I've been reading Larry McMurtry's Pulitzer winning Lonesome Dove these past several weeks.
After reading novels like The Road, The Help, and Mudbound, McMurtry's style, pace, and rhythm are quite a change. I quite enjoy it though. It's an ambituous style to aspire to, so I'll gladly leave that to those who are more talented than I, but I can't help but wonder if Lonesome Dove would have received the critical acclaim and popularity in 2011 that the novel received in 1985 when it was originally published.
I read the other three novels in a matter days. I found them difficult to put down and kept turning pages to quench my desire to see what was going to happen next. In Lonesome Dove, the detail and depth of the story telling makes it a much slower read for me.
A couple weeks ago I read the first five chapters of Boone's Lick while enjoying the sunshine at Fort Desoto Beach. It's my third Larry McMurtry novel, after Comanche Moon and Wandering Hill.
Boone's Lick is a story about a mother that takes her family from Missouri to Wyoming after the Civil War in search of her husband (the children's father). They travel by boat and mule driven wagon. To reach Fort Laramie they risk their lives and overcome thunderstorms, Indian threats, snow, and wildlife.
My parents and family live in Booneville, MO, so the title caught my attention right away. True to his reputation, McMurtry has started things off with some very interesting characters. I am gaining a deeper appreciation for McMurtry's talent and why he's so often recommended as "required" reading for all wanna be novelists.
I finished the book today, reading the last 80 pages in a flash. The book is a very easy read, with short chapters and plenty things "happening" to hold the readers' attention.
I think the story will make a great movie. Rumor has it that Tom Hanks (Seth Cecil) and Julianne Moore (Mary Margaret) will play the leading roles.
The Wandering Hill by Larry McMurtry
I finished The Wandering Hill by Larry McMurtry via CD on the way home from Tennessee. In case you're wondering, a "wandering hill" is a hill with a single tree on top.
For those who haven't read the book and might want to listen to it on CD...the subject matter might not be appropriate for children. There isn't any graphic language or violence, but if you have kids you'll probably grow tired of explaining "fornicate" and "copulate". I am surprised by the numbers of times that "the act" is referenced in this novel. I didn't count them all, but it's got to be at least 30 times and it seems like a lot more.
The characters in this novel jump out at you. McMurty is one of the best authors I've run across when it comes to character development.
I'm not a big fan of westerns, but I appreciate the tremendous writing talent it took to create the story and the characters.
Young writers and beginning writers trying to write a first novel are often referred to Larry McMurtry's books as examples of "how it should be done". McMurtry, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning Lonesome Dove is a prolific writer known largely for his stories about the western frontier. He also wrote the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain.
My entire immediate family lives within 30 miles of the real life Boone's Lick, MO; the fictional setting for McMurtry's Boone's Lick, a story about a family traveling from Missouri to Wyoming in 1866.
We've got The Wandering Hill queued up on audio book for the trip from Tennessee back to Florida following the holiday visits and informal vacation with the in-law's.
Despite the popularity of Lonesome Dove and Terms of Endearment, I've never read either novel or watched the movie versions.
I guess it's about high time that I get around to it.
