All The Pretty Horses (Volume One of The Border Trilogy) | Cormac McCarthy

All The Pretty Horses (Volume One of The Border Trilogy) | Cormac McCarthy | John Grady Cole-McCarthy's Perfect Protagonist

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All The Pretty Hor...

	All The Pretty Horses (Volume One of The Border Trilogy) Cormac McCarthy Picador, 1993 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 302 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Lyrical Language

McCarthy is undoubtably the finest American writer at this time. His prose has a lyrical quality that is not often found in modern writing, while always remaining attached to the reality of life in the raw. His prose is evocative of the land in which the story arises and of the people of the Texas border. Much of the writing defies convention in terms of structure. Much of the writing is wrong in a technical sense, but just so right in an evocative and emotional sense.
This is writing that cuts straight to the heart. Like all great literature it opens a new window into the soul of humanity.

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John Grady Cole-McCarthy's Perfect Protagonist

All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy

The first volume of what's known as The Border Trilogy, All the Pretty Horses encompasses what I love about McCarthy's writing.

Set in the late Forties, All the Pretty Horses follows teenage Texan John Grady Cole seeking a better life for himself in Mexico. He travels by horse with his slightly older friend, Rawlins, and on the way down they join up with a very young teenager named Blevins. They can tell Blevins is trouble, and he causes them more problems than they ever could have imagined. But John also finds some danger without the help of Blevins, and it involves the daughter of his new ranch boss that he just can't quit.

McCarthy offers a bit more descriptive narration than I care for in this work, slowing it down at times, but his tight-lipped, capable, honorable, humble, and just plain tough John Grady Cole represents what I enjoy most about McCarthy's creations. John Grady Cole is the perfect McCarthy protagonist, and this neo-western perfectly conveys all that it means to be human--love, loss, betrayal, redemption, loyalty, and resolve.

It is with great anticipation I look forward to completing The Border Trilogy.

~Scott William Foley, author of Souls Triumphant

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Worth the read

A complete plumbing of the depths of this book has not been done. What exactly this book means is perhaps known only to the author. On the backdrop of a couple of Texas cowboys exploring Mexico, and getting into trouble in the process, there is a lot going on. At one point Alejandra's aunt delivers a long monologue in which she describes a worker at the mint placing the blank slug randomly one way or the other, so that the resulting coin, seemingly random of itself, is merely the product of an earlier random act. And so ad infinitum. True to form, McCarthy describes it all with a beautiful control of descriptive language, from the dry desert to the knifefight to the horses. If you enjoy McCarthy, this book will not disappoint you. If you have never read him before, this is as good a place as any to start.

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A Western Epic

I will not be able to add much at all to the hundreds more articulate reviews. Nevertheless, I will write this novel is refreshing, beautifully written, and leads the reader down many intriguing paths. I hastily look forward to enjoying the two remaining Border trilogy installments.

Good Read But Some Problems

I read this book after I read No Country for Old Men and was disappointed by the slow pace. Language and the description of the setting are fascinating however the long dialogue in Spanish, while authentic, were annoying because you felt that you were missing something important in the exchanges. Also there was a certain deus ex machine aspect to the story near the end that I was mystified by. In the end it was worth the read but kind of shoulder shrugger in the end.

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