Interesting that McMurtry thought Duane’s Depressed would be the fiction that would lift him to great. I’ve always thought that was the best book of the Duane Moore series. Wish we would’ve been able to Jeff Bridges continue that series on film what that adaptation.
Thanks for this treat today. Both books are in my Top 10 of all time, and it was a pleasure to read your thoughtful analysis of them. I have found that both authors gain esteem in my mind on the second or third readings. McMurtry’s short works about Texas are really under appreciated. As is McCarthy’s. BM is less known simply because it isn’t told in the traditional way, as Lonesome Dove is. BM is harder work but likely much more true to what you say was McMurtry’s goal: to demythologize the Western. To me, these two books form 2 of the 3 books of the Texas Trilogy. The third: Empire of the Summer Moon, by SC Gwynn.
Gwynn's book is not just one of my favorite nonfiction books, but one of my all time favorites regardless of category. I agree with you that McCarthy's Blood Meridian does a better job demythologizing the West, though that's not what he set out to do. I've written about this before (https://www.yallogy.com/p/the-blood-of-ambivalence), but for all the violence in Lonesome Dove—and there's plenty—it doesn't reach the level of Blood Meridian, nor the level of what readers had already been exposed to through movies and television coverage of Vietnam by the time Lonesome Dove was published.
Interesting that McMurtry thought Duane’s Depressed would be the fiction that would lift him to great. I’ve always thought that was the best book of the Duane Moore series. Wish we would’ve been able to Jeff Bridges continue that series on film what that adaptation.
Thanks for this treat today. Both books are in my Top 10 of all time, and it was a pleasure to read your thoughtful analysis of them. I have found that both authors gain esteem in my mind on the second or third readings. McMurtry’s short works about Texas are really under appreciated. As is McCarthy’s. BM is less known simply because it isn’t told in the traditional way, as Lonesome Dove is. BM is harder work but likely much more true to what you say was McMurtry’s goal: to demythologize the Western. To me, these two books form 2 of the 3 books of the Texas Trilogy. The third: Empire of the Summer Moon, by SC Gwynn.
Gwynn's book is not just one of my favorite nonfiction books, but one of my all time favorites regardless of category. I agree with you that McCarthy's Blood Meridian does a better job demythologizing the West, though that's not what he set out to do. I've written about this before (https://www.yallogy.com/p/the-blood-of-ambivalence), but for all the violence in Lonesome Dove—and there's plenty—it doesn't reach the level of Blood Meridian, nor the level of what readers had already been exposed to through movies and television coverage of Vietnam by the time Lonesome Dove was published.