Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Books We Want for the Holidays: Lonesome Dove


Author of Terms of Endearment!
I know that I have failed to meet Liz’s expectations over and over, but her greatest disappointment in me remains that I have never read Lonesome Dove.  Her disgust grows with the fact that I haven’t seen the mini-series either.

The thing is, I want to make amends, I want to do the right thing. But also, I don’t really want to read Lonesome Dove. Have you looked at that book? My God, it's like one thousand million pages long! And the font size, are you kidding me?

Does it not matter that I read Terms of Endearment and The Evening Star? I guess it just doesn’t matter to precious Liz that I not only read The Last Picture Show, but then went on to read Texasville!

Cary White's trail map
Does it not matter that I just finished reading cover-to-cover A Book on the Making of Loneseome Dove? Does that not count toward not only reading the novel, but also seeing the movie? It should; it is packed with interviews from about forty people involved with the movie: Peter Bogdanovich, Chris Cooper, Robert Duvall, Frederck Forrest, Stephen Harrigan, Bill Wittliff, Diane Lane and of course the man himself, Larry McMurtry.

Also included are several very cool candid Polaroid shots from the set, photographs of iconic props (such as trail maps), costumes, set designs, and shooting scripts. Of course the book is also packed with gorgeous on set photographs, both during shooting and candid.

It’s a gorgeous book, the perfect gift for a fan of the film, novel, or anyone who ever set foot in Texas. 


The gorgeous Robert Urich

I know, I know…I guess it doesn’t matter how much of McMurtry I read if it doesn’t include the one that won the Pulitzer.  2013 will be the year of Lonesome Dove

[That's it--we are watching the mini-series before January 1st.  We're not going to debate this.]

3 comments:

  1. Love, love, love this book. About 3 years ago I discovered a woman in my book club had not yet read it so I assigned Lonesome Dove as my pick. She loved it. (Of course.) My dinner that night was chili (no beans; we're in Texas, but not around a campfire or a trail ride), jalapeno cornbread, and cobbler. Theme-ish.

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  2. I'm a bookseller, and this is my favorite book to put in readers' hands. As long as it seems, about page 800 you will starkly realize that your time with these friends is not unlimited, and you will mourn.

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  3. Once again it's clear that Gianna needs to listen to us.

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