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)

Torturous listening

Could he read any slower?? I am a big Larry McMurtry fan but after trying to listen for a few hours I had to delete this book because, aside from the story going nowhere, the reader was driving me crazy. I even increased the speed on my iPod but it didn't help. At the risk of sounding mean, I will avoid any other books narrated by this reader.

Terrible McMurtry Book - Depressing & Painful

I enjoyed the Lonesome Dove serious, but this book is a terrible way to end the series if it actually ever ends. This book was written with no plot in mind and was obviously done while the writer was on the toilet. Book is painfully over-detailed with parts making you want to fast forward to find a happy moment, but no happy endings, no bright futures for the characters and no sense of realism of pioneering America. Full of evil winning every moment just awful. I am thoroughly disgusted with the reader who was monotone like reading from a childsbook. Sad, depressing, morbid and boring....buyers beware.

A guy responds

I loved Lonesome Dove. This is not nearly as good.
The reader is almost as good as Lonesome dove. I liked him.
Seemed like some characters that got killed in LD were reinevented as new characters here.
The plot was slow.
A good enough listen, but not LD. I won't read anymore in the series at this point.

An noy ing nar rat orrr

Would you try another book from Larry McMurtry and/or Daniel Von Bargen?

Will never touch a book read by this narrator. most annoying and unnatural cadence. Mispronunciations throughout and awful attempt at accents.

Would you recommend Streets of Laredo to your friends? Why or why not?

Nope. Narration is too distracting.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Daniel Von Bargen?

Anyone but.

Was Streets of Laredo worth the listening time?

No

terrible. like was written by a different person

this book is horrible, I had to fast forward at times. I would bet money it was written by another person. almost every man in the book is a rapist, the idiotic bad guy named MoxMox is a real eye roller, everyone dies pretty much and the violence is so proliferate it's almost humorous. no heroism, honor, humor, nothing...author also goes on and on wasting countless hours explaining what people are thinking.
either mcmurtry was drunk when he wrote this or someone else wrote it....maybe a mexican girlfriend.

Loved it....didn't want the story to end!

I loved all the books in the Lonesome Dove series. Was originally sold on the series when I watched the mini series starring two of my all time favorites, Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Duvall. This motivated me to download all 4 books in this series and I loved all four and loved three of the four DVD's I subsequently purchased. Because I loved the audio book Streets of Laredo as much as the other three in the series, I ordered the DVD Streets of Laredo(the only DVD I had not yet seen). Unfortunately, James Garner just didn't do it for me. No way could he "hold a candle" to Tommy Lee Jones. But I highly recommend this audio book: great story and narration....wonderful value!

Nicely wraps up the lonesome dove saga

Top notch story with excellent characters. Realistic situations with realistic outcomes blended with a good perspective on early life in South Texas

It's sure not Lonesome Dove...

Depressing, disjointed and drawn out. Maybe an abridged version would have been better, or a different narrator but the charm and humor of Lonesome Dove was totally missing.

what a disappointment...

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

I have no idea. Not fans of LONESOME DOVE, I can tell you that...

Would you ever listen to anything by Larry McMurtry again?

Maybe. LONESOME DOVE was very good, so he's definitely capable of good writing. Maybe I'll be luckier next time (though it definitely WON'T be a western, I can tell you that...)

Which character – as performed by Daniel Von Bargen – was your favorite?

No particular character -- I just thought he did a decent job overall (though his halting pronunciation of "Famous Shoes" does seem a little odd...). He is a wonderful character actor and has that great character actor voice...given more colorful phraseology like that in TRUE GRIT, I think he would definitely do the material justice. But here he was bound by the bland and uninteresting writing of McMurtry. The dialogue was weak, and the exposition dull and lacking any real detail. I don't recall that he even bothered to describe any of the characters aside from general size (Brookshire was fat, Call was small, etc.) or gender (Lorena is pretty). Kinda hard to picture someone if you don't know what they look like...I guess you're supposed to rely on your memory of the LONESOME DOVE miniseries? Anyway, I can't imagine any narrator making this material interesting. I hope Mr. Von Bargen gives audio books another go someday and finds a novel that is up to his talents.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Streets of Laredo?

So many scenes are utterly superfluous to the main plot -- like anything to do with Judge Roy Bean or John Wesley Hardin or Charlie Loving, none of whom actually do much and only serve as famous cameos. The entire Doobie Plunkert subplot. Any time he brought up characters from LONESOME DOVE, as it was invariably to take a dump on our memory of them and make sure we knew there were no happy endings. Any scene dealing with evil incarnate Joey Garza or his saintly mother Maria. Come to think of it, I could've done without the whole story. In the future, I'll treat this book like ALIEN 3...it never happened. I prefer to think that the Hat Creek operation is still going on up there in Montana, Dish is still intent on wooing Lorena, and Newt may yet get his father to acknowledge him...

Any additional comments?

Late in the book, Ned Brookshire despairs about his trip into the wilderness with Woodrow Call -- "he had taken them from somewhere to nowhere, and accomplished nothing..." That's actually a pretty good summary of this book. There are no real heroes in this book, only villains and victims. Writers have been "demythologizing" the American West for so long now that it's just tiresome. Unfortunately this is just more of the same.

Lonesome Dove Completed

If you could sum up Streets of Laredo in three words, what would they be?

Completed Lonesome Dove.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Streets of Laredo?

All the bandits were taken care of.

Which scene was your favorite?

Pea Eye Parker shooting Joey Gaza.

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

I wouldn't rename it.

Any additional comments?

These four books have told quite a story & I really hate to see them end.

Streets of Laredo is a great book & well worth reading

Excellent story and very well read. Hard to put down. Would definitely recommend this book

A bit too drawn out

Enjoyable yarn but lacking the banter of Lonesome Dove. As in that book the women are the strongest characters which somehow undermines the main protagonist. Still well worth a listen/read.

End of an epic.

I was unsure about this book initially after the end on Lonesome Dove. But I'm glad I did. Another fantastic adventure through Texas and Mexico with some brilliant new characters and returning favourites.
Follows Woodrow in his attempt to catch a notorious train robber and killer, though his age is catching up and world is changing around him.
It also gives closure on many of the characters from the previous book as to where they went after Lonesome Dove ended.

Brilliant, just no nonsense brilliant

I loved Lonesome Dove and was dubious about reading another, particularly without Augustus McRae but this just confirms Larry McMurtry’s mastery. Expertly performed, I really didn’t want it to end.

Amazing story

Finishing off the lonesome dove trilogy. It was gripping throughout. At one point I was screwing up my eyes and calling out to the radio “ Come on ....... .... please survive” (names taken out so as not to ruin it!) not something I have ever done before! The whole trilogy gave me a complete sense of what an incredibly hard life these people had in those times. Larry McMurtry is a wonderful story teller. Highly recommend

Worthy sequel to a masterpiece

As a massive fan of Lonesome Dove, I was initially hesitant to read this as there was no way it could live up to the original and would not feature some key characters (one in particular) that made the first so great. However I’m glad I did. It has the same style as Lonesome Dove in that it swaps from the view point of many characters throughout, many new to this book. The character of Maria in particular, was excellent. The book has a more melancholy tone compared to LD, with Call an old man now, having encountered some past failures and starting to lose his edge. It is always special to hear his brief reminisces on Gus and the old Hatcreek outfit though, and makes for a worthy sequel to a masterpiece.

Special mention to Daniel Von Bargen, who is absolutely brilliant as narrator. Covering so many voices, men and women, both Texan and Mexican is no easy task but he does it tremendously.

Very good all round

Very well told.A good listen to while away the midnight hours and does drive away the blues '

Gripping follow on to lonesome Dove

Like Lonesome Dove takes a while to get going. But is a gripping story well narrated. I thoroughly enjoyed it.