To my surprise, I read that it was based on a Pulitzer Prize winning novel. So I found a copy of the hefty tome, cracked it open and was immediately swept away by the language and characters that McMurty created. Here’s the opening paragraph:
“When Augustus came out on the porch the blue pigs were eating a rattlesnake — not a very big one. It had probably just been crawling around looking for shade when it ran into the pigs. They were having a fine tug-of-war with it, and its rattling days were over. The sow had it by the neck, and the shoat had the tail.”
Talk about putting an image in one’s head. Throughout the novel, the reader is transported from one great scene to another. Even though there is no serious conflict or identifiable antagonist in the first 150 pages of the novel, McMurty’s seamless transition between multiple perspectives and unique back stories kept me going. I read a review that called the beginning sluggish. I understand that point of view. However, just when I started to wonder what's the plot, the impact of the start of the cattle drive on everyone's lives hit home and I never questioned motives or plot again.
I also enjoyed the way in which McMurty used the river crossings on the way to Montana from Texas as markers of major events in the book. It also gave me the opportunity to pull out a map and follow the cattle drive northwards.
I will say however, that anyone planning on reading Lonesome Dove should be prepared that life on McMurty’s plains, while fascinating, can be brutal.
My principal criticism, Newt cries too damn much.
