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)

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.

8 of 8 people found this review helpful

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.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

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.

11 of 14 people found this review helpful

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.

10 of 13 people found this review helpful

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

7 of 9 people found this review helpful

A strong disappointment

If you're wanting to continue the adventures of the characters from Lonesome Dove, if you loved the guys and gals, don't bother with this book.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

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

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

A poor attempt

To follow up Lonesome Dove would be quite the challenge and this has been a miserable attempt. I want my money back.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Worst. Book. Ever

Hated every minute of it. It's as bad as Lonesome Dove is good. Like reading bad fan fiction

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

One last hard ride home . . .

I read many of the reviews and must say that initially i agreed with them. The book was just too hard, too unforgiving, and lacking in its former humor which helped take the edge off the unrelenting subject matter.

But now . . . I realize that i've ridden too far and too long in McMurtry's world and with his wonderful, enduring characters. Mr. McMurtry is the master of the trail and this is where the trail has ultimately taken us. I might wish things were different but alas, as in life, these are the cards we have been dealt. Life sux today as it did back then and unfortunately life's bows are never neatly tied.

With age often comes acceptance, regret, or a hardening of the heart and the humor of youth, that once so easily allowed us to float above sadness, now dries up like rain in the parched Texas desert.

This is a book of endings, and beginnings and life at it most raw. McMurtry could not have written a more realistic, beautiful and touching conclusion.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

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.

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

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.