Fact is, this is a gripping, brutal Western. STREETS OF LAREDO gives the reader a vast array of complex, interesting characters: Woodrow F. Call, the aging former lawman turned bounty hunter, who realizes he is well past his prime...Pea Eye Parker, torn between his devotion to his family and his undying loyalty to Call...Lorena Parker, once a prostitute, now a wife, mother, and schoolteacher, who sets out in the face of overwhelming danger to find her husband...Mr. Brookshire, a railroad accountant from New York and traveling companion of Call, who is appalled at the brutality of the West...Maria, whose hatred of Call and concern for her killer son cannot overcome a true heart of gold. Throw in two chilling, ruthless killers--Joey Garza and Mox Mox, the "manburner"--and you've got a story that keeps the reader busily turning pages.
This is a hardhitting, well-written account of the Old West in the last gasp of the 19th century. The book stands alone on its own merits.
I put it down, furious after reading only a small part of the first chapter and wrote immediately to Mr. McMurtry in protest because Pea-Eye and Lorena were together. There was nothing in 'Lonesome Dove' to give it validity.
About three years later, I again picked up the book and read it. (Only because it was there and I was looking for something to read.) This time around I was no less irritated with the start, but I was glad to have continued past it.
Mr. McMurtry is an outstanding storyteller and his characters are incredibly real. I highly recommend that you read this particular series.
I probably would have liked this better if I hadn't read it right after Lonesome Dove.Good story, but not great writing---there is a difference First, am I mistaken or is Famous Shoes really heading north to find the place ducks and geese breed in the winter? The book seems to clearly state that fall had come, along with the snows, and the birds were flying north above him when he was forced to turn back because of the cold. He was apparently still making his way back home (south) in the spring when he saw the ducks and birds flying south. Have I misunderstood something?
I read the 4 volumes of Lonesome Dove because a writer I like very much, Thomas McGuane, was said to be reminiscent of McMurtry on the back of one of McGuane's books----an effort to sell more books apparently. In addition to being angered by a rather insulting "compliment" to Mr. McGuane (no matter whom he was being compared to), I suspected that the two writers couldn't be more different just from what I had heard about Mr. McMurtry and I had to see for myself.
I have to admit that I became hooked on the Lonesome Dove tetralogy (sp)---it was a good story from an entertainment point of view, perhaps something like "Gone with the Wind" is. It was like watching an entertaining TV show. McMurtry (these are the only books of his I have read), is far from being a master in the use of language, however. Events in the story are not necessarily predictable, but the language certainly is. The behavior of the characters is inexplicable and they are one-, or at most two-, dimensional. They just are the way they are. I think that telling a good tale is something worth doing and these volumes make up a pretty good tale. But telling a good tale is not the same as being a great writer and there are people who can do both.