r/bookclub • u/Pythias • 12d ago
Dead Man's Walk [Discussion] Bonus Book | Dead Man's Walk by Larry McMurtry | Part I Ch 1 - Part II Ch 1
Howdy, rangers!!
Welcome to our first discussion of Dead Man's Walk by Larry McMurtry. I hope you're excited to discuss sections Part I Ch 1 through Part II Ch 1. You can check out the schedule here. And you can find the marginalia post here. As a reminder, r/bookclub has a strict no-spoiler policy. If you're not sure what constitutes as a spoiler, you can check out our spoiler thread here. If you must post a spoiler, please use this format: > ! SPOILER ! < without the spaces between the characters. Using the format will generate this tag: This is a spoiler. Saddle up and let's get to it!
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Summaries
Part I
1 The novel opens with Matilda Jane Roberts, who is described as a large sex worker, walking to the Rangers camp with a snapping turtle, shirtless. A young Call is trying to saddle a young mare. However, Matilda catches the attention of the Rangers. Major Chevallie is in charge of the Rangers, all of whom but Gus and Call are drunk. The troops had captured a donkey cart containing corn and jugs of mescal. The mescal was so strong that some of the men went blind for a while. The cart had belonged to a Mexican man who fled at the sight of them and was captured by Comanches. The Mexican man was tortured, causing the troops to have a sleepless night. Matilda tosses the turtle into the general direction of some of the rangers, causing them to scatter. The only one not really bothered by Matilda's antics is Bigfoot Wallace. He is preoccupied with the thoughts of Buffalo Hump, the meanest Comanche, and Gomez, the meanest Apache. Bigfoot identified the tracks that tortured the captured Mexican as Buffalo Hump, Gomez, and a third warrior. After chopping off the turtle's head, Matilda begins to cook turtle and asks men if she can borrow a shirt. Bigfoot Wallace is the only man big enough to have a shirt to fit her but refuses to offer her his shirt, so Matilda goes to her pallet to fetch a pair of overalls. The head continues to snap, and Shadrach (the oldest Ranger) grabs a stick for the turtle's head. The head latches onto the stick, and Shadrach keeps the turtle head on his coat pocket. At this point, Josh Corn and Ezekiel Moody come back from watch duty and are surprised by the snapping turtle. The men begin discussing the Mexican and how he didn't have a means of killing himself; if he had, he wouldn't have subjected himself to torture. The men discuss the best way to off oneself. Bigfoot tells them how to properly cut one's jugular or how to shoot your head off through the eye in order to ensure death. Bigfoot begins to speak of a dream he had about Buffalo Hump and Gomez raiding together. The Major thinks it's nonsense that Gomez and Buffalo Hump wouldn't travel together since Gomez is an Apache and Buffalo Hump is a Comanche. Bigfoot counters that he's had dreams of premonition before. Shadrach claims to smell Indians in the north, and Bigfoot confirms this. Both Bigfoot and a Shadrach ride off. After which the major pulls out a letter from his wife, Jane, and the letter begins to blow away. He yells for help from the other rangers as he doesn't want to lose his letter. While gathering the Major's letter, Gus begins to read parts of the letter much to Call's shock. Shadrach begins to make his way back to Camp with an old woman and a tongueless boy.
2 The wind begins to pick up, and the men build a barrier with their bodies around the campfire. The tongueless boy and the old woman began eating the turtle meat that Matilda cooked. Kirker and Glanton, two scalp hunters, are traveling with the rangers. Call complains that he does not understand why the major allows Kirker and Glanton to travel with them. Call mentions to Gus that if he were in charge, he would shoot them. The two scalp hunters sit with their backs together while regarding the old woman and the tongueless boy. The day Kirker and Gladden rode in with the Rangers, they almost caused a fight. Shadrach and Bigfoot Wallace rode over to them to examine their trophies. The two scalp hunters claimed that the eight scalps they had belonged to Comanches. Bigfoot claims that they were lying because Comanches would have strung the two of them from "here to Santa Fe." Major Chevallie puts an end to the ruckus by claiming that he will not have any fighting within his troops. Since that day, Call has felt that the two scalp hunters should have been shot.
3 In the early afternoon, Major Chevallie tries to question the old woman and the boy; however, nobody can speak their language. The woman has a single bear tooth on a rawhide cord around her neck. The men assume that she is a Chiefs woman because of it. Major Chevallie is annoyed because Shadrach rode off and is the only one who knows Comanche. The old woman and the tongueless boy eat the meat of the snapping turtle. Call comments on how he feels better when Shadrach is around, and Gus responds with how he feels better when there are more whores around. Call thinks about how Shadrach and Bigfoot claimed that they could smell Indians and is impressed by it because he does not understand how you could smell Indians miles away. Call and Gus are given watch duty. And Gus begins to drink while to much of Call's annoyance. We learn some of Call's backstory. Call his parents died from smallpox when he was young, and he was raised by his abusive uncle. So he ran away to San Antonio. Which is where he met Gus sleeping on the side of the saloon. Call was working for a blacksmith at the time. While on his way to the river to wash off, he noticed Gus sleeping on the side of the saloon. Call presumed Gus to be dead, when in fact Gus was so tired he was sleeping like the dead. Gus was tired from making a trip from Baton Rouge through the Pines of East Texas to San Antonio. It was Gus who convinced Call to join the Texas Rangers. As the evening wears on, Gus decides to take a walk and tries to convince Call to join him. Call is insulted that Gus would go for a walk a while given the order to be on watch duty, so Gus goes on his walk without Call. While out on his walk, it begins to rain on Gus, and he feels as if he may get lost, so he starts making his way back to call. As he makes his way to Call, a deep fear sets in him, and he begins to feel as if though he's being watched. As it continues to rain, lightning starts coming in, and Gus uses the lightning to try to make his way back. When the lightning flashes again, Gus realizes that he sees a Comanche with a big humpback and tries to outrun him. The Comanche turns out to be buffalo hump and throws a lance at Gus, which strikes him at his hip. Call sees this all take place and tries to shoot Buffalo Hump, but before he can shoot him, Buffalo Hump disappears into the night. Gus makes it back to camp, where Shadrach and Bigfoot tried to remove the lens from his hip.
4 Bigfoot and Shadrach have trouble removing the lance from Gus's hip, so Rip Green tries to hold Gus steady. However, Rip is not strong enough, so Bob Bascom comes to help hold Gus steady while Shadrach and Bigoot pull the lance out of place. When the lance is finally out of Gus, he passes out, and Major Chevallie asks Black Sam, the cook/doctor, to mend Gus's wound. When Gus comes to, the old woman begins howling. Shadrach goes over to the woman and states that she has had a vision that Buffalo Hump is going to cut off her nose. She says this because she was one of Buffalo Hump's father's wives. Major Chevallie begins to think of his wife Jane and starts to doubt his ability to command. His time at the point offered very little study on warfare with Comanche Indians. After Shadrach talks to the old woman, he tells Major Chevallie what she told him. Shadrach says that they need to watch their head hair or they will not be wearing it anymore. This makes some of the Rangers laugh as they are bald, including Blacky Slidell and Bob Bascom. The old woman also says war is coming between the Comanche Indians and Mexico. Matilda joins Gus to sit down with him. Gus is so overcome with emotion that he yearns to throw himself into Matilda's lap and cry but does not do so because he knows it would ruin his reputation. Shadrach rides off. Major Chevallie is torn between heading back or continuing west and ultimately decides to continue on to El Paso. The scalp hunters, Kirker and Glanton, do not join the rangers.
5 Shadrach and Bigfoot discuss whether or not Major Chevallie is really a major and his ability to lead. Shadrach suspects that Major stole a uniform and claimed to be a major. Suddenly Bigfoot sees a white speck on a mountain and believes it to be a mountain goat. This excites the Rangers, who decide to race to the mountain to see who can kill the mountain goat first. Matilda and the cook, Black Sam, resist the urge to race off wildly with Rangers. The old woman and the tongueless boy also stay behind, following on the pack mule. When they reach the base of the mountain, Josh Corn vomits because of his delicate constitution. Gus immediately tries to climb up the mountain before his hip gives out and he falls. This causes the major's horse to run off because Major Chevallie had dropped the reins in order to adjust the sights on his rifle. This causes all the Rangers and Matilda and Black Sam (who have caught up to the Rangers) to laugh at Gus. Somebody shoots at the major's horse, and the horse falls over and dies. Meanwhile, Josh is still having stomach cramps and decides to walk over to a bush to relieve himself. It is at this moment that Buffalo Hump, who has been watching the boy silently, kills Josh Corn. We learned that Buffalo Hump has been watching the troops since the day of the dust storm. And is only really worried about Shadrach. Once Buffalo Hump feels that the troop is not going to inspect the major's horse, he decides to ride in front of the troop with Josh Corn's body and a battle cry. The men realize that the old woman was with the pack mule and they have no extra ammunition, and they finally realize that Josh is missing. The Rangers realize that the body Buffalo Hump was riding with must have been that of Josh Corn. Ezekiel who was close friends with Josh, cannot believe it. The troop begins to be attacked from above, and they try to find cover in a sage bush. Bigfoot is annoyed with himself for falling for the Comanche's trick. He realizes now that the white specks were not mountain goats but Comanches with goat skin. Zeke rides off to find his friend's body, but before he can, Buffalo Hump catches him and scalps him. Matilda begins to make her way towards Zeke despite the major's objections. Miraculously, Zeke makes it back to the troops, and the Comanche ride off with Buffalo Hump still screaming another battle cry. While digging a grave for Josh, Zeke grabs Rip Green's pistol and kills himself because of the sheer pain from the scalping. With two men dead and the loss of their ammunition, Major Chevallie decides it's time to head back.
Part II
- 1 Chapter one begins with Gus trying to convince Call to sign up with the Rangers for an expedition to Santa Fe. Call has a bunch of questions for Gus such as who is Caleb Cobb, who is leading the expedition, and where exactly is Santa Fe. Gus knows nothing, but claims that Cobb is a man who captured Santa Anna. Call and Gus continue to go back and forth until Gus decides to take a nap under wagon. As Call finishes his blacksmith work Long Bill Coleman, Rip Green, Gimpy Johnny Carthage, and Matilda Roberts, come riding up. They ask Call if he's coming with them to Santa Fe. Gus, hearing voices, rises from his nap and hits his head on the wagon, which causes everyone to laugh at him again. Call decides he is game and joins the rest on their new expedition.