By: Cormac McCarthy
“Between the wish and the thing the world lies waiting.”
Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses
All the Pretty Horses is book one in Cormac McCarthy’s Border Triology.
I read this book a couple of weeks ago and wanted to finish up my post given the recent passing of the author.
This book was given to me by someone I work with. He reads a ton of books so when he found out I read about 100 per year he started quizzing me. I tried to seem way cooler than I actually am and not mention that a lot of the books I read are YA, graphic novels or fantasy. I believe you should read whatever you want but it’s still awkward to say especially to older generations.
He’s a little snooty when it comes to books so he gave me All the Pretty Horses when I said I hadn’t read it. I had no idea what it was about so reading the synopsis I was not overly joyed to find out that I was about Southern Texas and Mexico. I had lived in a border town for three years and it was a really tough time in my life that I don’t love being reminded of.
Books are supposed to give you the opportunity to escape whatever it is that you are trying to avoid. Perhaps that’s why I tend to read unrealistic books that couldn’t possible happen in my regular life.
I didn’t want this bias to completely ruin the book for me but it definitely dampered my enjoyment.
Overview:
Realizing that he has nothing holding him in Texas, John Grady Cole sets forth on a journey over the border to Mexico.
The land proves to be full of opportunity and growth.
Establishing himself on a ranch, John Grady Cole finds purpose and love but also betrayal and heartbreak.
My thoughts:
McCarthy’s style of writing is not my favorite. The lack of quotation marks and chapter breaks being few and far between, is tough. There’s no good stopping point as you’re reading so for the first part you are bogged down a bit by descriptions of the characters riding horses.
That being said, it is a calming almost meditative read. Very little action happens within the first 150 pages but it is enjoyable and smooth.
Once it gets going, it is really interesting and you begin to care about the characters and their struggles. I found myself suddenly invested in the story and wanting to know what happened.
I enjoyed that the story boils down to it just being the lives of these young boys. Sometimes very exciting or traumatic things happen but then sometimes it’s just talking about the food they ate that day. Real life is not always non-stop action and tension, there are periods of a lull where you get a bit of a break.
As someone who plans their life around food, I appreciated the heavy emphasis on meals. The author always discusses what everyone did for meals and who was involved. This adds to the primal nature of the story by emphasizing the fact that at the end of the day you need food and shelter to survive. No matter what ever else is going on in the story, you can’t forget to eat.
I was however a little put off by the fact that this entire story is propelled by Blevins. Had he not inserted himself into their trip to Mexico, none of this misfortune would have happened. John Grady most likely would still have had a dramatic relationship with Alejandra but there would have been no crime from him to have been charged of. Most likely they would have just went to the ranch and had a pretty basic time with basic struggles. He also would not have felt that he had to take back the horses and return them. He wouldn’t have been shot and had to kidnap someone and then defend himself in court.
Basically, the entire story is predicated on this small amount of time that he spent with a boy he barely knew. But just enough time for him to ruin his life.
I would have preferred for the story to be driven by the hopes and fears of John Grady.
Overall,
An easy read and overall enjoyable. Even the tense moments didn’t bring in a ton of emotion and I was never worried about any of the characters.
If the goal of McCarthy was to frustrate the reader, he succeed with me. The lack of personal agency by John Grady as well as the physical disorientation by not distinguishing between speech and character direction caused a certain kind of uncomfortableness while reading.
Rating: 3/5 stars
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