Dead Man’s Walk, by Larry McMurty
463 pages, @1995
Obviously, I didn’t get around to finishing my double posts last week before I left for Florida. I just ran out of time. I need to start thinking about traveling with my laptop and getting some sort of internet connection when I travel. So I apologize, once again for the disappearing act. I don’t have any trips planned until March though so I should be able to keep fairly steady through the month of February.
Back a year or so ago I attempted two reading challenges. As one of my books for the reading challenge I selected the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Larry McMurty, Lonesome Dove. When I went to Barnes & Noble to pick up the book I discovered that Lonesome Dove is the 3rd book in a 4 book series. I decided then and there, that even though McMurty wrote Lonesome Dove first, I had to read the series from the beginning, meaning the book that was meant as the first book, so I purchased Dead Man’s Walk instead. I will admit that I started this book back in November, but due to my lack of interest in reading around the holidays I got 100 pages in and just couldn’t really stick with it. However, with my new goal of 2010 in hand, to read a book a week, I decided that I better go back and tackle this beast.
Dead Man’s Walk, introduces us to Gus McCrae and Cal Woodrow, two Texas Rangers, working missions in the Wild Wild West. When the book first begins they are in Comanche territory and their mismatched group of Rangers realize that this mission is hopeless as they are outmatched. Awhile later, they are invited to join, an expedition to capture Sante Fe from Mexico and annex it as part of Texas, under the pirate Caleb Cobb. Other interesting characters that join them are Matilda Roberts and Bigfoot Wallace. They find themselves in Comanche territory again and have to face off against the mighty Buffalo Hump and Kicking Wolf as they journey to Sante Fe. Unfortunately for the group of Texas Rangers, they are being led by a shoddy commander who hasn’t put much thought into the expedition, and they encounter many hiccups along the way.
I find this time period tough to read about as this part of our country was pretty desolate and there was a lot of violence. I couldn’t imagine being a Texas Ranger. I thought McMurty did a good job in drawing Gus and Call for us as characters since they’re going to be the main characters we follow through the series. They are very distinctive and standout among the rest of the characters. The storyline is a little repitive in that you have a group of Texas Rangers setting out to explore further West who constantly end up hungry, starving, without horses, water or hope and struggling to stay alive. Those themes appear again and again in the book.
I will stick to the series just so that I can read the infamous Lonesome Dove though. I enjoyed this first book and I liked taking myself outside of my comfort zone by reading a Western. I can’t imagine I’ll pick up the 2nd book really soon but I’ll get around to it eventually.
3 Stars
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Do you like Western’s (movies or books)?
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