LARRY
MCMURTRY
Synopsis
from jacket flap: Here
at last is the eagerly awaited story of the early days of Gus McCrae
and Woodrow Call, the heroes of Larry McMurtry's Pulitzer
Prize-winning novel, LONESOME DOVE.
In
STREETS OF LAREDO, McMurtry brought the story ahead, giving us Call
in his old age; now, in DEAD MAN'S WALK, he takes the reader back, to
the days when Gus and Call – two of the most beloved figures in
American fiction – were young Texas Rangers, first experiencing the
wild frontier that will form their characters. We also meet Clara
Forsythe, the spirited, unforgettable young woman whose effect on Gus
McCrae is immediate and unshakable. Danger, sacrifice, and fear test
these two young men to the limits of endurance; friendship,
comradeship, and love give them the strength and courage to survive
against almost insurmountable odds in the West of the early
nineteenth century.
In
DEAD MAN'S WALK, Gus and Call are not yet twenty, young men coming of
age in the days when Texas was still an independent republic.
Enlisting as Texas Rangers under the command of Caleb Cobb, a
capricious land pirate who wants to seize Santa Fe from the Mexicans,
Gus and Call experience their first great plains, in which arbitrary
violence is the rule – whether from nature, or from the Indians
whose territory they must cross in order to reach New Mexico.
Through
the eyes of Gus and Call, we come to know a group of engaging
adventurers, and we meet the great, ferocious Comanche war chief
Buffalo Hump (one of McMurtry's most vivid characters); his squat
companion, Kicking Wolf, a brilliant horse thief; and the shadowy
Apache kidnapper Gomez. It is these enigmatic figures – cruel,
swift, and close to invisible – who, together with the harsh
terrain of their native land, combine to defeat Cobb's expedition,
as well as a major contingent of the Mexican army.
Gus
and Call's companions include Matilda Roberts, a colorful whore known
as “The Great Western”, and Bigfoot Wallace, one of the most
famous scouts of his time. We join them all on their foolhardy
expedition to Santa Fe, and on their terrifying return across the
Jornado Del Muerto: the “Dead Man's Walk.” The surviving Rangers
face death in an unexpected form, when we meet Lady Carey, an English
noblewoman who takes them – and the reader – to the startling
climax.
The
untamed frontier, and the reckless men who live there – the Indians
defending it with unrelenting savagery, the Texans attempting to
seize and “civilize” it, and the Mexicans threatened by both –
are at the heart of Larry McMurtry's extraordinary new novel: at once
a riveting adventure story and a powerful work of literature.
Stats
for my copy: Hardback, Simon & Schuster, 1995.
How
acquired: Bought.
First
line: Matilda Jane Roberts was naked as the air.
My
thoughts: LONESOME DOVE is one of my all time favorite books ever. It's one of those
books that stayed with me long after I turned the last page. STREETS OF LAREDO wasn't as good, but was still very worth reading. DEAD
MAN'S WALK falls right in between them. It's better than Streets, but
not quite on a par with Dove. Which translates to I loved it and
highly recommend it.
In
DEAD MAN'S WALK we meet Gus and Call as young men, joining up with
the Rangers and embarking on their first big adventure. A lot of the
reviews I read on Goodreads complained or mentioned that Gus and Call
don't really do anything in the book, that all the action occurs
around them, that they're more like bystanders than active
protagonists. But I didn't notice that at all, and even after reading
those reviews and thinking back, I still don't agree. (And this is
one reason I wait until after I've finished a book before I read
reviews about it. No pre-conceivances – is that a word? - going
into it.)
As
with the other books, there are lots of characters, mostly new to us,
but some familiar names as well. Particularly Clara, who was Gus
McCrae's the-one-who-got-away. She's a feisty outspoken storekeeper's
daughter, and while Call couldn't understand why, after barely
meeting her, Gus is talking about quitting rangering to marry her, I
thought she was delightful. But fortunately for the story Gus has
committed himself to the Rangers and has to leave Clara behind.
Clara
is in the first part of the book, and an English lady becomes rather
important in the last part. But the only female who figures
throughout the story is Matilda, a whore (with the proverbial heart
of gold) who travels with the Rangers in the hopes of eventually
getting to California. Along the way she falls for the scout
Shadrach, and as the hardships pile up she takes Call and Gus under
her wing (but not into her bedroll – she gives for Shadrach). She
was one of my favorite characters.
There's
lots of violence, as the Rangers come up against both Indians and the
Mexican army. Call often laments their lack of true leadership as the
group of Rangers dwindles from 200 to double digits, and you could
practically see his own future leadership qualities being born. Gus
constantly talks about wanting a whore and finding some whores. The
two boys are as different as night and day, but they're comradeship
is always front and center,and they remain loyal to each other even
when they disagree or irk each other. Once this expedition is over
and everyone is safely home (or at least back in Texas), it wouldn't
be surprising to see them go their separate ways, but their
friendship is sealed, and I can't wait to get into COMANCHE MOON, the
last book in this series.
And
on a side note, some websites have the books listed as this one being
Book 1, with Lonesome Dove and Streets of Laredo being books 3 and 4.
Which chronologically for the characters makes sense, but since Dove
and Streets were written and published first, I consider them Books 1
and 2, and that's how I'm classifying them.
