Lonesome Dove - August CC Book Club Selection

[Mary13]

<p>Well, my compañeros, that 10 days went by fast! This is the point at which we traditionally begin thinking about our next book. Lonesome Dove will be a hard act to follow, but let’s see what we can come up with…Suggestions welcome!</p>

<p>As usual, our current discussion can continue as long as anyone is interested. Are there any lurkers out there who read along with us and enjoyed (or did not enjoy) Lonesome Dove? If so, we’d love to hear your opinion (waving at peacefulmom :-h ).</p>

[NJTheatreMOM]

<p>The new Haruki Murakami novel, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, is out. It is shorter than his last book, and people are saying it might be a good one to start with for readers new to Murakami. I’ve read a fair amount of his fiction, find him endlessly fascinating, and plan on reading this one too.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/books/270407971.html”>http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/books/270407971.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>On September 2, The Bone Clocks is coming out. It’s a new novel by David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas. Reviews on Goodreads of advance copies of the book give it a thumbs up.</p>

<p>In addition, I’d like to re-suggest The Round House by Louise Erdrich. I’ve read it and would be delighted to read it again and discuss it. When this book was suggested before, some of our members said they weren’t sure about it because it has an incident of violence against a woman in it. Well, Lonesome Dove has violence against women too, and everyone loves it so. In The Round House, as in Lonesome Dove, the violence in question happens “off-stage” – we do not witness it, and it is not described. </p>

<p>In addition, I’d say that Louise Erdrich is every bit as good as McMurtry at creating characters you care about. A novel about very appealing Native Americans would be nice to read after so much talk about cowboys.</p>

[mathmom]

<p>I have no opinion, but I will say I really enjoy character driven fiction. Louise Erdrich is one of those names I’m sure I’ve always thought I should read, but looking at book titles I can’t say I remember why. So many authors I only know through NYT book reviews and NPR interviews!</p>

<p>That said, I rather like the idea of reading something from Japan.</p>

<p>I’m pretty much game for anything. The next book I’m reading (probably before I finish the Dresden File short stories I’m working on but bored with) is *The Martian *. It was originally a self-published first novel by Andy Weir and then picked up by Crown.</p>

[ignatius]

<p>As you know, I read Streets of Laredo. I’m taking a break for a month or two and then plan to read the two prequels. I’d like to see the young Gus and Call, Clara and Maggie … even perhaps who/what made Blue Duck a psychopath.</p>

<p>I can’t really recommend Streets of Laredo … it lacks the humor of Lonesome Dove. When it’s good, it’s really good. </p>

<p>I want to post a couple quotes that I think you guys might like. McMurtry has a touch of Jane Austen in him, perhaps. Spoilers? Not really … the main detail or two can be found on the book jacket or a review. Certainly you know by the second chapter. Unless you’re a real stickler about spoilers go for it. I typed in white so that you won’t accidentally read if you don’t want. If you do read it, press like or pm me. I’m curious to see who was interested. Press down on control and highlight - start right here: [color=white]Clara teaches Lorie to read and write. Lorie shows an aptitude for learning and with Clara’s support manages to get a teaching certificate. She falls in love with Pea Eye and when the book starts they live on a small farm in Texas. Lorie teaches in the one room schoolhouse. They have five children ages 15 to 3 months. It is a happy marriage. Pea Eye adores Lorie and is as loyal to her as he ever was to Call. Here’s a snippet of how it came about.[/color=white]

[color=white]“He’s simple – sometimes that’s good,” Clara said. “He’s gentle, too, but he’s not weak. His horses respect him. I tend to trust a horse’s respect.”</p>

<p>“He don’t talk much, though,” she added.</p>

<p>“I don’t care whether he talks or not,” Lorena said. “I wouldn’t marry a man just for conversation. I’d rather read, now that I know how, than listen to any man talk.”</p>

<p>“You’re going to have to propose to Pea Eye, you know,” Clara said. “He has no inkling that you want him. I doubt it’s ever crossed his mind, that he could aspire to a beauty like you.”[color=white]

</p>

<p>and - later in the book but still not a spoiler:</p>

<p>

[color=white]She herself had known little happiness until she had persuaded Pea Eye to accept her. Why she felt she might be happy with Pea instead of with any of the other men who had sought her hand in the years after Gus McCrae’s death was elusive, too. Lorena had thought she’d known what drew her to Pea Eye once, but now, sitting by the campfire in Mexico, she found she couldn’t recover her own reckonings in the matter. She had been right, though, for she had known great happiness with Pea Eye and their children. Probably there was no explaining any of it; probably it had been mostly luck.

[/color=white]</p>

[Nrdsb4]

<p>

In addition, I’d like to re-suggest The Round House by Louise Erdrich. I’ve read it and would be delighted to read it again and discuss it. When this book was suggested before, some of our members said they weren’t sure about it because it has an incident of violence against a woman in it. Well, Lonesome Dove has violence against women too, and everyone loves it so. In The Round House, as in Lonesome Dove, the violence in question happens “off-stage” – we do not witness it, and it is not described.

</p>

<p>Well, it would be a sad state of affairs if the only books which we found compelling and worthy of reading and discussing were books in which all the characters behave nicely. </p>

[mathmom]

<p>Too funny. I miraculously made it all the way through* Lonesome Dove * without reading ahead, but I did look up the Wiki page for * Streets of Laredo * so what you posted is not a surprise to me even though I haven’t read the book. Lets just say, I would never ever have predicted that particular pairing, but I like it.</p>

<p>There’s that word “luck” again!</p>

[ignatius]

<p>Okay … separate post … and much iffier because it contains spoilers. I think you might like this though and it seems a fitting end for any who are interested. Start here: Call is injured in Mexico, similar to Gus. He chooses to live though. Lorie brings two motherless children home with her from Mexico … adds them to her brood. Call and the little girl - blind - form a close attachment.

[color=white]Sometimes, if Teresa urged him, Call would hobble to the house for his meals. He and Clara rarely spoke. When the meal was finished, it was Teresa who got Call his crutches and helped him from his chair. If Teresa was out of the room for five minutes, Call grew visibly anxious. He would look around for her.</p>

<p>“Where’s Tessie?” he would ask, if Teresa was absent too long. “Ain’t Tessie here?”</p>

<p>Teresa always walked with him, holding him lightly by the arm as he went back to his shack.</p>

<p>“He’s formed an attachment,” Clara said, watching. “It’s an attachment to a female, too.”

</p>

<p>and</p>

<p>

[color=white]The day she was to leave for Nebraska, Clara walked down to say farewell to Call. He was sitting with Teresa outside his shack, whittling a stick. Theresa liked to feel the smoothness of the wood of the sticks, once Call had whittled all the knots away. He had smoothed her a number of little sticks to play with. Teresa touched them with her fingers, and sometimes she held on to her cheek.</p>

<p>“Well, I’m off to the depot, I guess,” Clara said. “I wanted to say goodbye, Woodrow.”</p>

<p>Call had been hoping Clara would come by, before she left. There was something he wanted to ask her. But he didn’t want Teresa to hear his question.</p>

<p>“Tessie, would you go to the house and ask Mrs. Parker if I could have some coffee?” he asked Teresa. “I woke up with a headache - coffee usually helps.”</p>

<p>[…]</p>

<p>“I’ve heard there were schools for the blind,” Call said to Clara. “Do you know anything about them?”</p>

<p>“Why, no,” Clara replied. “Tessie’s the first blind person I’ve ever had in my life. But I can inquire for you, Woodrow.”</p>

<p>“I’d appreciate it,” Call said. “I’ve got a little money saved. If there’s a way Teresa can get her education, I’d like to help. I believe she’s bright.”</p>

<p>“You’re right about that - she’s bright,” Clara told him.</p>

<p>“If she goes away, I’m sure we’ll all miss her,” Call said.</p>

<p>“You most of all, Woodrow,” Clara said.</p>

<p>Call didn’t answer, but the look on his face said more than Clara wanted to hear or see or know about one human missing another. She shook his hand and turned toward the house.</p>

<p>A moment later, she grew irritated, unreasonably irritated. She turned back on the path.</p>

<p>“Call Lorena Lorena,” she said, loudly. “You don’t have to call her Mrs. Parker now.”</p>

<p>“The man’s trying, but he just rubs me the wrong way,” Clara said when she marched into the kitchen. Lorena was washing a cut on Georgie’s hand. She wasn’t paying much attention.[/color=white]

</p>

[ignatius]

<p>Suggestions: I’m still interested in the Sherlock Holmes duo we’ve discussed. September seems a good reading month. Nests should once again be empty.</p>

<p>I read All the Light We Can Not See - Anthony Doerr. I think it could be a good discussion book. It reads quickly and just published in May. Take a look.</p>

<p>Other than that my mind is blank. I’ll think on it.</p>

[mathmom]

<p>Heh, my nest is filling back up in September. (My recent grad has an unpaid internship in NYC), but I’m happy to do the Sherlock Holmes duo too. </p>

[ignatius]

<p>I’ve thought of two more titles:</p>

<p>The Interpreter of Maladies: Stories - short story collection - Pulitzer Prize 1999</p>

<p>The Book of Unknown Americans - new release</p>

<p>mathmom: I want to read The Martian also but it may be a while. I’m overwhelmed with books I want/need to read at the moment.</p>

[mathmom]

<p>I’m nixing short story collections!</p>

<p>The Martian is fun - basically Robinson Crusoe in space.</p>

[ignatius]

<p>What about Mr. Mercedes - Stephen King</p>

[NJTheatreMOM]

<p>Ha! I’d be up for Mr Mercedes. I have a weakness for Stephen King, as long as the book is not one of his super-gory ones.</p>

[SouthJerseyChessMom]

<p>Many thanks to Ignatius for those clever white out posts. Soon I’ll be watching the tv mini series, lonesome dove, and will pay closer attention to certain characters.</p>

<p>Lots of interesting options for next selection.</p>

[PlantMom]

<p>“Press down on control and highlight.” I feel a little silly asking this, but WHERE is the highlight button on my computer? I want to read what you’ve written Ignatius!</p>

[mathmom]

<p>PlantMom, how do you select text to copy a portion of a post? That’s all I have to do to read Ignatius spoilers.</p>

[PlantMom]

<p>Voila! Thank you Mathmom. I’m using a mouse and just scrolling down and selecting the text made it appear. Hmmmm.</p>

[PlantMom]

<p>I’d read Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, Mr. Mercedes, or The Round House. I’ve already read the latter Erdrich and I think it’s truly excellent. By Murakami I’ve only listened to one, 1Q84, which I enjoyed, but I wouldn’t mind trying the new one. I haven’t read Steven King in ages. </p>

<p>Would anyone be interested in Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse?</p>

[mathmom]

<p>^It’s on my long list of things I feel guilty about not having ever read. I started* Mrs. Dalloway* after I saw the movie* The Hours* but never got very far.</p>

[ignatius]

<p>PlantMom: Glad you got it. I couldn’t quite figure out how to explain the ‘how to.’ Thanks, mathmom. (By the way, don’t just highlight the quote section in the previous posts. I have info above it.) </p>

<p>I will p.m. anyone who wants to know about a specific character - only the information that McMurtry imparts in the first two or three chapters. Most of the characters are not in the book, so it’s not really like spoilers to the narrative. I will say that sometimes it’s better not knowing, though most I thought ‘well, yeah.’ (I’m a bit resentful about one.) </p>

<p>I don’t mean to discourage any reading of Streets of Laredo. I missed the humor of LD - it seems so much darker without it - and I didn’t attach to the new characters. Still other parts I wouldn’t wanted to have missed. Another ‘not a spoiler really’ - highlight now: [color=white]Call, Pea, and Lorie are such great characters in this one. Pea and Lorie have such love for each other and Lorie, in particular, has come into her own. To me, she owns the book.[/color=white]</p>