Introduction
In a previous SLIS course (S681) I enjoyed reading about the
history of Western novels. At the time,
a comment from author Larry McMurtry stuck in my mind. He claimed that when writing his
prize-winning novel, Lonesome Dove,
he actually set out to write an anti-Western, but in spite of his intentions
readers received the book as a revival of the genre. I’m fairly obsessive-compulsive and
McMurtry’s comments actually made me want to go back and re-read the book all over
again with an eye to how it does or does not correspond with the characteristics
of a typical Western novel. It’s
interesting to think that an author’s intentions might not match reader
interpretation – might, in fact, be swept aside by public acclaim!
Historical Background
Exciting tales about the American West – both fiction and
non-fiction -- were prominent features of penny dreadfuls and the dime novels of
the late 19th century. These thrillers
stoked a thirst for adventures set in the untamed wilderness west of the Mississippi
River. Although James Fenimore Cooper
wrote frontier stories at a time when the American frontier was still east of
the Mississippi River, it was Owen Wister’s 1902 bestseller, The Virginian, that began the genre’s
ascent to respectability and is often acknowledged as the first Western novel. The
torch was passed to writers such as Zane Grey (Riders of the Purple Sage – 1912, The Call of the Canyon – 1924, The
Code of the West – 1934), A.B. Guthrie, Jr. (The Big Sky – 1947), Jack Schaefer (Shane – 1949), and Louis L’Amour (Hondo – 1953, How the West
Was Won – 1963).
Western Genre
Characteristics
As the Western genre evolved, certain tropes became familiar to
readers. A hero with the fastest horse
and the fastest gun will save the day. Women/children
are kidnapped by Indians/bandits, and their rescue involves a dangerous
journey. Outlaws terrorize a
town/ranch/farm and citizens must unite to defend themselves. In The
Readers’ Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction, 2nd ed., Joyce Saricks
identifies six characteristics of the Western genre:
1) The exterior descriptions
of the landscape and terrain frame the books.
2) The traditional hero is
often a loner who arrives to right wrongs and then moves on. Heroes use strategy before guns to win
arguments, although they are often forced to use violence in the end.
3) Plots may be complex or
more straightforward. Common themes
include the redemptive power of the West, the difficulties of surviving in a
harsh landscape, revenge, and the lack of law along with the necessity of
creating just laws.
4) Nostalgia for times past
creates an elegiac tone that permeates many Westerns.
5) Pacing may be breakneck in
Westerns that feature action-packed stories or more measured in others.
6) Dialogue is generally
spare, colorful, and rich in jargon, but many Westerns also feature lyrical
descriptions of the landscape
(Saricks, p. 315).
Popularity and Decline
By the middle of the 20th century, the Western genre
was the best-selling type of fiction in America. Smithsonian
researcher Jake Page highlights this peak in popularity: “Of the 300 million
paperback books sold in the United States in one 12-month period in the 1950s,
more than 100 million were westerns” (Page, p. 85).
The public’s embrace of the Western genre – both in print and on
the big and small screens – began to decline in the early 1970s. Among the reasons most often cited for this
waning esteem are the decrease in pulp magazines that featured Western stories,
shifting reading tastes, and increased sensitivity to the plight of the
American Indian (St. Andre, p. 33).
When Larry McMurtry published Lonesome
Dove, which won the 1986 Pulitzer Prize, the genre received a much-needed
shot in the arm. Lonesome Dove led a resurgency of the Western novel in a more
modern form.
Synopsis of Lonesome Dove
I’ll provide a brief synopsis, with the caveat that some spoilers
are contained. Many classmates may have
read the book or seen the mini-series produced in the late 1980s.
Woodrow Call and Gus McCrae, two
former Texas Rangers living a quiet if hard-scratch life in the border town of
Lonesome Dove, decide to take one final major journey together, driving a herd
of cattle north from Texas to the unknown paradise that is Montana. One-time comrade and smooth-talker Jake Spoon
spurs the ambitious plan with talk of the vast grasslands and open skies. Jake, on the other hand, has promised to
escort his mistress, Lorena, to San Francisco.
The lovely Lorie was forced into prostitution after being abandoned in
Lonesome Dove by her lover. Although Gus
has been a kind and gentle friend (as well as a client), Lorie sees Jake Spoon
as her ticket out of the Texas dust. The
two parties leave Lonesome Dove together, and encounter storms, Indian raids,
and stampedes along the way. When Lorena
is kidnapped by a vicious renegade named Blue Duck, duty drives Gus to separate
from the cattle drive and rescue her.
Jake, in the meantime, has fallen in with a group of bandits. Eventually, his former comrades are forced to
hang him as a horse thief. They were
Texas Rangers, after all, and justice outweighs friendship.
In Nebraska, Gus visits his former
sweetheart, Clara, and through their conversations we hear more about the
backstory of several major characters.
Along the trail, we learn much about the distinct personalities of Gus
and Call, as well as the cowboys who accompany the herd. One such cowboy is the young Newt Dobbs, the
orphaned son of a prostitute named Maggie.
Newt is assumed by many to be the biological son of Woodrow Call, but
Call has never acknowledged his relationship to the boy.
Although the herd eventually reaches
Montana, Gus is killed by Indians along the way and Call abides by his request
that his body be taken back to Texas for burial. So Call journeys back to the dusty town of
Lonesome Dove alone.
Author’s Intent
Author Larry McMurtry has stated in interviews that Lonesome Dove was originally written as
a movie script in 1972. Big screen plans
were in the works to feature John Wayne as Woodrow Call, Jimmy Stewart as
Augustus McCrae, and Henry Fonda as Jake Spoon.
However, when John Wayne opted out, the project fell apart. Several years later McMurtry decided to
expand his script into a full length novel.
One of his motives was to prove that the Western myth had served its
purpose and lost its potency in the modern world. McMurtry’s novel is full of cynicism for what
he considered to be outdated romanticism.
In his own words, “I thought I had written about a harsh time and some
pretty harsh people, but to the public at large I had produced something nearer
to an idealization; instead of a poor man’s Inferno,
filled with violence, faithlessness, and betrayal, I had actually delivered a
kind of Gone With the Wind of the
West – a turnabout I’ll be mulling over for a long, long time” (McMurtry (b),
p. 14).
Lonesome
Dove’s Place in the Western Genre
I love this statement of McMurtry’s, but it has made me
curious. While he may have set out with
the intention of writing a sort of anti-Western, the reading public received
his book as a new Western classic. In
what ways does Lonesome Dove conform
or not conform to Sarick’s widely-acknowledged characteristics of the genre?
The book is certainly framed by vivid descriptions of the exterior
landscape. The locale plays a central
role -- gritty descriptions of the Llano Estacado made my mouth turn dry with
thirst. Although there is no noble
stranger appearing from nowhere to enforce frontier justice and save the day,
the heroes of the tale are well-defined and easy to separate from the villains.
The novel, however, defies Saricks’ list of genre characteristics
in several key ways. The romantic,
nostalgic tone of the traditional Western is represented here. But it is also refuted many times over in the
two main characters, Gus and Call, who seem to embody two very different philosophies. Call is single-minded and practical, tamping
down any trace of romanticism that might bubble up from under his tough
shell. Nevertheless, he retains the
spirit of duty and justice that we associate with Western heroes. Gus, on the other hand, seems on the surface to
portray the romantic philosopher, but his sharp mind recognizes that change has
come. In several passages, Gus tries to
explain to his partner that everything they did in their lives as Texas Rangers
may have been a mistake:
“We’ll
be the Indians, if we last another twenty years . . . The way this place is
settling up it’ll be nothing but churches and dry-goods stores before you know
it. Next thing you know they’ll have to round up us old rowdies and stick us on
a reservation to keep us from scaring the ladies. . . . I think we spent our best years
fighting on the wrong side” (McMurtry (a), p. 327).
Gus’ cynicism is also on display in less philosophical
situations. Here is one of my favorite
passages, from a chapter that follows the departure of Bolivar, the company’s
trail cook:
“Well,
if we wasn’t doomed to begin with, we’re doomed now,” Augustus said, watching
Bolivar ride away. He enjoyed every
opportunity for pronouncing doom, and the loss of a cook was a good one. “I expect we’ll poison ourselves before we
get much farther, with no regular cook,” he said. “I just hope Jasper gets poisoned
first.”
“I
never liked that old man’s cooking anyway,” Jasper said.
“You’ll
remember it fondly, once you’re poisoned,” Augustus said (McMurtry (a), p.
318).
As someone who enjoyed the televised mini-series version of Lonesome Dove, and still pictures Robert
Duval as the soft-hearted, wise-cracking Gus and Tommy Lee Jones as the
doggedly pragmatic Call, it surprised me to read a little deeper into the
characters and see McMurtry’s gentle attempts to de-romanticize their
situations. And the eventual plot
outcome – Call’s ill-advised struggle to bring his friend’s body back to Texas
-- almost seems to mock the oft-repeated theme of the redemptive power of the
West.
Alternative Genre Classifications
The Western Writers of America differentiates between Western
Novels (short) and Novels of the West (long), but chose to categorize Lonesome Dove as a Western Novel in
spite of its great length
(WWA Awards, 2014).
Lonesome Dove, however, also fits many
characteristics of the Literary Fiction genre:
1) Literary style is
important. Authors and readers pay
attention to words and how they are woven together.
2) Characters emerge as more
important than storylines, and the philosophical questions central to these
books are often explored more through character than through story.
3) Story lines are thought-provoking. Literary Fiction operates in the realm of
ideas as well as practicalities, and these novels often consider universal
dilemmas.
4) Pacing is slower, as these
are usually densely written books. There
is generally more description than dialogue.
5) The tone of Literary
Fiction may be darker because of the seriousness of the issues considered. Atmosphere may carry meaning.
6) Although frame is less important
than in some genres, these layered stories often lend themselves to elaborately
portrayed background details
(Saricks, p. 178).
Conclusion
So, if the author intended to write
a novel that would turn the Western genre inside-out, and many elements of the
finished novel do, indeed, run counter to the acknowledged characteristics of
the genre, why then does Lonesome Dove
to many readers represent a new resurgence of the classic Western novel?
Perhaps “the West,” with its long mythic history of heroes and
villains, frontier justice and lawlessness, carries with it an inherent
romantic quality that defies any attempt at literature that would de-mystify
it. Contemporary writers of Western
novels often find variations on the traditional genre themes, using grittier
characters and settings to provide an increased sense of realism. But the stereotype is a strong one. As readers, our expectations shape the way we
receive and interpret the words on the page.
Surprisingly, these expectations may be stronger, more stubborn than an
author’s intentions.
But re-reading Lonesome Dove
with Larry’s McMurtry’s comments in mind did change the experience for me. Hearing the author’s purpose expanded my
perspective, and made me think about the story in a new light.
References
McMurtry, L. (a) (1985). Lonesome
dove. New York: Simon &
Schuster.
McMurtry, L. (b)
(2001). The making of “Lonesome Dove.” American
Heritage, 52(1), p. 14.
Page, J. (Dec 2001).
Writer of the purple prose. Smithsonian, 32(9), p. 84-90.
Saricks, J.G. (2009).
The readers’ advisory guide to
genre fiction, 2nd ed.
Chicago: American Library Association.
St. Andre, K. (August 2010). Not ready for boot hill. Library
Journal, 135(13), p. 33-35.
