Finished: Lonesome Dove (McMurtry) A great, sprawling, epic of a book, a Pulitzer Prize winner, with characters that you instantly love or hate, who you root for and against...a book that I savored and hated to see end. Lonesome Dove is the story about two famous ex-Texas Rangers, best friends, Woodrow Call and Augustus McRae, who decide to leave the ranch they've settled on in Texas after retiring from the Rangers, to drive hundreds of head of cattle all the way to the unexplored Montana, just on the word of another ex-partner of theirs, Jake Spoon. Jake, who is mostly a self-centered, gambling, lady's man, convinces Call that he should be the first person to drive cattle and horses up through the dangerous Comanche country, and other Indian territories to Montana and make a mint settling the first horse and cattle ranch. Once Call gets the idea in his head, there's no stopping him. Even his best friend and partner of 40 years, Gus, can't get him to see reason. Gus would rather stay in Lonesome Dove and drink whiskey on the porch and visit the one prostitute in town, the beautiful, sweet and young Lorena. However, Gus isn't about to let Call go off and have this adventure on his own, so he agrees to go and take their motley crew of cowhands from the Hat Creek Cattle Company, Call and Gus' livery company. The crew consists of Pea-Eye, who has traveled with the Captain, as Call is known, for years and is loyal and a great cowhand, but very dumb; Deets, Call's right-hand man and superior tracker, a black man who can smell weather and trouble coming a few days out; Bolivar, the Mexican cook; Dish Boggett, the most talented cowboy of the hands, a young man who is hopelessly in love with Lorena; and Newt Dobbs, a teenage boy who has been raised by Call and Gus since his mother, another prostitute named Maggie, and apparently the only woman Call has ever been with, died. Everybody but Newt knows that Newt is Call's son by Maggie, but Call is stubborn and refuses to admit that he didn't do the right thing and stay with Maggie, who loved him. He'd rather never acknowledge Newt than admit being mistaken or weak. Then, there's also the good-looking Jake Spoon. The minute he rides into town and sees Lorena, he falls for her and she for him. The men are used to Lorena never talking much and just doing her business but suddenly she's animated and happy. Jake throws a wrench into Call's plans by insisting that he bring Lorena along on the arduous cattle drive. Call hates this idea, but he also hates to lose Jake as a cowhand. Too much happens to be able to recap the entire book. The gang takes on a few more cowhands, and a few tragedies happen along the way....including the death of one of the young Irish immigrant cowhands as he crosses the very first river they come to and he accidentally rides into a nest of water moccasins and is bitten to death. :-( The biggest tragedy early on is when Jake selfishly rides into town to gamble, leaving Lorena alone in their tent allowing the evil Blue Duck, a half Indian, half Mexican bandit, to kidnap Lorena. He mercilessly drags her across the terrain and sells her first to some other Indians, who constantly abuse her, and then to a couple of trappers who abuse her the same way. By the time Gus comes to the rescue (because Jake is too selfish and cowardly to go after her), Lorena is just a former shell of herself, is half dead, can no longer speak and clings to Gus for dear life for the rest of the cattle drive. He nurses her back to health, but she becomes very dependent on him. Meanwhile, Dish is doing an excellent job driving the cattle, but he is jealous of Gus and Lorena's closeness and he's still head over heels in love with Lorena. And, Newt is learning all about the hardships of living on the land and being at the back of the cattle drive. Other characters come into the story and cross paths with either Gus or Call. The "girl that got away" from Gus, Clara, who turned down his marriage proposal only to marry a "boring" horse-trader, now lives on a ranch in Nebraska. Her husband lies comatose in their house after being kicked in the head by a horse. Clara is raising her two young girls after losing all three of her sons as young boys. Over in Arkansas, we meet sheriff July Johnson. He's been married a short time to Elmira, who is in love with another man and has a ten-year old son, Joe, from yet another man. Elmira is tired of being married to July, even though it's only been a few months. When July's brother is accidentally shot by a gambler, his sister-in-law insists that July chase the culprit to Texas. It ends up, the culprit is none other than Jake Spoon! So, they are all destined to meet up. Elmira insists that July take little Joe with him. When he does, she leaves town in search of the man she loves, Dee Boot. Out on the road July meets up with Gus as he is out to rescue Lorena. He goes with Gus to help out, and doesn't even pull his gun before Gus has gunned down all the men but Blue Duck, who escapes. When July gets back to camp, Blue Duck has killed little Joe and the deputy sheriff who'd been traveling with them. :-( July feels terribly guilty. Elmira takes up with a couple of buffalo hunters who are traveling the direction she wants to go to try and find Dee boot. What she had never told July was that she is pregnant with his child. She ends up at Clara's ranch in Nebraska about to give birth!! She nearly dies giving birth, and then up and leaves the baby, a boy, with Clara and continues her search for Dee. Eventually, after learning through a letter that his wife has left him while he's away, July quits chasing Jake Spoon and starts going after Elmira. July makes his way to Clara's and Clara puts two and two together and realizes that July is the father of the baby she now loves. When July realizes that Elmira truly wants nothing to do with him or their baby, he stays on at the ranch and helps Clara out with duties and her girls. Gosh, so much happens in this book. Sadly, the gang ends up losing Deets, the first major character to die. Call insists that they keep going north. He's determined to make it to Montana, but not before Gus insists on stopping in Nebraska to see Clara, his long lost love. Despite possible jealousy, Clara takes to Lorena like a daughter, and Lorena takes to the "normal" life. Gus and Clara share some memories, and Gus reunites with July Johnson, who is still working there. Clara tells Gus that the trail is no place for Lorena and invites her to stay on with them. Lorena, much to both Gus' and her own surprise, says yes. The Hat Creek gang continues on and has made it into Montana when Gus and Pea Eye ride ahead scouting one day. A small band of Indians catch them by surprise and shoot Gus with a couple of arrows to the leg. Gus sends Pea Eye back to fetch Call, and when the Indians finally leave, he sets out for the closest town. By the time he gets there, his leg is black and must come off. By the time Call gets to the town, the doctor tells him that Gus will die if the second leg doesn't come off as well but Gus refuses. He makes Call promise to deliver letters to Clara and Lorena and to take his body back to Texas to be buried. Call agrees to the promises, and then loses his best friend, the irascible Gus. Call puts Gus on ice until winter is done, and heads back to the herd. They keep driving even further north until Call is finally satisfied with their location. He then enlists the cowhands to build a log cabin, corrals, etc. When spring comes, he wants badly to tell Newt that he's proud of him and how he has turned into a fine horseman....and that he's his son. Instead, Call, the man of few words and fewer emotions, gives Newt his famous mare, Hellbitch, his gun, and his father's pocket watch. He does everything but say the words that Newt is his son. Of course, by now both Gus and Clara had told Newt that Call was his father, so Call's refusal to be able to say it just confuses Newt. Call leaves to take Gus' body back to Texas and has his own misadventures along the way. He nearly dies, but finally makes it to the spot where Gus wanted to be buried, and then back to the run down ranch house of the Hat Creek gang in Lonesome Dove. I see that there is a sequel to Lonesome Dove and I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to read it! Larry McMurtry is truly in a class of his own in developing characters and making the reader really feel for them! He is responsible, after all, for my favorite movie of all time, Terms of Endearment! I see more McMurtry in my future. :-)