Moira Cue Reading and Reviewing Every Pulitzer Prize Winning Novel

Moira Cue is reading and reviewing, in random order, every Pulitzer Prize winning novel / work of fiction, exclusively for the Hollywood Sentinel.

Lonesome Dove

Allow me full disclosure, I don’t like Westerns. I find the all-male, dusty, sparse with flora, gun-toting allegories, be they cinematic or literary, too far from my own experience to relate. Yet, when asked which of the Pulitzer Prize winning novels I liked best, while many excel and compel, Larry McMurty’s Lonesome Dove, (winner, 1986) and also a four-part miniseries set in the Wild West during the last days of the buffalo, when settlers still avoided certain trails due to the risk of being scalped, is the story that moved me to skip meals, avoid phone calls, and stay up late until I knew if Gus would save Lorie, and if he would wind up with his old sweetheart Clara.

Captain Augustus McCrae and Captain Woodrow F. Call are ex-Texas rangers who run the cattle ranch at Lonesome Dove, Texas. Most of the cattle hands are in love with Lorie, a young woman who was forced into prostitution by her lover and then abandoned. Lorie works in the local saloon, where the owner is also in love with her. When she falls in love, it is with another young, physically beautiful character, Jake Spoon, who starts out as a Texas Ranger with the Captains but is so used to his life being easy on account of his looks that he slowly drifts, lacking moral resolve, into a band of gamblers and then worse.

lonesome doveblaze

Gus knows that Lorie will fall for Jake before she does; He is used to Jake’s effect on women and knows that Lorie is no better judge of character than any other foolish young woman. But Lorie reminds Gus of the woman he loved when he was a young man, whose name is Clara. Clara rejected Gus’s marriage proposals, taking up with the first “stable” opportunity that presented its self, because she felt that Gus’s true love was adventure. Gus married, and was widowed, but never forgot Clara.

When Gus sees Lorie he wants to protect her from her own bad decisions and impetuous recklessness. But the drive toward a larger adventure seizes hold of Gus and his partner, the reserved, orderly, stern Woodrow Call, usually referred to as Call. Call is the opposite of Gus. Gus likes to ponder, pontificate, and relax. Call keeps his mouth shut and is more comfortable working than anything else. Somehow Call and Gus take hold of the idea of a cattle drive to Montana, to start the first ranch there. If they succeed they will be rich, as the only competitor for a government contract to supply soldiers with beef.

Jake Spoon, shows up at Lonesome Dove shortly before the grand adventure, on the lam from an accidental shooting of a dentist, whose brother-in-law, July Johnson, has been reluctantly dispatched to bring him back to justice. Meanwhile, July’s wife runs off to find the man she really loves, an associate of Jake’s, and July’s deputy chases July to tell him that his wife is missing.

The villain of the story is a bloodthirsty criminal, an Indian named Blue Duck. This is not a simplistic cowboys and Indians story where one side is good and one side is evil. There are many whites in the story who are alcoholic, depraved, bigoted, or cowardly. Gus and the other cowboys have more in common, he realizes, with the natives than with the whites who come after men like him have blazed a trail. He prefers to get along with the Indians as he sees how similar they are. But this particular individual, Blue Duck, is a real bad guy. He kills slowly when he has the time, brutally when he is in a hurry. He steals horses. He kidnaps women and sells them into sexual slavery for horses and supplies, then gambles and cheats to win back his “property” and kills anyone who argues with him. He’s ugly. He’s mean. He smells bad and everything about him is sick and cruel, just for the sake of cruelty. At the beginning of the adventure, when Gus has a chance to shoot him in the back, he doesn’t; a decision he comes to regret.

The story reminds me of something I find hard to imagine: That before the shopping malls, the railroads, the highways, there was a different kind of law, wide open skies, and wilderness. In this context love and redemption never come easy, if at all. Others have told this American history, but none have made it so vivid, so real, so heartachingly rendered.

www.TheHollywoodSentinel.com and

www.MoiraCue.com

Cue’s Pulitzer Reviews

Hot this week

Did David Wineland and Serge Haroche Steal Idea For The Nobel Physics Prize?

Dr. Omerbashich says the Royal Swedish Academy is a Crime Scene and he has the proof that Nobel laureates stole his discovery.

New Approaches to Disaster Relief Challenges

Disaster relief has always been a challenge. NASA, Google,...

3 Legitimate Money Making Methods to Supplement Your Income

In a perfect world, when your landlord raises your...

2016 Predictions by World Renowned Medium and Psychic Lindy Baker

World renowned medium and psychic Lindy Baker is interviewed by The Hollywood Sentinel, discussing psychic power, the spirit world, life after death, areas of concern in 2016, and much more.

Digital Coupon Customers Spending More Than Double At Stores

A new study shows that customers who use digital coupons go shopping more for groceries and other household goods more often and spend more on their shopping trips.

Protest to Stop “King Trump” and ICE from deporting Murderer Child Rapists

On June 14th, in MacDonald Park, Queens, the usual...

USAID Official, Three Executives Plead Guilty to Fraud

USAID official Roderick Watson and three company executives pled...

Truth, Justice, and the Price of Peace: A Letter to Humanity From a Tired Citizen of Earth

What is the price of peace when your heart is breaking - not from rockets or protests or flags or chants but when people stop listening.

Don’t Let’s Go To The Dogs Tonight – a South African Memoir

The war began in 1964. Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight is set in the summer of ‘79, just before an election, with white minority rule under threat.

With Republicans in Power, Firearms Rights Advocates Push to Reform Gun Laws

Gun Owners of America, a gun rights lobby, joined...

Israel Film Festival (IFF)-June 6, 2025 Prelude Luncheon

While the world antagonizes Israel, currently fighting an existential war, the Israel Film Festival (IFF) proudly held its annual sponsor luncheon.

Unibeam Secures $6M to Replace Vulnerable SMS OTPs with SIM-Based Authentication

In a bold move to redefine digital authentication, Israeli...

Can A Boiler Explode

Boiler explosions sound like something out of a disaster...

Related Articles

Popular Categories