- The Good: An epic western that pulls the heartstrings
- The Bad: Small-worldly
- The Literary: Sequel to the deserving Pulitzer prize winner
Captain Woodrow Call, former Texas Ranger and August McCrae’s old partner, is hired as a bounty hunter to track down a brutal young Mexican bandit and murderer. With a small crew, they chase the outlaw into the last wild stretches of vast plains of the Texas frontier. Larry McMurtry’s sequel to Lonesome Dove is also the final book in the series, as the third and fourth installments are prequels.
If you haven’t read Lonesome Dove, read it first. Sure, it sounds like your typical cowboy story about a cattle drive, but it’s so much more and well deserving of its 1986 Pulitzer Prize. It’s a beautiful story about two adult men’s friendship, as well as a whole cast of characters you’ll love, who each do their best to make it in a harsh world full of hard people.
Be warned, though, that Streets of Laredo takes place many years after Lonesome Dove. And the book quickly dismisses and explains away so much that happened in the first book, it’s a huge shock. It’s almost as if McMurtry doesn’t want to acknowledge much of the first book, or any other character in that book besides Gus. I highly recommend preparing yourself for this, and distancing yourself emotionally from Lonesome Dove so you can appreciate the sequel on its own.
Streets of Laredo is really not that different. The cast of characters is wide and varied, maybe not quite as much as Lonesome Dove. Some characters you know and love return here, and several new characters emerge, including many south of the border. You’ll get to know many who you root for, and several you hope meet their end.
My favorite new characters are Brookshire, a salaried man all the way from New York who accompanies Call to take account his spending in a physical ledger, and Famous Shoes, a mythical tracker who can walk as fast as a man can ride a horse, who knows his worth and charges handsomely, and who brings a touch of magical realism.
There are many POVs, but Captain Call is the primary. He’s the same man he ever was, stoic and silent, a disciple of duty and honor. But in this installment we’re missing his compadre, the charismatic Gus. Without Gus, the novel lacks something special. The story is grand, sweeping, violent, nostalgic, and bittersweet, but there is no levity, no id to the ego.
McMurtry writes characters who feel real, and even though I was extremely angry with Call and the end of Lonesome Dove, I see his growth in the sequel. Not enough, but some. He’s still a stubborn old cowboy, but he fights for what’s right, and he tries his best. Many of the secondary characters get their own backstories, and the disconnected groups of characters and storylines are so rich that they can run parallel to each other and the reader is still satisfied.
One of the themes in Lonesome Dove is the dying of the American West, and Call and Gus’ glory days were starting to be forgotten. Streets of Laredo continues this theme, especially with the physical aging of Call, an old man who few remember, and whose arthritis severely limits him on cold mornings.
Surprisingly, the novel also focuses perspective on what it’s like to be a woman. Much of the novel follows Maria Garza, mother of the murderer outlaw that Call is hunting, and Lorena Parker, from the previous novel, as they try to clean up the messes made by the men in their lives. They both shed a lot of light on toxic masculinity, particularly the leers, the entitlement, and the sexual aggression.
This sequel is also too small-worldly. It’s unlikely how easily the characters seem to run into each other over so vast a terrain. In addition to the young Mexican bandit, McMurtry introduces another antagonist, which is fine. But the new antagonist’s back story is retrofitted into the Lonesome Dove plot, which feels a little uncomfortable.
I still adore this epic western, even though it’s more violent and dark, especially without Gus. It’s difficult to write a sequel to a perfect novel, but McMurtry has done it well. Highly recommended for fans of epic stories!