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26th out of 323 books
—
428 voters
Cities of the Plain (The Border Trilogy #3)
The concluding volume of the Border trilogy. In this magnificent new novel, the National Book Award-winning author of All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing fashions a darkly beautiful elegy for the American frontier. It is 1952 and John Grady Cole and Billy Parham are working as ranch hands in New Mexico, not far from the proving grounds of Alamogordo and the cities of El...more
Paperback, 292 pages
Published
May 25th 1999
by Vintage
(first published 1998)
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The Border Trilogy finale, the ending--at least *an* ending.
I greatly enjoyed Cities of the Plain
. The book was much more dialogue-driven than the previous two--moreso than most McCarthy. It read quite like a screenplay (honestly I'm surprised there's no adaptation in the works--no Matt Damon please). Landscape descriptions, landscape as a character itself, is toned down, replaced with scene and scenario, the near-exciting humdrum of cowboy ranching life, a moribund profession and way of life. B...more
I greatly enjoyed Cities of the Plain
. The book was much more dialogue-driven than the previous two--moreso than most McCarthy. It read quite like a screenplay (honestly I'm surprised there's no adaptation in the works--no Matt Damon please). Landscape descriptions, landscape as a character itself, is toned down, replaced with scene and scenario, the near-exciting humdrum of cowboy ranching life, a moribund profession and way of life. B...more
. He's John Grady's brother, father figure, his confidant. They are each other's brother, with John Grady filling in for Boyd, bringing out Billy's protectiveness. Billy has a voice of reason, a pragmatic and fatalistic outlook. John Grady is ever the romantic, pursuing his desire with unfailing optimism and hope. Billy's intentions of holding him back are frivolous. The two are quite different, yet see in each other something of value, and it's their brotherly chemistry, conversation and care for one another that sucks the reader in, capturing their emotions entirely.
--though each book is a masterpiece in itself.)
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I was really surprised at just how talkative this book is. It's got more dialogue than anything else Mcarthy's written. Which makes sense because this book evokes not just single lonely lives, but an entire, lonely lifestyle. Cities of the Plain partakes easily of the typical tropes of American westerns, doomed love, the sense of loss for an increasingly marginalized and antiquated cowboy culture at odds with a modernizing west, what have you. But it's much more than just a thin genre piece beca...more
Mar 06, 2013
Chiara Pagliochini
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
letteratura-americana,
narrativa-contemporanea
« La donna gli diede un colpetto su una mano. Era tutta nodi, cicatrici lasciate dalle funi, macchie impresse dal sole e dagli anni. Le vene in rilievo la legavano al cuore. C’era quanto bastava perché gli uomini vi scorgessero una mappa. C’era abbondanza di segni e meraviglie, da farne un paesaggio. Da farne un mondo. »
Sfogliare l’ultima pagina, leggere le ultime righe, chiudere il libro e stringerselo forte forte contro il petto, con la stessa sensazione di quando si guarda rimpicciolire in lo...more
Sfogliare l’ultima pagina, leggere le ultime righe, chiudere il libro e stringerselo forte forte contro il petto, con la stessa sensazione di quando si guarda rimpicciolire in lo...more
This book brought together the theme of the whole series, and brought the events of the previous books into focus. Although I'd enjoyed the previous two books, this conclusion gave me a new appreciation for the whole series. The Border trilogy is a meditation on the border between the United States and Mexico back in the final days of 'cowboys', and shows Americans struggling with survival in Mexico, and struggling with the idea of Mexico, and the idea of the U.S.
It's naturalistic in the sense...more
It's naturalistic in the sense...more
This book is somewhere between three and four stars. It earns this rating because it is not nearly as good as "All the Pretty Horses," but it's still a great book.
The one major disappointment with this story was its lack of powerful, beautiful, and riveting poetic form. In ATPH and Crossing, the poetry that goes into describing the scenes, people and emotions is just heartbreakingly good. In this story, however, it is noticeably absent until near the end of the book.
The positive: he meant to wri...more
The one major disappointment with this story was its lack of powerful, beautiful, and riveting poetic form. In ATPH and Crossing, the poetry that goes into describing the scenes, people and emotions is just heartbreakingly good. In this story, however, it is noticeably absent until near the end of the book.
The positive: he meant to wri...more
This a fitting end to the epic Border Trilogy. It didn't end happily-ever-after, in fact I don't think that any of McCarthy's stories end that way, but all are more true to life than we would like to admit. The world and our places in it are often messy and violent.
All of the stories of his that I have read are salted with wisdom, here is a example from Cities of the Plain, this from a conversation between John Gray and his blind friend in a discussion about padrinos (godparents), the blind fri...more
All of the stories of his that I have read are salted with wisdom, here is a example from Cities of the Plain, this from a conversation between John Gray and his blind friend in a discussion about padrinos (godparents), the blind fri...more
My sixth McCarthy novel, and this is his worst, in my opinion. The writing seems uninspired (compared to the rest of his work, especially ALL THE PRETTY HORSES) and lacks weight and gravitas usually found in his books. Perhaps it is because I had grown so accustomed to his philosophical and elemental musings and the gripping geographic descriptions that sweeps you off the pages. CITIES OF THE PLAIN is much more plot-driven and dialogue-laden, yet I felt less of a kinship with John Grady Cole and...more
Cities of the Plains represents a high point in writing about the land and peoples of the American Southwest. It is full of astonishing descriptions of the dramatic landscape around El Paso, Juarez, and the region surrounding these two cities that are, to the experienced eye, perfect accounts of what you see when you look at rock formations, sunsets, mists, horizons, distant cities, animals, fences, and rivers out there. At the same time the novel presents a wonderful cast of funny, tragic, laco...more
The third installment of the "border trilogy" finds the two protagonists from the first two novels, a pair of young cousins, this time engaged together in another life quest south of the Texas border. A love that is stronger than common sense propels John Grady to risk it all to rescue his young love from a life of abject servitude in a Mexican brothel. It's a train wreck you can see coming from the time the engine leaves the station. Again, however it's the quest itself that proves redeeming: a...more
This book combines the main characters from the previous two (All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing), but I didn't like it as much. Lost are the beautiful landscapes and you are left dealing with two men who grew up hard lives, enjoy the cowboy way of life (as electricity and indoor plumbing start to be more common) and their willingness to adapt and survive.
Don't get me wrong, there are some great parts within the book (the horse auction, the ribbing the workers give each other, waxing eloquen...more
Don't get me wrong, there are some great parts within the book (the horse auction, the ribbing the workers give each other, waxing eloquen...more
I found myself at home again in the life of a young romantic cowboy (John Grady Cole) after having read both "All the pretty horses" and "The Crossing" some years ago. While I do not think this ending-trilogy-novel is as good as the first two, it still did not disappoint...well, until the last 20 pages. Three key scenes will stick with me: John insisting on stopping to help a truckload of Mexicans with their blown out tire; a vicious tracking and roping (yes, roping, where one dog is split in ha...more
McCarthy finishes off the Border Trilogy with this absolute game killer of a book. This final part of the trilogy set in the early fifties in a rapidly changing America. John Grady (protagonist from the first book; All the Pretty Horses) and Billy Parham (protagonist from the second book; The Crossing, are friends working on a ranch just outside of Alamogordo New Mexico. The military is about to buy the land in which the small downtrodden ranch is located and is a signal that the old western way...more
Soy un tipo citadino. Al menos eso creía. Mi familia es del campo y crecí escuchando todas las historias que me contaban los tíos y familiares. Tenía que llenar los espacios vacíos con cosas que se me ocurrían. Cuando decían “iba a la toma”, no había una imagen clara del espacio “Toma”, así que lo inventaba. Como cuando se es pequeño y se inventan los diálogos de las películas incomprensibles. Fui a verlos un par de veces y las palabras se fueron llenando de imágenes. Eso me ocurre hasta ahora....more
This book is the third in Cormac's Border Trilogy about cowboys and Mexico and the old west and such:
All the Pretty Horses (1992) - 4 bill-stars
The Crossing (1994) - 4 bill-stars
Cities of the Plain (1998) - 2 bill-stars
The first two books of the trilogy were really, really great. This 3rd book is not strong. The beautiful writing style is there, but the plot is glacial and ultimately uninteresting. Cormac borrowed the two lead characters from the first two books (John Grady Cole and Billy Par...more
All the Pretty Horses (1992) - 4 bill-stars
The Crossing (1994) - 4 bill-stars
Cities of the Plain (1998) - 2 bill-stars
The first two books of the trilogy were really, really great. This 3rd book is not strong. The beautiful writing style is there, but the plot is glacial and ultimately uninteresting. Cormac borrowed the two lead characters from the first two books (John Grady Cole and Billy Par...more
My favorite of McCarthy's books, I have yet to read 'The Crossing'.
The epilogue is unfortunate. It's like something Borges would write - on a day he drank too many cups of yerba mate and was feeling impatient and confused. At least the pimp in this book has a philosophy that is well-organized and articulated. But Billy ending up under an interstate bridge in Arizona felt right, as well as sad.
The rest is fantastic, if you love old codgers telling violent, hilarious tales. The jackrabbits story r...more
The epilogue is unfortunate. It's like something Borges would write - on a day he drank too many cups of yerba mate and was feeling impatient and confused. At least the pimp in this book has a philosophy that is well-organized and articulated. But Billy ending up under an interstate bridge in Arizona felt right, as well as sad.
The rest is fantastic, if you love old codgers telling violent, hilarious tales. The jackrabbits story r...more
I don't have a lot more to say about the conclusion of the trilogy than i've already said about the first 2 books.
SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT?! SPOILER ALERT!? SPOILER ALERT!! SPOILER ALERT!!! John Grady Cole and Billy Parham are back. And they're together.
Who woulda thunk the 3rd book would be a romance novel? just kiddin, but Billy's semi-comfortable adult life trajectory (flatline?) takes a backseat to John Grady's romance and i have a feeling they'll both be destroyed or saved as a result....more
SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT?! SPOILER ALERT!? SPOILER ALERT!! SPOILER ALERT!!! John Grady Cole and Billy Parham are back. And they're together.
Who woulda thunk the 3rd book would be a romance novel? just kiddin, but Billy's semi-comfortable adult life trajectory (flatline?) takes a backseat to John Grady's romance and i have a feeling they'll both be destroyed or saved as a result....more
The time and place for the Border Series were well chosen. People of the time and place were plain spoken, didn't meddle, sacrificied for one another, and took the good and bad of life with a matter of fact attitude. McCarthy avoids varnishing the experiences of the characters in his books. The reader is forced to see things with an unblinking eye. In Cities of the Plain, a compelling story of stubborn and seemingly hopeless love pulls the reader through its pages. As always, the story is much m...more
I wasn't digging the final volume in the Border Trilogy as I did the previous two, though I still blazed through like a man possessed, and I enjoyed the Mr. McCarthy's subdued juxtaposition of the protagonists from those great books.
I was liking the book, still blazing through because Cormac McCarthy is Cormac McCarthy. Then I got to the climax, and the climax had me by the sac tighter than any McCarthy book I've read before (including Blood Meridian, though that ending's still the most haunting...more
I was liking the book, still blazing through because Cormac McCarthy is Cormac McCarthy. Then I got to the climax, and the climax had me by the sac tighter than any McCarthy book I've read before (including Blood Meridian, though that ending's still the most haunting...more
In volume three of McCarthy’s Border Trilogy, Cities of the Plain brings together the protagonists from each of the previous two volumes. John Grady Cole from All the Pretty Horses is now nineteen years old and nine years the junior of Billy Parham from The Crossing. Regardless of age, the men share an inseparable friendship and a deep passion for riding horses and living off the land. They work as ranch hands for a respected landowner on his farm not far from the Mexican border. When John Grady...more
Let me set the record straight for this overrated novel, you see, McCarthy set the seeds of this novels failure because he wrote too good a novel in the first place.
SPOILERS AHEAD
With the strength of 'All the Pretty Horses', I continued to read the Border Trilogy and, while 'The Crossing' had some incredible moments (especially its climactic end), 'Cities of the Plain' does not reflect McCarthy's best at all. His fabled lyricism is there in parts, but not wholly developed. His moments of philos...more
SPOILERS AHEAD
With the strength of 'All the Pretty Horses', I continued to read the Border Trilogy and, while 'The Crossing' had some incredible moments (especially its climactic end), 'Cities of the Plain' does not reflect McCarthy's best at all. His fabled lyricism is there in parts, but not wholly developed. His moments of philos...more
I started Cities of the Plains, by Cormac McCarthy, on my way home from a long and relaxing vacation. I could not put it down until I finished it. It is the third in the trilogy with All the Pretty Horses, which I have read, but I had not read the second book when a friend gave this one to me.
It is beautifully written and spare - there is no waste in his writing. It is a simple story in many ways, and yet almost mythological in its themes and consequences. But what really struck me was the endi...more
It is beautifully written and spare - there is no waste in his writing. It is a simple story in many ways, and yet almost mythological in its themes and consequences. But what really struck me was the endi...more
No. 3 in The border Trilogy, this book brings together Billy and John Grady, who each had their tales told separately in the previous two books. While I found this one much more accessible and entertaining than the second book's marked ambling, it felt a bit tacked on. It's a good read, but the plot is just ever-so contrived in its cinematic qualities (knife fights, falling in love with a prostitute, the unattainable promise of marriage, etc.). While I get that McCarthy is expressing a continual...more
Reading Cormac McCarthy's Cities of the Plain cuts like a knife leaving a steadily flowing wound when one finishes reading this the last of his Border Trilogy. The conclusion of the trilogy begun with All the Pretty Horses which features John Grady Cole and The Crossing with Billy Parnham brings the two together.
As one might expect Billy Parnham and John Grady become friends who rely and care for each other in a friendship that is both simple and complicated as the tale of the American West. Two...more
As one might expect Billy Parnham and John Grady become friends who rely and care for each other in a friendship that is both simple and complicated as the tale of the American West. Two...more
Well, well, well, another McCarthy. All his same tricks, style, cowboy life-subject matter, but I felt pretty let down, like it was less than the sum of its parts.
This is final novel in his Border trilogy, begun with All the Pretty Horses, continued with The Crossing. Obviously this selection has much in common with those, but it just didn’t add up for me the way that I would have expected after his first two. Those two focused on two unrelated stories (except the act of crossing the border, wh...more
This is final novel in his Border trilogy, begun with All the Pretty Horses, continued with The Crossing. Obviously this selection has much in common with those, but it just didn’t add up for me the way that I would have expected after his first two. Those two focused on two unrelated stories (except the act of crossing the border, wh...more
Spoilers abound: I loved the other two books in the Border Trilogy. And this one certainly isn't a bad book. The prose is still excellent and the characters, and philosophical themes are still compelling. The problem is that all of these elements seem tacked onto a rather uninteresting plot. While All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing were truly iconoclastic western novels, Cities of the Plain, seems to regress into the simplistic tropes so familiar to the genre; good guy is wronged and has to...more
Dear McCarthy,
Please, for the love of gods, embrace the freakin' quotation mark.
Cordially,
Beth
No, but seriously, his lack of quotations can get pretty damn confusing at times. Having to stop and count off to tell who is talking? Not fun.
This book brings together the main characters of Pretty Horses and The Crossing. I like their juxtaposition because they're both rather broken. This focuses more of Grady and his romanticism but Billy places a pretty pivotal role in the end. Without giving too mu...more
Please, for the love of gods, embrace the freakin' quotation mark.
Cordially,
Beth
No, but seriously, his lack of quotations can get pretty damn confusing at times. Having to stop and count off to tell who is talking? Not fun.
This book brings together the main characters of Pretty Horses and The Crossing. I like their juxtaposition because they're both rather broken. This focuses more of Grady and his romanticism but Billy places a pretty pivotal role in the end. Without giving too mu...more
Cormac McCarthy is one of the most depressing authors I have ever read, but he’s also one of my favorites, simply because he writes some of the most beautiful imagery out there. The first two books in the trilogy, All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing, are two of my favorite books, so I was very excited to read this.
Cormac McCarthy is a poet that has simply never bothered to write poetry. Cities of the Plain is no exception for McCarthy’s habits, although we see this to a lesser extent than we...more
Cormac McCarthy is a poet that has simply never bothered to write poetry. Cities of the Plain is no exception for McCarthy’s habits, although we see this to a lesser extent than we...more
"'I aint nothin. I dont know why you put up with me.'
'Well, Mr Parham, I know who you are. And I do know why.'"
If this book doesn't elicit some emotion from you, you may be dead already. I don't know the best way to look at this, or even know if i want to look at it. But, I was always interested, at times anxious, and at other times completely at a loss to be human at all.
While Mr. McCarthy has some other novels with more poetic prose, he still finds a way to drill (until it hurts) into emotion...more
'Well, Mr Parham, I know who you are. And I do know why.'"
If this book doesn't elicit some emotion from you, you may be dead already. I don't know the best way to look at this, or even know if i want to look at it. But, I was always interested, at times anxious, and at other times completely at a loss to be human at all.
While Mr. McCarthy has some other novels with more poetic prose, he still finds a way to drill (until it hurts) into emotion...more
Cities of the Plain is the perfect ending to the Border Trilogy. It packs that affecting-but-also-weirdly-detached emotional resonance from the previous two books, without all the yawny horse discussion and painful animal brutality that made them just short of perfect for me.
The final chapter of John Grady Cole and Billy Parham's story completely captures the vast loneliness of vaquero life on the frontier and the frightening tension of outlaw life in Mexico. It also has a tender love story betw...more
The final chapter of John Grady Cole and Billy Parham's story completely captures the vast loneliness of vaquero life on the frontier and the frightening tension of outlaw life in Mexico. It also has a tender love story betw...more
I want to start off by saying that a book by Cormac McCarthy is automatically like a bazillion times better than 99% of the other books I could be reading. But I didn't love this one (hence the 3 stars), and here's why. It didn't really surprise me or take me anywhere new, at least as far as its plot was concerned. This is a novel about a cowboy (John Grady Cole, of All the Pretty Horses) who falls in love with a Mexican prostitute and tries to free her so he can marry her. As soon as this plotl...more
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Cormac McCarthy is an American novelist and playwright. He has written ten novels in the Southern Gothic, western, and post-apocalyptic genres and has also written plays and screenplays. He received the Pulitzer Prize in 2007 for The Road, and his 2005 novel No Country for Old Men was adapted as a 2007 film of the same name, which won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
His earlier Blood M...more
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“Our waking life's desire to shape the world to our convenience invites all manner of paradox and difficulty.”
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“The man smiled at him a sly smile. As if they knew a secret between them, these two. Something of age and youth and their claims and the justice of those claims. And of their claims upon them. The world past, the world to come. Their common transciencies. Above all a knowing deep in the bone that beauty and loss are one.”
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