You nailed this novel to a sign and spelled all the words correctly. Thank you.

Easily the best book review I have watched on KZfaq! I just finished reading Lonesome Dove and you hit every point spot on!!! Thank you

I knew my boo was a catch when he spent an hour and a half debating Clara's character motivations with me. McMurtry does such a great job of writing women for this genre.

Great review! I know your review is two years old, but I'm just finishing Lonesome Dove. Love what you said about the women characters and their growth. :)

Thank you so much for your thoughtful review! I had many of the same feelings approaching this book after a couple years of it on my shelf. I felt pretty alone reading this when most of the books I read and my community are BIPOC focused (I am only about 300 pages in right now). People look at me askance when they see I am reading this Western. It is so refreshing to see another POC reader talking about their concerns about representation, and I think your insights on that are right on. AS I've been reading I've been searching for commentary online or BookTok from BIPOC readers. What a pleasant surprise to see some dynamic and more nuanced writing from a white man (in the 80s!) on women characters. I will say though that the representations (so far) of Black and Mexican characters do leave more to be desired. I suspect that more Native characters will emerge later in the novel and I look forward to seeing how he handles that. As good as McMurtry is, he certainly is a product of his social identities, and the centering of White men as the norm is pretty thorough.

I had a blast with these books. Having read the whole series, Comanche Moon is the best one for the Native American perspective since McMurtry literally writes it from the Native American perspective. Just remember, he's writing it from the Comanche perspective (there are different POV characters), and they were historically pretty warlike and cruel, kind of like the Sioux or the Apache, but they were known as the worst for cruel tortures. Blue Duck is an example like he's absolutely ruthless in Lonesome Dove, and you'll encounter him again in Comanche Moon, also. They're actually MORE vicious in those books because they play a more central role, but there's a POV character in that one that's a more peaceful Kickapoo character that I really liked. Reading his books though, you get this sense they were very capable and smart. Like 1 Comanche warrior was worth 5-10 cowboys because they were masters at stealth and ambush tactics. For me, Streets of Laredo was probably the weakest in the whole series, but it was the only one that made me cry. I wouldn't read that one twice though because it was the most boring. I would read any of the other 3 again and again because they were so much fun. For me, my favorite was probably Comanche Moon (even over Lonesome Dove), but I was hooked right from the first with Dead Man's Walk. You see the literal change of the American West from those books.

Besides your review of LD, I watch you as an ASMR … your voice is relaxing to me … thanks

You're so good at explaining books. You've convinced me to go buy a copy of Lonesome Dove.

This has been on my list for years and after this I'm going to prioritize it for next year.

Larry McMurtry wrote Terms of Endearment. His women characters are some of the best in 20th Century American literature.

My favorite!! Subbed just bc you read it and made a video about it!!! 🥰🥰🥰

Your voice is sooooo relaxing, I’m putting you on my AMSR list. And Greatest book and movie ever created .. last thing, based on true story Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving. God bless !!

Excellent review. Also, this is a bittersweet look at old friendships, lost youth, and regret for missed opportunity.

There are plenty of civilized friendly and polite interactions between the European American settlers and the Native Americans in these books. However, what there is absolutely not is any amicable encounters between the Texans and the Comanche.

Lonesome Dove was given to me as a Christmas gift and I had no interest in reading it whatsoever. I finally picked it up because the friend who gave it to me kept asking if I liked it. When I finally started reading it I was hooked from chapter one.

'Horseman, pass by and 'Anything for billy' are also great books by Mcmurtry.

you've convinced me to read this. Thank you :)

Loved this book

❤ Lonsome Dove ❤️

Next you have to watch the miniseries...it is PHENOMENAL!!!

Great review! Curious about your perspective of the representation of Mexicans in the novel.

Dude lonesome dove doesn't get enough love on booktube for real. The series is just as good, you should check it out!!

Just a tiny nitpick, Blue Duck was the son of a Mexican woman who was captured by his father Buffalo Hump. He goes into a lot more background in Comanche Moon. I'm so happy people are getting into this series, Lonesome Dove was the first adult book I ever read and it still has a place in my heart!