Cale Deluca Deluca itibaren Texas
Deep at times, but overall a little too monotonous for me...
Given that this book is the final volume in the LONESOME DOVE series, (the last one written, but second in the series time line) I was surprised at just how enjoyable and poignant it really was. Where to begin? Buffalo Hump, Buffalo Hump, Buffalo Hump! This magnificent warrior is not only a devastating action hero in dozens of scorching battle scenes, he's also a tragic hero worthy of Shakespeare. Just like Shakespeare's kings, the last great Comanche chief is surrounded by legend and mystery. Like Richard III, he has a humped back which is both sinister and a sign of supernatural powers. Eerie prophecies surround him. Just as Macbeth can never be defeated till Birnam wood comes to Dunsinane, Buffalo Hump can only be killed when his mighty hump is pierced. And just like Gloucester in KING LEAR, Buffalo Hump's doom is spelled out in the form of a bastard son -- the result of a sinful past he can never escape. Or as Blue Duck puts it at the end, "the gods are just, and of our pleasant vices make means to plague us." The Comanche side of the story was worth the price of the book alone. The father-son conflict between Buffalo Hump and his son Blue Duck is literally Shakespearean, with enormous intensity and passion. As the son of a Mexican woman Buffalo Hump brutally raped, Blue Duck is a symbol of tragic retribution, and the destruction he brings on Buffalo Hump is chilling and inevitable. But Blue Duck is more than just a bad son like Edmund in KING LEAR. He is also a symbol of change. As hateful as he can be, Blue Duck does what no other Comanche warrior in this series does. He sees the destruction of his people as an opportunity rather than a catastrophe. Instead of refusing to adapt and giving in to suicidal despair, (like his father, and Three Birds, and Idahi) Blue Duck actually adjusts to changing conditions. He fights better with pistols and rifles than with the bow or the lance, and he leads an army of white drifters rather than native warriors. Blue Duck's story is almost frighteningly intense. He grows from a boastful adolescent to a proven warrior to a terrifying menace, losing his humanity by such small degrees that he isn't even aware of it. On the other hand, the story of the Texans is not told so well. Captain Scull and his sexy wife Inez are both annoying cartoon characters in the book, and McMurtry dances around the issue of slavery without ever confronting it directly. Making Inez Scull crazy and vicious is a way of subverting the myth of the angelic southern belle without really challenging it. And it also takes all the guilt off of Gus and Jake for their whoring around, as if somehow her vileness cancels out theirs. I didn't buy it. A lot. But I was rooting for Buffalo Hump and Blue Duck anyway, along with their friends Idahi, Three Birds, and Kicking Wolf. Those guys are the heart of COMANCHE MOON. And that's the way it should be!