Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurty is everything it is purported to be: tense, beautiful, haunting, epic, powerful and among the best novels ever written. The story is simple and many writers would struggle to provide depth with such a premise, yet McMurty never faulters. Two cowboys and former Texas Rangers decide to leave a comfortable life in Texas to lead a cattle drive to the uncharted lands of Montana. Along the way their rag tag group of misfits and outlaws encounter all kinds of danger and adventure. Some, like young Newt, grow up and become men. Others, like Jake, meet a fate for which their entire lives have primed them. All of the characters resonate deeply in this book, even the mysterious and brutal Blue Duck whose reign of terror dominates the plains.
There is only one real complaint with this book: it could easily have been a thousand pages longer.
