Amazon.com Review
Larry McMurtry, in books like Lonesome Dove, cowboys herding cattle on a great trail-drive, seems like the very stuff of that cliched myth, but McMurtry bravely tackles the task of creating meaningful literature out of it. At first the novel seems the kind of anti-mythic, anti-heroic story one might expect: the main protagonists are a drunken and inarticulate pair of former Texas Rangers turned horse rustlers. Yet when the trail begins, the story picks up an energy and a drive that makes heroes of these men. Their mission may be historically insignificant, or pointless--McMurtry is smart enough to address both possibilities--but there is an undoubted valor in their lives. The result is a historically aware, intelligent, romantic novel of the mythic west that won the 1986
Review
βIf you read only one western novel in your life, read Lonesome Dove.ββ_USA Today_
βEverything about Lonesome Dove feels true . . . These are real people, and they are still larger than life.ββNicholas Lemann, The New York Times Book Review
β_Lonesome Dove_ is Larry McMurtryβs loftiest novel."β_Los Angeles Times_
"A marvelous novel . . . moves with joyous energy . . . amply imagined and crisply, lovingly written. I haven't enjoyed a book more this year . . . a joyous epic."--_Newsweek_
"The finest novel that McMurtry has yet accomplished . . . Lonesome Dove has all the action anyone could possibly imagine . . . [and] both in general and in details, the authority of exact authenticity . . . superb."--_Chicago Tribune_