novels, comets, movies
I knew nothing about this story going in. I thought it was going to be some sober, artsy-fartsy thing. It’s actually filled with sex, much of it surprisingly explicit and even erotic. The sex is painted real, meaning it’s only occasionally a joyful thing and more often: sad, boring, painful, calculating, stolen, paid for, animalistic … Continue reading The Last Picture Show
It's a common trope in fiction: a final confrontation between the central hero of a story and its central villain. It's an important trope in Westerns, both on the page and screen -- Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven" is just one famous example. And we see it in works of fiction that are too many to count: … Continue reading Hero, meet your villain; or, never mind
I almost skipped reading "Comanche Moon" because of some critical reviews – and it does have a lot of flaws, which I’ll get into. In the end I decided to read it because it brings back Famous Shoes, the Kickapoo tracker who was practically the best single thing about “Streets of Laredo.” And there is … Continue reading Comanche Moon
They say that “Streets of Laredo”, the sequel to "Lonesome Dove,: suffers from not having Gus McCrae, who didn't survive the first book. They also say that because fans wanted to see Gus again, Larry McMurtry wrote his prequels to “Lonesome Dove”, in which we get to see both Gus and Call in their youth: … Continue reading Dead Man’s Walk
Maria didn't believe in hell. If there was a hell it came to you in life."Streets of Laredo," chapter 8 “Streets of Laredo”, the sequel to "Lonesome Dove," is so filled with cruelty and death that paradoxically, it doesn’t feel ultra-realistic; it feels theological and moral – and the environment feels otherworldly. Larry McMurtry once … Continue reading Theology and morality in Laredo
About 10 years ago I saw the television adaptation of Larry McMurtry's novel, "Streets of Laredo," his sequel to "Lonesome Dove." I had recently become a father, and that may have colored my judgment a bit, but I found "Laredo" to be, among many things, most memorably a story about parenthood. Motherhood, in this case. … Continue reading Streets of Laredo
I first saw the TV miniseries adaptation of "Lonesome Dove" in the early 90s, about four years after it premiered. I didn't read the novel until this summer. The movie was and probably always will be one of my favorites, but after reading the novel I'm finding some important differences between the two, that I'd … Continue reading Lonesome Dove book vs movie
Larry McMurtry published “Streets of Laredo”, his sequel to “Lonesome Dove”, in summer 1993. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution then ran a piece by Michael Skube, who compared “Lonesome Dove” to “Don Quixote”: Living briefly off the luster of its predecessor, a sequel establishes its own grounds as art or it diminishes the work from which … Continue reading McMurtry and Cervantes
October 7, 2020 Don Quijote has taken up many roles now that are actually knightly in their way. During the Basilio story he becomes something of a marriage-counselor at arms. He stops an incipient brawl at the wedding, which probably counts as the single best thing he’s done. He tries to be a peacemaker in … Continue reading 82 chapters into Don Quixote