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Comanche Moon

Review

Comanche Moon



LONESOME DOVE's second prequel, COMANCHE MOON, fills in the middle
years of Gus McCrae and Woodrow Call.  Seasoned veterans
of the Texas Rangers, but no less inept at dealing with life's
other challenges --- namely, women --- Gus and Call are once again
at the mercy of an unforgiving landscape and a hardheaded
commander.

Captain Inish Scull leads his men in pursuit of the infamous
Comanche horse thief, Kicking Wolf, over icy paths that
unexpectedly dissect with those of an old adversary, Buffalo
Hump.  This time Buffalo Hump has other
problems:  a disobedient half-breed son, Blue Duck, and
his own encroaching old age.

As Gus and Call deal with the harsh realities of Ranger life in a
country teeming with unscrupulous whites and defiant Comanches,
they are also called upon to face the challenges of the human
heart.  Gus is still trying to woo Clara and Call is
turning a blind eye to the fact that a young whore, Maggie, wants
to marry him.

In COMANCHE MOON, Larry McMurtry turns his storytelling eye more
fully on other characters and their travails.  Kicking
Wolf stalks Captain Scull and his mythic-sized
horse.  Captain Scull meets up with Ahumado, a Mexican
bandit king with ice water for blood and an ever-changing retinue
of torture techniques.  And the people of Austin face the
fury of Buffalo Hump.

This epic story in the LONESOME DOVE tetralogy continues the
McMurtry tradition of compelling storytelling combined with an
unerring sense of time and place.

Reviewed by Jami Edwards on January 21, 2011

Comanche Moon
by Larry McMurtry

  • Publication Date: June 1, 1998
  • Genres: Fiction
  • Mass Market Paperback: 816 pages
  • Publisher: Pocket Books
  • ISBN-10: 0671020641
  • ISBN-13: 9780671020644