BBM and Lonesome Dove

[Brown Eyes]

Thanks Marie!

I'm now about 100 pages into the book, and I'm really liking it.  The pace of it is reminding me more of Lonesome Dove than Dead Man's Walk.  The moments of high drama and the moments of relative quiet, character back-story, etc. seem well timed and well interspersed- as seemed to be the case with LD for me.  My overall impression of DMW was that the grim, dire, extremely dramatic material was a little too constant.  Clearly, I still have a ton to go in Comanche Moon, but so far so good!

LOL, and this may seem silly, but I keep finding it amusing that one of the main characters so far in CM has the first name of Inish.  Which, seems like it must sound a lot like Ennis when pronounced outloud.  I'm not saying that I see any parallels between that character and Ennis.... but the names just strike me.

[mariez]

Thanks Marie!

I'm now about 100 pages into the book, and I'm really liking it.  The pace of it is reminding me more of Lonesome Dove than Dead Man's Walk.  The moments of high drama and the moments of relative quiet, character back-story, etc. seem well timed and well interspersed- as seemed to be the case with LD for me.  My overall impression of DMW was that the grim, dire, extremely material was a little too constant.  Clearly, I still have a ton to go in Comanche Moon, but so far so good!

LOL, and this may seem silly, but I keep finding it amusing that one of the main characters so far in CM has the first name of Inish.  Which, seems like it must sound a lot like Ennis when pronounced outloud.  I'm not saying that I see any parallels between that character and Ennis.... but the names just strike me.

Yes, I think LD and CM  have more in common stylistically than DMW.  Not to say CM won't have plenty of grim and diire moments, but there is more of a variety of plotlines and themes than DMW.  And LOL at Inish  - that's right! 

[Brown Eyes]

LOL, yeah, I'm expecting the dire content... and I do like the super dramatic moments/ story-lines.  But, it's nice to have it in doses.  At least for me.

[Front-Ranger]

Thanks Marie!


LOL, and this may seem silly, but I keep finding it amusing that one of the main characters so far in CM has the first name of Inish.  Which, seems like it must sound a lot like Ennis when pronounced outloud.  I'm not saying that I see any parallels between that character and Ennis.... but the names just strike me.

Hmm, I just acquried a DVD called The Secret of Roan Inish. Haven't seen it yet. I'll let you know of enni parallels. Getting ready for my trip next summer to the fair isles!

[Brown Eyes]

Heya,
I thought I'd revive this thread!  I'm here to report that I'm still reading Comanche Moon.  I'm a couple hundred pages into it and still have a ways to go.  Clearly, this one is going more slowly for me than the other two that I've read so far.  But, that has a lot to do with my reading pace (for a while I was just reading one little section at a time) and the fact that I took several weeks off around the holidays.  I took Comanche Moon up again in earnest this week.

And, as usual, my overall impression is that, wow, McMurtry really is quite a storyteller.  Really impressive.  And, my main lingering question as I read a lot of the scenarios he describes is... I'd love to know what his research and writing methods were.  How many of the aspects of Comanche culture are based on some kind of real research that McMurtry did, and how much is pure fiction and just part of McMurtry's storyweaving?  I imagine that all the Lonesome Dove books must have taken a great deal of research - about historic western culture, old cowboy habits, Native American history, etc.  This one, in particular, with its goal of showing a lot more of the narrative from the Native American perspective I find this question particularly interesting.

Anyway, I also love learning more about Maggie and Clara.  I think one of McMurtry's greatest strengths is shifting perspectives around from character to character.  I love getting some first-person perspectives from Maggie and Clara, in addition to the rangers, the Comanches, etc.

[Front-Ranger]

Great to hear! McMurtry has always been very strong in portraying women, as his writing partner Diana Ossana has observed.

[SFEnnisSF]

Howdy All,

Well I did finally rent Lonesome Dove on DVD and it was very good.   

[Brown Eyes]

Howdy All,

Well I did finally rent Lonesome Dove on DVD and it was very good.   

Glad to hear you liked it Eric!  Yeah, of the 3 books I've read so far, I like Loneseome Dove the best by far.  And, the acting in the mini-series really was very good.  Now I always think of/ picture Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones now when I'm reading about either Gus or Call in the books.

Great to hear! McMurtry has always been very strong in portraying women, as his writing partner Diana Ossana has observed.

Yes he treats the female characters (in this case I'm talking about Maggie and Clara in Comanche Moon).  It's interesting to get a tiny glimpse of something like female society... in the interactions between Maggie and Clara and even Pearl and Inez to some extent.  Things like class hierarchy and status... for instance, Maggie being a prostitue and Clara not going that route become very interesting in seeing how the different women reacting to one another (with sympathy or not).  While he treats them in a complex way, so far at least, McMurtry certainly doesn't spend all that much time dwelling on the female characters, however.  So, while we learn a bit more about them in this book, I wish he'd spend a little more time on them and their story lines.

[Brown Eyes]

Heya,
I'm still slowly working my way through Comanche Moon... one small section at a time normally.  I'm enjoying it, but I can only handle small doses of it at a time.  I found Lonesome Dove itself to be a true page turner... and I finished that one so quickly.  But Dead Man's Walk and this one are slower for me.  Clearly, there were grim and violent moments in LD, but I didn't find that kind of tone to dominate the story.  I thought that a general grimness or even gruesomeness was too predominant in DMW.  And, Comanche Moon, I'm finding to be more balanced... more like LD.  In this one, it seems like McMurtry goes to some length to try to intersperse moments of comic relief... sometimes awkward, strange or dark humor... but humor nonetheless.  Still, having read these books now, I'm continually kind of amazed at how grim (there's that word again) McMurtry's imagination seems to be sometimes.

Anyway... I thought I'd post a quotation from Comanche Moon that I found really interesting... and kind of reminded me of a certain mood in BBM. It reminds me of the continued presence of Jack in Ennis's life even after Jack's death. There may be a small spoiler involved in this quotation... so if you don't want to know any specific details about CM... please don't read!

"...[H]e too had been friends with Long Bill for many years.  He had known several men who had lost limbs in battle; the men all claimed that they still felt things in the place where the limb had been.  It was natural enough, then, that with Bill suddenly gone he and Gus would continue to have some of the feelings that went with friendship, even though the friend was gone." (p. 394)

 
[*more spoilers* -- by way of some more context here... Call and Gus are mourning the sudden death by suicide of their long-time ranger partner and friend.  These are Call's thoughts in reaction to Gus's deep mourning for their mutual friend.]

[SFEnnisSF]

I just got through the 2-disc set of Larry McMurtry's Dead Man's Walk.  It wasn't until the very end that I realized it's the same characters from Lonesome Dove.      I had only rented it because of Larry McMurtry and Diana Osana.  And I now also see that the movies I put in my Netflix queue, Streets of Laredo, Camanche Moon, etc, are them characters too.  I didn't even realize it 'til just this moment.  

Hey, if Larry and Diana could put these two fellers in different settings, different stories, different places......