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.
