All the Pretty Horses
by: Cormac McCarthy
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Amazon.com Review:
Part bildungsroman, part horse opera, part meditation on courageand loyalty, this beautifully crafted novel won the National Book Award in1992. The plot is simple enough. John Grady Cole, a 16-year-old dispossessedTexan, crosses the Rio Grande into Mexico in 1949, accompanied by his palLacey Rawlins. The two precocious horsemen pick up a sidekick--a laughablebut deadly marksman named Jimmy Blevins--encounter various adventures ontheir way south and finally arrive at a paradisiacal hacienda where Colefalls into an ill-fated romance. Readers familiar with McCarthy's Faulknerianprose will find the writing more restrained than in Suttree and Blood Meridian. Newcomers willbe mesmerized by the tragic tale of John Grady Cole's coming of age.
Product Description:
The national bestseller and the first volume in Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy, All the Pretty Horses is the tale of John Grady Cole, who at sixteen finds himself at the end of a long line of Texas ranchers, cut off from the only life he has ever imagined for himself.With two companions, he sets off for Mexico on a sometimes idyllic, sometimes comic journey to a place where dreams are paid for in blood.Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction.
Part bildungsroman, part horse opera, part meditation on courageand loyalty, this beautifully crafted novel won the National Book Award in1992. The plot is simple enough. John Grady Cole, a 16-year-old dispossessedTexan, crosses the Rio Grande into Mexico in 1949, accompanied by his palLacey Rawlins. The two precocious horsemen pick up a sidekick--a laughablebut deadly marksman named Jimmy Blevins--encounter various adventures ontheir way south and finally arrive at a paradisiacal hacienda where Colefalls into an ill-fated romance. Readers familiar with McCarthy's Faulknerianprose will find the writing more restrained than in Suttree and Blood Meridian. Newcomers willbe mesmerized by the tragic tale of John Grady Cole's coming of age.
Product Description:
The national bestseller and the first volume in Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy, All the Pretty Horses is the tale of John Grady Cole, who at sixteen finds himself at the end of a long line of Texas ranchers, cut off from the only life he has ever imagined for himself.With two companions, he sets off for Mexico on a sometimes idyllic, sometimes comic journey to a place where dreams are paid for in blood.Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction.
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - There's just something about the way Cormac McCarthy writes words on the page.
Going in, I was skeptical that I would particularly like this novel and made the choice simply on my enjoyment with previous novels and the promise of the premise of The Crossing that I could read after this.
Horses and cowboy life are the kind of thing that I never knew I could enjoy, especially not in the amount that it takes to read an entire novel about. This, however, is truly a man's tale. McCarthy's striking prose mixed with his distinct style made it a joy to read, especially ... Read More
Rating: - Strange but Recommended
Open ALL THE PRETTY HORSES to a random page and you're likely encounter a classic cowboy sensibility. This emanates from McCarthy's hero, John Grady Cole, as well as from Cole's interaction with his friend Rawlins. To simplify somewhat, McCarthy captures these characters as men, competent in their responsibilities, sound in judgment, and experienced with guns and horses. As a bonus, they have laconic cowboy-style conversations--Yep.... Nope--that are often funny and surprisingly profound. All this ... Read More
Rating: 
- A Slow Read With Little Momentum
This book was chosen by my reading group.I found the book a slow read with
little momentum.Though poetic, I did not feel vested in the outcomes or the
characters.I am at a loss to decipher why so many people I respect think so
highly of this book.I just did not get it.
Rating: 
- Don't Miss This One...
A fine Western,very fine...An adventure story and a love story, a man's love story told from his perspective about a forbidden love (aren't they the mosst daring kind?) Told against the backdrop of a young man seeking hope and a new life, clashes of Mexican and American culture and tradition, Old World/New World values and experiences, Youthful hope and optimism against middle and old age maturity and, perhaps, conventional wisdom.Throughout there is a yearning for a successful resolution, but you ... Read More
Rating: - A young man draws upon the man inside to survive
Once again Cormac McCarthy demonstrates that he is one of the finest novelists in the English language, a master of description. His use of the language is poetic, descriptive, and unique. I found myself continually amazed at the metaphors and descriptions that McCarthy uses, built into sentences that flow and sway with the tides of the narrative, evoking long hidden insights about the human condition which centers of the human tragedy of existence.His work resonates with that of Melville, Faulkner, ... Read More
- There's just something about the way Cormac McCarthy writes words on the page.Going in, I was skeptical that I would particularly like this novel and made the choice simply on my enjoyment with previous novels and the promise of the premise of The Crossing that I could read after this.
Horses and cowboy life are the kind of thing that I never knew I could enjoy, especially not in the amount that it takes to read an entire novel about. This, however, is truly a man's tale. McCarthy's striking prose mixed with his distinct style made it a joy to read, especially ... Read More
- Strange but RecommendedOpen ALL THE PRETTY HORSES to a random page and you're likely encounter a classic cowboy sensibility. This emanates from McCarthy's hero, John Grady Cole, as well as from Cole's interaction with his friend Rawlins. To simplify somewhat, McCarthy captures these characters as men, competent in their responsibilities, sound in judgment, and experienced with guns and horses. As a bonus, they have laconic cowboy-style conversations--Yep.... Nope--that are often funny and surprisingly profound. All this ... Read More
- A Slow Read With Little MomentumThis book was chosen by my reading group.I found the book a slow read with
little momentum.Though poetic, I did not feel vested in the outcomes or the
characters.I am at a loss to decipher why so many people I respect think so
highly of this book.I just did not get it.
- Don't Miss This One...A fine Western,very fine...An adventure story and a love story, a man's love story told from his perspective about a forbidden love (aren't they the mosst daring kind?) Told against the backdrop of a young man seeking hope and a new life, clashes of Mexican and American culture and tradition, Old World/New World values and experiences, Youthful hope and optimism against middle and old age maturity and, perhaps, conventional wisdom.Throughout there is a yearning for a successful resolution, but you ... Read More
- A young man draws upon the man inside to surviveOnce again Cormac McCarthy demonstrates that he is one of the finest novelists in the English language, a master of description. His use of the language is poetic, descriptive, and unique. I found myself continually amazed at the metaphors and descriptions that McCarthy uses, built into sentences that flow and sway with the tides of the narrative, evoking long hidden insights about the human condition which centers of the human tragedy of existence.His work resonates with that of Melville, Faulkner, ... Read More
