#264 | On Why ‘Lonesome Dove’ is the Definitive Novel for Every Man—Timeless Themes of Adventure, Loss, Love, Loyalty, Sacrifice, Shame, Guilt, and Friendship
Quick SUMMARY:
Douglas Vigliotti offers an in-depth yet concise review of Larry McMurtry’s “Lonesome Dove,” discussing the novel’s plot, major themes of leaving home for a dream, sacrifice, loss, adventure, aging, and friendship, and explains why it stands as a must-read Western classic. Vigliotti compares the book to its mini-series adaptation, shares favorite quotes, and highlights McMurtry’s literary legacy. He encourages listeners to read the novel, even if it will take you a month or two, or three—it’ll be worth it!
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TOPICS COVERED IN the EPISODE:
Introduction & Book Selection (00:09) - Douglas introduces the podcast, shares his August read, and explains why Lonesome Dove is featured.
Newsletter & Author Background (01:18) - Mentions the companion newsletter, gives background on Larry McMurtry, and references other Western authors.
Other Westerns & Mini-Series Comparison (02:22) - Discusses previous Westerns covered, the Pulitzer Prize, Stephen King's praise, and critiques the 1990s mini-series adaptation.
Plot Overview & Main Characters (03:27) - Summarizes the novel’s plot, introduces Woodrow Call and Augustus McCrae, and outlines their journey.
Themes: Adventure, Sacrifice, and Existential Questions (04:49) - Explores deeper themes: leaving home, trade-offs, existential questions, and the protagonists’ motivations.
Character Dynamics & Emotional Depth (06:03) - Analyzes the contrasting personalities of Gus and Call, their relationship, and the emotional impact of the story.
Book’s Emotional Climax & Satisfying Conclusion (07:27) - Highlights the emotional weight of the final chapters and the payoff for readers.
Favorite Quotes & Literary Reflections (08:34) - Shares memorable quotes, discusses their significance, and reflects on the novel’s emotional resonance.
Final Thoughts & Listener Engagement (10:56) - Recommends the book, thanks listeners, and provides information on connecting, subscribing, and his new book.
READ THE TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome back to “Books for Men”, a podcast to inspire more men to read and bring together men who do. So this week I am turning back to a work of fiction. And if you follow me on Instagram at Douglas Vigliotti, then you know that I was reading this book for the entire month of August. It's not always the case that I read a book and then immediately feature it on the podcast, but “Lonesome Dove” by Larry McMurtry gave me good reason to do so. It is a big book at 864 pages, and it is dense, so it actually reads a bit longer than that. It's a Western literary work that came out in 1985, I believe, and I will share a lot more about the book, the author, and some of my favorite takeaways. Why I think this monster of a book is actually worth your time and worth a read. And of course, I will also share some of my favorite quotes and all of that good stuff. But first, I just wanted to quickly remind you about the companion newsletter that goes with this podcast.
01:18 - And that's just a once-a-month email that rounds up all of the episodes from that month, complete with full book, author information, and all of my favorite quotes. There will be plenty from this book that I'm sharing with you today, “Lonesome Dove”, as well as episode summaries and additional book recommendations. So if you're interested in that, all you have to do is head over to the website BooksforMen.org. Okay, so as always, I like to first start with the author. And he is a prolific writer, not just of novels, which is probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 plus or so, but he's also written nonfiction and screenplays, the latter probably somewhere in that same neighborhood of 30 plus works. Either way, most of his work falls squarely in the genre of Westerns, which is no stranger to this podcast. Having featured both Cormac McCarthy and Philipp Meyer. McCarthy, of course, was with two books, but most recently “No Country for Old Men,” one of my favorite novels and movies.
02:22 - So if you're interested in that, you could check it out. I will link it up in the show notes. And then the Philipp Meyer book was “The Son”, and that was actually a year or two ago, but that will also be linked up in the show notes. However, it said that if you were to read only one Western in your entire life, “Lonesome Dove” would be it. I know that's a big praise and you're wondering who said it. They said it, of course. Them. You know them. Anyway, it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1985, and after taking a month to read it myself, the appeal was pretty evident. Funnily enough, Stephen King, also featured this month with Carey, has said “Lonesome Dove” is one of his favorite novels of all time, and I should mention that the book was recommended to me by Jonathan Small when he interviewed me on his podcast “Write About Now”, a book of the same title that I featured on this podcast. I'll link all these mentions in the show notes for quick access, but I also did want to include in this short little tidbit that there is a four-part mini-series from the ‘90s done by Robert Duvall, which garnered a lot of acclaim at the time.
03:27 - So following my reading of this book, I watched that four-part mini-series, and I have to admit that to me, it doesn't even light a candle to the novel. And that's not always the case. As you know from some of my previous novel versus movie segments, this mini-series is just too watered down for my taste. There's a grittiness in the novel that also offers additional points of view that you don't get when you're watching the mini-series, and I don't know if you're thinking about taking the shortcut and watching the mini-series, but I would highly encourage you to read the novel instead. At least in this situation. But that's beside the point. We're here to talk about the book, so let me pivot into that. For starters, if you haven't gathered already, it's a sprawling epic about much more than just the plot. But for the sake of clarity, it's about two men, Woodrow Call and Augustus McCrae. The latter is probably the primary protagonist of the story. Both are ex-Texas Rangers, somewhat known in the West, who embark on a cattle drive starting from the quaint town of Lonesome Dove on the Texas-Mexico border to the distant and expansive, and unsettled landscape of Montana.
04:49 - And they do this with the hopes of starting a ranch, making money, and having a fresh start in the final chapter of their lives, so to speak. So they employ a cast of characters who take the journey with them all, with their own quirks and strengths. But what you end up reading is, as I mentioned, so much more than this journey or what the plot offers. Of course, I won't share too much about that, and we'll leave that for you in your reading. But in the macro, it's a story about leaving home in search of more, and perhaps more importantly, what is lost along the way, or the trade-offs one has to make to embark on a journey or see a vision through. And the big question that you're left with, or at least I was left wondering, was, is there really anything gained, or a question that I find myself asking in my life pretty regularly at this point? What's the point? Why? It's almost like our two protagonists are willingly walking into certain troubles, hardships, and death, being almost certain.
06:03 - But the pull of Montana and its endless potential in the adventure of it is just greater than all of that. And despite the differences between our two protagonists, all great buddy stories, or even you could think of romantic comedies, they pit people together that have competing qualities, and that's what makes their relationship interesting. So Gus is much different than Call. Gus is probably more talkative and wild, and freewheeling, whereas Call is the more stoic, conserved, holding back his emotions, which ties into the plot in a pretty heavy way and really breaks you down if you let it. But they are also very similar in a sense. It's like Gus says, “Me and Call have always liked to get where we started for, even if it don't make a damn bit of sense.” Then again, with this other line, “I can't think of nothing better than riding a fine horse into a new country. It's exactly what I was meant for. And Woodrow, too.” And in that same conversation, just moments later, he says, “We might all get killed this afternoon, for all I know. That's the wild for you. It's got its dangers, which is part of the beauty.”
07:33 - And so while it's definitely a book about adventure and everything that I had just mentioned, it's also a book about shame and guilt, aging, unrequited love, loyalty, friendship, really is put in a spotlight, and the sacrifices that we make for it. There is a conversation that happens later in the book. I think it's like around page 800 or so. So very late to be exact, between the two main characters, that I literally had to hold back tears while I was reading it. It was so heavy, and there were just so many great scenes in this book, and so many of them came at the end of the novel. McMurtry really pays you off for reading such a big book. And that was something that really stuck with me, not just from a consumer standpoint, but also from a creator standpoint. And if you really deliver on the end, no matter what you just put the reader through, they will leave feeling very satisfied.
08:34 - That's what happened to me. So I'd say probably that final 150 pages, the last 60. Even more specifically, they are just so dialed in and give you so much of what you're hoping for. Maybe not on a plot level, but from an emotional resonance level. All right, so I'm going to end this episode by sharing a few of my favorite quotes. And there are some, actually, that are really popular that you may have even heard before out of context. A lot of these quotes come from Gus because he is really fun to read. expressive type of character, and a few of those really popular ones are. “It's a fine world, though rich in hardship at times.” Or, “The older the violin, the sweeter the music.” But on that same train of thought, there's a quote that happens early in the novel where he says, “It's funny leavin’ a place, ain't it? You never do know when you'll get back.” And for me, all of these quotes paint such broad strokes.
09:36 - The beauty and intrigue are in the vagueness, because you're able to fill in the gaps with your own life, and it makes it so powerful. Or like another one when he says “…that was the frontier—people were always wandering where they had no business being.” And there are so many of these quotes. But there is one thing that really hit home to me, and it was actually in Call’s thinking, who was the more stoic of the two. And this quote really shows that no matter how much you go through from a physical sense, it's still the emotional weight of love and lost love that weighs on the mind of any man. And the narration goes. “He had seen terrible things in battle and had mostly forgotten them. And yet he couldn't forget the sad look in Maggie's eyes when she mentioned that she wished he'd said her name.” Oh man, just reading it is heavy because it really hinges on that idea of things left unsaid, questions left unasked. And I don't know. This is just a really great book for a lot of reasons.
10:56 - It's big. It's going to take you some time to get through, but I do heavily recommend it. It's one that's going to sit with me for a very long time. Having said that, I wanted to thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this podcast, please remember to click subscribe on whatever podcast platform you're listening to this on. It is the best way for new listeners to find the show and, in return, inspire more men to read. As I mentioned at the top of this episode, if you want to reach out to me, you can connect with me on Instagram @DouglasVigliotti. It's the only social media that I have or via my website DouglasVigliotti.com. I do have a new book out. It is titled Aristotle for Novelists: “14 Timeless Principles on the Art of Story”. And if you'd like more information on that, you can visit the website AristotleforNovelists.com. Thank you again for tuning in. I really appreciate your listenership and if you want more information on this podcast specifically, which includes signing up for that monthly newsletter that I mentioned at the top of this episode, all you have to do is visit the website BooksforMen.org.
