they interact with are only ever portrayed as voiceless, faceless victims.
By the same token, the white women in the book are all sentimentalized to some degree. Either they're rugged, uncomplaining, good-hearted whores, like Matilda "The Great Northern" who exists only to proves that she's a pal over and over, or they're sickeningly sweet ingenues like Clara Forsythe. Personally, I would have loved to see a lot more about Rosa among the Comanches, and a lot less about Clara keeping store. But that's just me! Overall this book is a near-classic, sure to please any Western fan.
July 4, 2024
Hay algo engañoso en la presentación de este libro (al menos en España), que nos viene empaquetado como una historia de aventuras, la precuela en la que se narran las “correrías” de los dos protagonistas de “Paloma solitaria” cuando eran jóvenes. No es mentira (de hecho, este es uno de los textos de aventuras más saturado de peripecias y entretenido que he leído: ¡pasan muchas cosas!), pero sí una versión limitada y poco fiel de la realidad.
Este es un relato desgarrador sobre la experiencia humana de ser doblegado por el territorio (dentro del cual se incluye, además de la vastedad y los accidentes geográficos, lo Otro, personificado en los pueblos nativos del Oeste americano). Es una historia sin el calmante tono de epopeya que tiene su precursora. Aquí hay aún menos linealidad (menos sentido de una resolución) y menos asideros. Está atravesada por un elenco de personajes que pasan frío, tienen miedo, enferman, se sienten terriblemente pequeños, y en su mayor parte mueren. Es una novela más próxima al “Meridiano de sangre” de McCarthy que a la obra maestra original de McMurtry.
Sobre este trasfondo crudo y devastador, la dignidad y la amistad adquieren un relieve humilde, pero sólido y constante. Aquí McMurtry hace “de las suyas”, en el mejor de los sentidos posibles, y nos ofrece su particular versión de la redención (una que solo es posible en condiciones desesperadas).
Los personajes son maravillosos y el libro está cargado de escenas muy potentes. La calidad de la traducción y la edición está en los niveles altísimos a los que nos tiene acostumbrados la colección Frontera, de Valdemar.
Este es un relato desgarrador sobre la experiencia humana de ser doblegado por el territorio (dentro del cual se incluye, además de la vastedad y los accidentes geográficos, lo Otro, personificado en los pueblos nativos del Oeste americano). Es una historia sin el calmante tono de epopeya que tiene su precursora. Aquí hay aún menos linealidad (menos sentido de una resolución) y menos asideros. Está atravesada por un elenco de personajes que pasan frío, tienen miedo, enferman, se sienten terriblemente pequeños, y en su mayor parte mueren. Es una novela más próxima al “Meridiano de sangre” de McCarthy que a la obra maestra original de McMurtry.
Sobre este trasfondo crudo y devastador, la dignidad y la amistad adquieren un relieve humilde, pero sólido y constante. Aquí McMurtry hace “de las suyas”, en el mejor de los sentidos posibles, y nos ofrece su particular versión de la redención (una que solo es posible en condiciones desesperadas).
Los personajes son maravillosos y el libro está cargado de escenas muy potentes. La calidad de la traducción y la edición está en los niveles altísimos a los que nos tiene acostumbrados la colección Frontera, de Valdemar.
July 21, 2025
Comencé La Jornada del Muerto fijándome demasiado en las diferencias respecto a Lonesome Dove. Cómo este relato de juventud de Gus y Call por la tierra de nadie entre EEUU y México es una sucesión de episodios de supervivencia ante una naturaleza y unos nativos insensibles a su sufrimiento.
Salir corriendo en una dirección donde no vas a encontrarte con un fuego, que el comanche que te acecha se fije en otra persona, que la lanza que te atraviesa lo haga en una parte no vital, que le caigas en gracia a la persona que te hace cautivo... Larry McMurtry reduce el heroísmo a salir adelante; algunas veces por habilidad, pero en la mayoría de las ocasiones por mera fortuna. Sin embargo, hacia su mitad me di cuenta que un contexto de gesta, de superación ante las dificultades más allá de vivir para contarlo, habría ido en contra de esta historia de iniciación. Gus y Call son muchas veces más observadores del dolor, propio y ajeno, que actores de las gestas. En la frontera y en la misión que McMurtry los sitúa no hay lugar para ello y sí mucho para la suerte o lo irracional (o un humor que ayuda a sobrellevar el sufrimiento). Algo que se enfatiza en el último acto; el enfrentamiento definitivo con la némesis que presentó en las primeras cien páginas y que se resuelve por una sendero inesperado (y delicioso).
Me ha encantado reencontrarme con los personajes en su juventud y apreciar las diferencias de carácter (más en Gus que en Call), sin que dejaran de ser ellos. Quizás habría quitado algún suceso de su viaje, pero más por acumular un poco más de intensidad que porque me haya sobrado.
Salir corriendo en una dirección donde no vas a encontrarte con un fuego, que el comanche que te acecha se fije en otra persona, que la lanza que te atraviesa lo haga en una parte no vital, que le caigas en gracia a la persona que te hace cautivo... Larry McMurtry reduce el heroísmo a salir adelante; algunas veces por habilidad, pero en la mayoría de las ocasiones por mera fortuna. Sin embargo, hacia su mitad me di cuenta que un contexto de gesta, de superación ante las dificultades más allá de vivir para contarlo, habría ido en contra de esta historia de iniciación. Gus y Call son muchas veces más observadores del dolor, propio y ajeno, que actores de las gestas. En la frontera y en la misión que McMurtry los sitúa no hay lugar para ello y sí mucho para la suerte o lo irracional (o un humor que ayuda a sobrellevar el sufrimiento). Algo que se enfatiza en el último acto; el enfrentamiento definitivo con la némesis que presentó en las primeras cien páginas y que se resuelve por una sendero inesperado (y delicioso).
Me ha encantado reencontrarme con los personajes en su juventud y apreciar las diferencias de carácter (más en Gus que en Call), sin que dejaran de ser ellos. Quizás habría quitado algún suceso de su viaje, pero más por acumular un poco más de intensidad que porque me haya sobrado.
September 19, 2024
Se la letteratura è un incredibile ed imperdibile viaggio questo libro ne è la testimonianza perché brulica e trabocca di avventura e di violenza, tanta violenza . Un racconto che è un’epopea ma anche oramai un mito quello della conquista del west, dei pionieri ed in questo caso di un gruppo di perdigiorni, fannulloni e beoni che pensano di cambiare la loro vita entrando nei Texas ranger, nulla di più sbagliato e la scelta sarà pagata a caro prezzo . Matilda, Gus e Call sopravvivono al lungo viaggio tra Austin ed il new Messico e ritorno ma solo perché sono sfacciatamente fortunati o forse perché sanno che sulle strade polverose dell’ovest americano la vita non vale assolutamente nulla. Un racconto odisseo perfetto, pulito e potente come solo un fenomeno naturale e spontaneo sa essere e per una volta il bianco armato vince sull’Indiano non perché armato meglio o perché spara prima come tanta filmografia ci ha abituati ma perché culturalmente in grado di gestire le credenze dei nativi a proprio vantaggio.
April 19, 2024
Buon western d'intrattenimento, ma non raggiunge l'intensità, la complessità strutturale e la profondità tematica di Lonesome Dove, e neppure di Le strade di Laredo a mio avviso.
Personaggio preferito: la lady inglese che con grande dignità, raffinatezza e acume 'sconfigge' i temutissimi nativi.
Sentimento predominante: fastidio condito con rabbia per la scontata e predominante narrazione dal punto di vista dei 'coraggiosi' bianchi contro i 'sanguinari' pellerossa (sentimento non necessariamente e solamente legato a questo romanzo western in particolare).
Personaggio preferito: la lady inglese che con grande dignità, raffinatezza e acume 'sconfigge' i temutissimi nativi.
Sentimento predominante: fastidio condito con rabbia per la scontata e predominante narrazione dal punto di vista dei 'coraggiosi' bianchi contro i 'sanguinari' pellerossa (sentimento non necessariamente e solamente legato a questo romanzo western in particolare).
March 6, 2011
What a let-down. Prequels blow. I don't want to see my beloved, crusty, bad-ass cowboy heroes as young, inexperienced, frightened, blundering, bottom-of-the-totem-pole, young'ins any more than I want to see Darth Vader as an insolent, surly, teenager. It's not fun or cool or satisfying at all. I wonder if I'll ever learn.
March 17, 2024
Leggere Larry McMurtry mi porta ad un sottile senso di straniamento, di continuo.
Apro il libro e mi trovo nella prateria americana sotto il grande cielo cercando di capire dove si trovano i comance e da dove giungeranno i compagni per darmi aiuto o trarmi d'impaccio.
Quando chiudo il libro sono sempre qui e sono sempre io: funziona come un'interruttore, credo.
Ho trovato un cambiamento del ritmo del romanzo nel finale che mi pare la parte meno riuscita del libro e non al livello dei tre
quarti precedenti come se Larry avesse avuto un pó meno voglia di sviluppare ulteriormente la storia.
Bellissimo libro, comunque: so che mi mancherà.
Apro il libro e mi trovo nella prateria americana sotto il grande cielo cercando di capire dove si trovano i comance e da dove giungeranno i compagni per darmi aiuto o trarmi d'impaccio.
Quando chiudo il libro sono sempre qui e sono sempre io: funziona come un'interruttore, credo.
Ho trovato un cambiamento del ritmo del romanzo nel finale che mi pare la parte meno riuscita del libro e non al livello dei tre
quarti precedenti come se Larry avesse avuto un pó meno voglia di sviluppare ulteriormente la storia.
Bellissimo libro, comunque: so che mi mancherà.
December 5, 2008
Wow. What a stinkeroo this turned out to be. In fact, it sadly confirms the suspicions I had of McMurtry while reading Lonesome Dove which is to say he has incredible skill in drawing you into a rich, realistic, dusty Old West atmosphere but lacks the ability to create a well-structured story. Also, contrary to popular opinion, I feel McMurtry -- at least in his Western novels -- paints some pretty one-dimensional characters.
This book triples the meandering of Lonesome Dove, which incidentally I really loved but for different reasons. Dead Man's Walk forms the first of two prequels to Lonesome Dove (the other being Commanche Moon) and attempts to build a solid back story to our two macho heros Gus and Woodrow. Lots of tension, to be sure. Tons of violence? You bet. Grisly, sadistic (and mostly unnecessary) torture? Yep. Not much point for being? Unfortunately, yes.
I slogged through Commanche Moon after this book but now, after reading three out of the four Lonesome Dove books, I have to admit defeat and leave Streets of Laredo (the series' last book, chronologically speaking) untouched. Probably just as well as that book is frequently talked about as the worst of the bunch.
This book triples the meandering of Lonesome Dove, which incidentally I really loved but for different reasons. Dead Man's Walk forms the first of two prequels to Lonesome Dove (the other being Commanche Moon) and attempts to build a solid back story to our two macho heros Gus and Woodrow. Lots of tension, to be sure. Tons of violence? You bet. Grisly, sadistic (and mostly unnecessary) torture? Yep. Not much point for being? Unfortunately, yes.
I slogged through Commanche Moon after this book but now, after reading three out of the four Lonesome Dove books, I have to admit defeat and leave Streets of Laredo (the series' last book, chronologically speaking) untouched. Probably just as well as that book is frequently talked about as the worst of the bunch.
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