Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
BBM and Lonesome Dove
Brown Eyes:
--- Quote from: mariez on April 14, 2009, 01:42:34 pm ---
Oh, no - so it actually did ending up giving you a nightmare! Was it one specific part? I agree with your assessment, Amanda. LD stands out as my favorite book in the series, although I did like the others. It's been a while since I've read it, but I believe the "worst case scenarios" continue right through the end. There was also a mini-series made of DMW. I wouldn't buy it - but it's worth watching (I borrowed a copy from my local library). Let us know when you complete the book and what you think of the ending. :)
--- End quote ---
Heya,
Well, I'm probably about 20 pages from the end, so I'll certainly finish the book this evening.
**spoilers ahead**
LOL, the part that gave me a nightmare a couple nights ago was the introduction to the leper colony. At that point, I thought good grief! What next!? In this book McMurtry certainly lets his sort of darker imagination have free reign. I don't remember the bad news being so constant in LD. There are so many parts in this book that could inspire a bad dream. But, for some reason the inital ways that he described the lepers' hospital really got to me. The whole idea of leprosy gives me the chills.
mariez:
--- Quote from: atz75 on April 14, 2009, 04:23:02 pm ---Heya,
Well, I'm probably about 20 pages from the end, so I'll certainly finish the book this evening.
**spoilers ahead**
LOL, the part that gave me a nightmare a couple nights ago was the introduction to the leper colony. At that point, I thought good grief! What next!? In this book McMurtry certainly lets his sort of darker imagination have free reign. I don't remember the bad news being so constant in LD. There are so many parts in this book that could inspire a bad dream. But, for some reason the inital ways that he described the lepers' hospital really got to me. The whole idea of leprosy gives me the chills.
--- End quote ---
*spoilers*
Ahh, yes, the leper colony - ugh. No, the bad news was not so constant in LD. But I do think you're prepared now, somewhat, for the remaining books. Comanche Moon is longer and there are a few more "ups" interspersed with the "downs" but there are some very, very (I thought) frightening and gruesome parts. And "Streets of Laredo" is probably the darkest of the books - I read somewhere that McMurtry was in a dark place in his own life when he wrote it - and it shows. The dvd of "Streets of Laredo" ends, I think, on a slightly more upbeat tone than the book.
Front-Ranger:
Usually I am not overly upset by books with volatile, even tragic, content, (after all, I'm a fan of Annie Proulx's work!) but I'm sort of at a place in my life where a constant diet of trials and tribulations resembles my day-to-day existence too much!! Maybe that's why I've been slowly making my way through Lonesome Dove...I just finished Part II.
It's interesting to contrast Proulx's and McMurtry's writing. They share some elements of style, but with Annie, she'll have Ennis say he shot a coyote while sitting around the campfire, but Larry will take us out with Call and McCrae when they go on a shooting expedition. So, LD has a lot more action in it, while giving less of the interior monologue than Annie does. I'm thinking of the forays into the wilderness of the old man in The Half-Skinned Steer or of Jewell at the end of Postcards. We know exactly what the characters are thinking as they venture into uncharted territory, whereas with McMurtry, we know exactly what's happening, and must infer what's in the hidden interior landscape. There are a few exceptions, such as the young characters whose impressions of the West McMurtry likes to describe, and the thoughts of Lorie, whose consciousness comes and goes.
Front-Ranger:
The young Che Guevara visited a leper colony in the book/movie The Motorcycle Diaries. I wonder how those scenes compare to that passage in Dead Man's Walk.
Brown Eyes:
Hmmm, I've never read or seen The Motorcycle Diaries, so I don't really know. LOL, I'm pretty thankful to say that I've rarely encountered extended treatment of leper colonies or lepers in literature, as happens at the end of Dead Man's Walk. The whole topic gives me the chills.
I finished the book several days ago and am still kind of recovering from it. The bleakness and brutality of McMurtry's writing in this book still is surprising to me. I'm going to read Comanche Moon and Streets of Laredo because now I'm pretty determined to finish the series. But, I think I may need a little break for a while. So, I may try to read something else before I tackle Comanche Moon. I'll admit that I'm intimidated by these next two books. Yikes, if Streets of Laredo is the most grim of all... it really must be quite something, since Dead Man's Walk seemed so brutal to me.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version