The first of Larry McCurtry’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Lonesome Dove tetralogy, showcasing McCurtry’s talent for breathing new life into the vanished American West through two of the most memorable heroes in contemporary fiction: Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call. As young Texas Rangers, Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call (“Gus” and “Call” for short) have much to learn about survival in a land … survival in a land fraught with perils: not only the blazing heat and raging tornadoes, roiling rivers and merciless Indians, but also the deadly whims of soldiers. On their first expeditions–led by incompetent officers and accompanied by the robust, dauntless whore known as the Great Western–they will face death at the hands of the cunning Comanche war chief Buffalo Hump and the silent Apache Gomez. They will be astonished by the Mexican army. And Gus will meet the love of his life.
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A prequel to Lonesome Dove it shows the vastness of Texas. McMurtry has a way of showing the capriciousness of life and death and the randomness of fate. In this case there is a haunting scene where it revolves around what color bean one draws.
4 and 1 / 2 stars
In this novel, Woodrow Call and Augustus “Gus” McCrae are just young men who have joined the Texas Rangers. On their first ride out to survey a new road, they meet up with Buffalo Hump, one of the fiercest Comanche warriors on the plains. They lose two men, and are lucky to make it back safely to San Antonio.
On their next …