Streets Of Laredo

By: Larry McMurtry

Narrated by: Daniel Von Bargen

Length: 21 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

The final book of Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove tetralogy is an exhilarating tale of legend and heroism. Captain Woodrow Call, August McCrae's old partner, is now a bounty hunter hired to track down a brutal young Mexican bandit. Riding with Call are an Eastern city slicker, a witless deputy, and one of the last members of the Hat Creek outfit, Pea Eye Parker, now married to Lorena - once Gus McCrae's sweetheart. This long chase leads them across the last wild streches of the West into a hellhole known as Crow Town and, finally, into the vast, relentless plains of the Texas frontier.

©2010 Larry McMurty (P)2010 Simon and Schuster Audio

Critic reviews

" Streets of Laredo is a splendid addition to the literary portrait of McMurtry's native Texas and the West that he has been creating for three decades. It's also one of his most affectingly melancholy books.... The characters are as finely etched as any McMurtry has ever minted." ( Newsweek)

"One of McMurtry's most powerful and moving achievements." ( Los Angeles Times)

"A marvelous novel in its own right and in every way a worthy successor to Lonesome Dove." ( Chicago Tribune)

Fitting Conclusion

The entire Lonesome Dove series does a great job of telling the story of some fascinating characters. I really didn't know where it could go after losing Gus, but McMurtry does an excellent job of taking us through these final adventures.

A fitting finale...

okay so it isn't Lonesome Dove... it's the ending a long long story. more of a Greek tragedy or a Wagner opera rather than a Hollywood Western. historical fiction oh, yes of course. however most of us really don't know of the culture of mid-nineteenth century America, the western expansion, industrialization, the Civil War, the Native American usurpation and full throated attempt at obliteration. I wonder what will be written about our contemporary Society, politics, unbridled greed Etc. Etc. Etc. these four novels each depict is extraordinary prose and detail The Life and Times of our past. at times it was hard to continue listening 2 repeated description of death torture blood and desperation. I was happy how it all ended even though you could certainly say it's not a happy ending romantic Western hero Saga. you can feel the dust the heat the horses the fear the determined attempt to survive.
the narrator was really great and kudos to mr. McMurtry for his Wordsmith Talent extraordinaire. spoiler alert, there are some real tearjerky parts that may kind of drone on and there is definite literary license with some of the historical characters. but that's quite all right no harm no foul. I really like this whole series a lot it was very entertaining over quite a long listen.

Great book

This book is as good or better than the Lonesome Dove book. I will be listening again soon.

Old west history

True or not the story gave light to how people lived in the early days of the country

great western for LD lovers

Great story overall especially for lonesome dove fans. there are surprises for the main LD characters, and elaboration on others plus fascinating new ones. Brutality rated R.

read all 4 now.

What a fitting conclusion!

Although not as stellar as Lonesome Dove as far as story or narrator, this was a fitting conclusion to the saga. I love the new characters, the pace, and the twists. I'm disappointed Lee Hornsley didn't narrate but the reading was alright.

Please add another book or two to the series

I am now lost without a book to listen to. I guess I'll have to start the series over again since this series was so good that it about became my reality.

Cheers

I loved it.

I'm seeing a whole lot of "it's not Lonesome Dove" in the reviews. it most certainly isn't, but this is an excellent book, he followed up a 10/10 with an 8/10.

A savage end to the Lonesome Dove series

am not alone in having read the series out of sequence. I read McMurtry’s seminal Lonesome Dove first, one of the best novels I have ever read, about eight years ago. More recently, I read Dead Man’s Walk (chronologically the first volume), Comanche Moon (the second volume), and finally, Streets of Laredo. I thought about rereading Lonesome Dove after finishing Comanche Moon, just to keep it in order, but decided against it and skipped to Streets of Laredo. The last volume is the darkest entry of the series. In Streets, I missed Gus McCrae, the wisecracking, whoremongering, hard-drinking foil to the hard straight man played by Woodrow Call. The bad guys in Streets (and in the other volumes) are as nasty as you’ll find in literature. There is nothing romantic about the Old West (Texas and northern Mexico) that McMurtry depicts in Streets. Life is hard, and the characters are in a battle for survival. It’s as if McMurtry wanted to move on from the western genre to more contemporary novels set in Texas, though you can’t say his later novels portray happy times in Texas (at least The Last Picture Show). McMurtry is a master of tension, you’ll keep turning the pages, or in my case, keep listening on Audible at every opportunity. He breathes life into each of his characters, and he will break your heart, guaranteed. “Oh Mary,” says the old drunk tracker Billy Williams at a seminal moment in the story, and we say, “Oh Mary” with him. Every man in the novel falls in love with Maria, except her evil son, and the readers do, too. I read that McMurtry has a talent for writing about women, and the women are the heroines in this novel, though Woodrow Call and Pea Eye Parker have their moments. Do yourself a favor and read the entire series, in chronological order. It took me a spell to get used to Daniel Von Bargen's narration, but in the end, I was won over. Splendid job.

Different but very good listening

What made the experience of listening to Streets of Laredo the most enjoyable?

Loved the deep character development; rich, colorful and epic in its descriptions

Have you listened to any of Daniel Von Bargen’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No and at first didn't like but he grew on me and I thought he did an excellent job overall.

If you could rename Streets of Laredo, what would you call it?

Freezing to Death on the Border... I don't know, it wasn't a good title but it didn't take away my enjoyment of the story.

Any additional comments?

Though there were so many subplots and characters I listened with interest bc I am new to westerns (thanks to Lonesome Dove) and I feel like I learned something about this wild west that used to be. It's history, and it reminds me what was and it's excellent story telling.