Search - Comanche Moon (Lonesome Dove, Bk 4)

Larry McMurtry is the most exasperating author I've ever read. Some of his early work ("The Last Picture Show", "Leaving Cheyenne", "Horseman, Pass By") is so good I have read it more than once, and watch the movies based on the books ("Last Picture Show", "Loving Molly", "Hud") over and over. "Lonesome Dove" was a classic, the only Western to ever win a Pulitzer Prize. However, he has also written some awful trash - three of his books ("Somebody's Darling", "Cadillac Jack" and "The Desert Rose") are often referred to as The Trash Trilogy.

McMurtry has written several sequels and prequels to "Lonesome Dove", and I've started all of them, but never finished a one, including this book. His sequels to "The Last Picture Show" were equally bad or worse. I conclude that McMurtry enjoys the results of writing (fame and money) more than the actual writing. Once he hits on a successful formula, he cranks out sequels to keep the income stream flowing with little regard for quality. The only worthwhile things he has written in thge last ten years are "Driving America's Highways" and the screenplay for the movie "Brokeback Mountain" based on Annie Proulx lovely novella. He won an Oscar for that, and deserved it.

In this immediate prequel to "Lonesome Dove", Gus and Call have matured as Rangers, but are both unlucky in love. Uber-Comanche Buffalo Hump again menaces the frontier, but it is his last hurrah. Yet another quirky military expedition, this time led by the certifiably insane Inish Scull, takes the troop into danger, and the character of soon-to-be-important Blue Duck is introduced and developed.

Classic Mc Murtry only Lonesome Dove itself is better.