Steve Warden wrote: ↑Mon May 15, 2023 12:07 pm
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This one comes up on every "Best Western Novels" list I've seen. I've put off getting it only because of its size--840+ pages. Well, I received a Barnes and Noble gift card for my birthday, soooo....
I'm about 60 pages in and really enjoying it.
Gonna take a while to finish, but I can see why it's a Pulitzer Prize winner.
Nope, never watched the miniseries. Guess I'll have to.
Steve, as much old West history as you have read, you’ll recognize some of it in
Lonesome Dove. McMurtry uses versions of actual events throughout. You’ll recognize the main characters Gus and Call as being based on events from the lives of real-life cattlemen Oliver Loving and Charles Goodnight, and some of the episodes based on actual events from Texas Ranger history. It’s not a formula Western “shoot ‘em up” novel. It’s fine literature that happens to be set in the American West.
Enjoy it, and when you’ve finished watch the TV miniseries, which sticks closer to the book’s narrative than any Hollywierd movie ever. In fact most of it is scene-for-scene and even word-for-word the same as the novel. I guess that’s why the miniseries is over four hours long.
Ken