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Streets of Laredo

 

            Larry McMurtry's Streets of Laredo is the sequel to the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lonesome Dove. Though having not actually read Lonesome Dove itself, this story was in no way confusing because of the author's knack for writing in such a way that it seemed like it wasn't a sequel at all. It takes place in Texas and in Mexico because of the border the characters often crossed in the story. The novel has many focus points which explains why it is divided into three parts (not counting the epilogue): "The Saleried Man", "The Manburner", and "Maria's Children".
             There are several main characters and among them is the famous Captain Woodrow Call, who was hired by the railroad company to stop infamous, young Mexican bandit Joey Garza. Joey Garza, sold to the Apache Indians by one of his mother Maria's abusive husbands, has a sharp eye and a keen sense of killing. He is armed with a German telescopic rifle and can kill from a distance up to 500 yards and has robbed a number of trains which, of course, needs to be stopped. Though he is old, Captain Woodrow Call's name is still known all over the West along with his old outfit the "Hat Creek Boys". Call is simply known as the best there was, catching robbers and bandits came easily to a man like him gang. But those days are gone and now he is in his seventies, most of his gang is dead, and he doesn't know how he is going to find and catch Joey Garza with a man called Brookshire, an accountant from Brooklyn assigned by the railroad company to accompany him. Brookshire was in no way adapted for such things, but he was going to do his job to the end and that's why Call liked him. Call is extremely disheartened when Pea Eye refuses to go with the Captain this time. Pea Eye had always served with the Captain for over thirty years now but now he is going to stay behind because of his family he has to raise. Pea Eye is married to Lorena. She used to be a prostitute (as they called them "whores") and was in love with Gus Mcrae, who rescued her from MoxMox the Manburner and one of the gang members of the Hat Creek Boys.


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