Comanche Moon : A Novel (urspr publ 1997; utgåvan 2000)

Great Far west book, accurate and realistic ( )

"Just go due south to the Rio Grande and turn left," a helpful rancher says to Texas Rangers Woodrow Call and Augustus McCrae in Larry McMurtry's Comanche Moon. "You'll eventually come to Lonesome Dove." (pg. 457). And you know what, he's right; finally, after two false starts, we have a worthy successor to McMurtry's peerless Western epic Lonesome Dove. Streets of Laredo and Dead Man's Walk were both decent stories, but somewhat, well, south of what we had expected. Comanche Moon is the left turn.

Because, for the first time since that first book, we have characters who feel like themselves, in a story that feels organic. Gus and Call finally speak in their own voices; no longer are they the callow youths of Dead Man's Walk or (in Call's case) the weary man of Streets of Laredo. They jaw at one another in a way they've not been allowed to since that great cattle drive of the first book, and they also have two great foils in Clara and Maggie. Both these ladies have relationships with the two Ranger captains that influence Lonesome Dove, and it's fascinating to delve into – particularly with Maggie, who we have not heard from before. Add to this the welcome return of Newt, Deets and Pea Eye, and, short of giving Gus an opportunity to kick a pig, there's little more McMurtry could have done to bring us back, however belatedly, to the joys of Lonesome Dove.

There are still some mis-steps – the Inish and Inez Scull plotline leads to nothing, and the Ahumado eye-torture left me feeling unnecessarily queasy – and Comanche Moon lacks that fortuitous lightning-in-a-bottle quality that Lonesome Dove had, but this is, by any reasonable metric, an excellent book. The Indian characters are particularly well done, as the novel's territory moves into the late 1860s and 1870s and the end of the buffalo herds on the plains – which in turns means the end of the fighting tribes. McMurtry wrings out the pathos of this without resorting to sentimentality about the noble savage: this is still a brutal land. I liked the bit-part braves like Three Birds and Idahi, and previously deployed characters like Buffalo Hump, Kicking Wolf and Famous Shoes were more fully realised here. Thinking how this book managed to catch fire where the previous two did not, it just proves that it's not just about having good characters, but how you place them. I for one am pleased McMurtry was able to get one more great story out of this, before his West was tamed forever. ( )

Texas Rangers are ineffective at fighting Indians.

2/4 (Indifferent).

800 pages of aimless rambling. ( )

I do not think I would have thought to read this series of books if it had not been for Natalie Bradshaw, who sent me Lonesome Dove, the first book of the series, in a Christmas gift exchange.

Tracey pointed out to me that the overarching story is a sad one, throughout the series. In light of that, especially, I would not have expected to like the books. McMurtry is a good storyteller. ( )

Romper stomper.
This is so much better than the Last Words saloon novel. Not a cliche in sight even though it travels trails well travelled. ( )