On Reading Lonesome Dove

Or a short essay in three paragraphs

A simple life, but a hard life.

I never gave much thought to the cowboys who lived out their name on long, dusty cattle drives across an unsettled America. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry changed that for me. The cowboys in his story became my friends as I watched their joys and sorrows unfold on the open plains. Never has the stark theme of Death been so present, yet portrayed in a genuine way; it was believable. I mourned the loss of some great characters, laughed during the unique experiences of others, and was struck by the differences in men applying themselves to a common end; moving 3,000 head of cattle from Mexico to Montana.

Gus waxed poetic about philosophy on the barren landscape that became for me, just like the boy Newt, a sudden realization that we’re walking on an earth covered in millions of bones. And like young Newt, the thought brings me comfort. We’re all here to be who we’re meant to be; to fulfill the mission given us. “Crying what I do is me: for that I came” - Gerard Manley Hopkins. The men that influenced Newt had different ways of living, but they all taught him different aspects of being a leader. Although many of those aspects were already present in the blood that coursed his veins.

McMurtry’s story has me excited to read the rest of his now famous tetralogy. But more importantly, it gives me pause when I stand upon the Texas land I call home. A pause to long for a blank landscape and think; a pause to gaze out at growing things and wonder.

Have you read Lonesome Dove or McMurty’s other works?