7 months and 858 pages later...

I am pleased to announce that we finished Lonesome Dove at teatime today. It was a journey.

I ended up liking it as did many of my children. (A couple were on the fence, but didn't hate it.) I was actually surprised I ended up liking it as much as I did because I wasn't convinced at first. The introduction of a strong female character towards the end helped. A lot. 

The things I liked right off the bat were Mr. McMurtry's ability to create realistic and interesting characters and his ability to tell a story. It was the story he was telling that I wasn't sure about. While the characters were interesting I wasn't sure if I liked any of them. Over eight hundred pages is a long time to spend with characters you don't care for. Over time, though, as we got to know them, they became more like oddly quirky friends. 

But the few women in the story. I'll just leave it as the word 'whore' is used an awful lot. That didn't make me dislike the women, but it did make me take a lot longer to warm up to the make characters and and I was definitely on the fence regarding the author. It was just kind of icky all the way around. 

But here's my literature class summary. Ultimately, it seemed as though the purpose of the book was to highlight what society is like when the only people in charge of making any type of decision or using any type of power are the macho male warrior types. When this happens then females have two paths... to be protected by those he-men as wives or daughters or to be used by those he-men because there is no protection. And even the protection offered by husbands and fathers is questionable. Throughout the story run threads of the women characters trying to have some sort of self-volition and all the ways those attempts can end badly.

It even isn't really good for the men which makes the story ultimately a tragedy. By trying to do all the right things all the time and never allow one self to make an error ultimately dooms one of the main characters. Which, is blatantly pointed out to him by the one woman who finally is able to realize autonomy. It is a scene which felt very Shakespearean and the whole room, after I read it let out a collective sigh because she was so bitingly accurate and wasn't afraid to speak her mind. I think it is worth reading the book if only to be introduced to Clara. 

There are other books that Mr. McMurtry wrote about the same characters, but I have no desire to read them. I want the characters to stay just as they were left at the end of the book. It is enough. 

Some things to consider if you are going to read it. It is violent. We all lost track of the number of graves that needed to be dug. If you have low violence tolerance, skimming or skipping the chapters with Blue Duck would be my suggestion. There is also swearing and sex. The latter isn't explicit; I only needed to skip half a page, but references are pervasive. If you are easily offended, this is probably not the book for you. But I think the story and meeting the characters is worth a bit of discomfort. And I really wish someone I know in real life would read it because I really need to discuss it some more.