This is without a doubt my favorite book. I remember when it came out. It was on sale at the middle school book sale in St. John's Gym. My mother bought it there. I almost bought it myself but it was so big I was scared away. But, now, almost 40 years later, it's without a doubt my favorite book.
The last few weeks have been perhaps the busiest I've had in a long long time. Work has been crazy both politically organizationally and in terms of volume… School has been crazy; I've got two classes going at the same time plus I'm writing my dissertation… Then there's just a general hoi polloi of having two children and a wife who works and travels… But I figured out why I have felt so busy and overwhelmed and it's primarily because I trusted Julie. About a month ago when I wasn't busy Julie recommended I read the Thornbirds instead of reading Lonesome Dove. So I read Thornbirds and it was as good as she said it might be.
The problem was I already bought a Lonseome Dove and it was sitting there in my kindle library so when I finish Thornbird and my classes were just on the verge of starting I thought . . . well why not knock out Lonesome Dove. As one of my colleagues at work said Lonesome Dove is huge. It can hardly be called a book that one just "knocks out" on a whim. Regardless, I'm going to finish it today. I'm that close to being done. But it has added to the overwhelming amount of work to my life . . . so worth it though.
What's really interesting to me is the perspective shift that happens when you read Lonesome Dove for the sixth time and as an almost 50 year old. I believe I read it four times in high school. Once each year. I even put little tick marks on my book so I could tell how many times I had read it. I read it once when I was in college again. And I feel certain I read it when I was in the military. It's been 20 years or so since I read it but now that I've reread it it is wild to see how different scenes resonate with me in different ways.
For example, the July Johnson saga within the story never appealed to me. Now that I'm married and have to deal with some of the same things that July has to deal with it does appeal to me. I found it far more interesting. The same thing goes for the Clara storyline. When Gus gets up to see Clara and see how much she's changed . . . when I was younger that meant nothing to me. Now it does. There's actually one aspect that's incredibly poignant. McMurtry goes in to great lengths to describe Clara's hands. When I was younger Clara's hands meant nothing. Now I can see what he's trying to get at. BTW . . . that would be a great novel title by the way . . . Clara's Hands.
I think when I was younger the biggest dynamic that I focused on was the buddy partnership of Gus and Call . . . that's still there . . . don't get me wrong . . . but it's just interesting to see how different parts of the story have resonated since. It's still an amazing book. I know that everyone thought the miniseries was terrific but the only reason the miniseries was great is that they were so true to the buck.
The final aspect I'll focus on is that as long as it is it feels, the book, the end is quick and short. I appreciate that. I think I wrote here about Stephen King and how his endings go on and on and on. Not so Lonesome Dove. It's as if you're on a run to see the finish line and you start sprinting in that spread is fast and quick and in line with the rest of the race. I really appreciate that.
Easily my favorite book.
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