Lizzi’s Reviews > Lonesome Dove > Status Update

Getting more of Call’s backstory. He leads men and takes on responsibilities to overcompensate the sense of failure because of Maggie, turning away from regret and guilt, but he’s only a man.

Noticing a theme, everybody wants to run off for freedom, and everybody is chasing something far away they don’t know what it is. Call decided to go on the long journey to Montana on a whim; he loves the smart and alert mare that plans for opportunities to run off; Elmira, Clara, Lorena and the little girl.

Behind the bitterness you can understand why the women have become so cold and distrustful of men. If life in the Wild West was dreadful, it was even more hopeless for the women—little agency of their bodies and no financial independence. Elmira and Lorena both despise the norm and feel drawn towards men who do not crave women, not because they love these men, but because it gives them a sense of freedom.