"They stood in the doorway and stomped the rain from their boots and swung their hats and wiped the water from their faces. Out in the streets the...
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reviews
Mar 07, 2011
Matt
rated it: 
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
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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
More...
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Dec 08, 2011
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
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Feb 23, 2011
Michael
rated it: 
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 naturalisti More...
It's naturalisti More...
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Feb 02, 2009
Dan
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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.
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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.
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Feb 03, 2012
Max
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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, wax More...
Don't get me wrong, there are some great parts within the book (the horse auction, the ribbing the workers give each other, wax More...
Dec 14, 2011
Ron
rated it:
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 on
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Dec 04, 2011
Danny
rated it:
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
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Nov 15, 2011
Totoptero
rated it:
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.
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Sep 27, 2011
Bill
rated it: 
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 bo 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 bo More...
May 02, 2011
Matthew
rated it:
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 tal 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 tal More...
Dec 19, 2010
Jeff
rated it:
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 destroye 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 destroye More...
Aug 11, 2009
Ross
rated it:
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 muc
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Jan 26, 2012
Roger
rated it:
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
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Mar 03, 2011
Jonathan
rated it:
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. H 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. H More...
Feb 09, 2011
Barbara
rated it:
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 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 More...
Jun 08, 2010
Ryan
rated it:
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 th 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 th More...
Oct 01, 2011
Beth
rated it:
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 pre 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 pre More...
Jan 19, 2011
Daniel
rated it:
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 exten 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 exten More...
May 10, 2011
Kirby
rated it:
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 lov 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 lov More...
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Jul 16, 2010
Becky
rated it:
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
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Oct 22, 2011
Marco
rated it:
Le storie che ci parlano più intensamente hanno la capacità di sopraffare chi le racconta, e cancellare dalla memoria lui e le sue ragioni.
La monumentalità di questo libro, unita a quella dei due precedenti, fanno della Trilogia della Frontiera un'opera destinata a durare nei secoli a venire, un'opera destinata ad affascinare e straziare i lettori. Drammatico, questo ultimo capitolo. Definitivo, ma immenso come i precedenti. Unisce i due protagonisti, ma ne ricalca le evidenti differ More...
La monumentalità di questo libro, unita a quella dei due precedenti, fanno della Trilogia della Frontiera un'opera destinata a durare nei secoli a venire, un'opera destinata ad affascinare e straziare i lettori. Drammatico, questo ultimo capitolo. Definitivo, ma immenso come i precedenti. Unisce i due protagonisti, ma ne ricalca le evidenti differ More...
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Nov 19, 2008
Doug
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To maximize my enjoyment, I waited for an uninterrupted stretch to read this -- and I wasn't disappointed. Cole and Parham are working as ranchhands in 1952, Cole falls in love with an epileptic prostitute who was sold to a pimp to pay off a gambling debt (the jacket describes her as "ill-starred"). The pimp is quite vicious, and is in love with her too. Of course Cole and Parham think they can take the pimp on. The ensuing is pure McCarthy magic.
It's also a somber, qui More...
It's also a somber, qui More...
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Oct 21, 2011
Adam
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The final book in the Border Trilogy finds Billy Parham and John Grady Cole working together as cowboys on a dying ranch near El Paso. They have become best friends; Parham has apparently overcome his grief from the end of The Crossing which makes him a much, much less interesting character. In fact, he seems little more than a supporting role until the end, which is a major disappointment. In general, it seems like an editor got his hands on this - the polemical, but beautiful asides found thro
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May 17, 2010
Jason
rated it:
I met Cormac McCarthy and he transcribed our conversation about Cities of the Plain:
The author asked, Whad'ya think about the book?
The last in the trilogy?
That's it.
It was alright, Jason said.
What was alright?
Cities of the Plain
What specifically?
The simple language and the economy of words and the lack of punctuation, quotations especially. How you made simple things like chores seem interesting and wonderful.
That's fair. It's actua More...
The author asked, Whad'ya think about the book?
The last in the trilogy?
That's it.
It was alright, Jason said.
What was alright?
Cities of the Plain
What specifically?
The simple language and the economy of words and the lack of punctuation, quotations especially. How you made simple things like chores seem interesting and wonderful.
That's fair. It's actua More...
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Sep 03, 2010
Pam
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Sep 15, 2011
Heather
rated it:
I'm honestly torn between three and four stars. I love the books, the imagery, the poignant descriptions; and, like others, this book deters a little due to the extensive (for McCarthy) dialogue. The story ends, as almost all of his books do, with a vivid image that moves me almost to tears. This one is particularly disturbing because not only is the girl killed after a life of injustice, everyone dies. But before John Grady Cole does, he questions if forgiveness from God is subjective. He s
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Feb 13, 2011
Logan
rated it:
This has been one hell of a winter of McCarthy for me. Starting in early January I began his award-winning Border Trilogy with much trepidation. Having previously only read his Pulitzer-winning father-son dystopian nightmare, The Road, and found it severely lacking, I was curious to see if McCarthy's previous works were worthy of the acclaim in which they are held. After three weeks of being immersed in one of the most bleak interpretations of humanity and exposure to tragedy that would make
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Mar 02, 2009
Pip
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Okay, so I didn't really like <All the Pretty Horses> and <The Crossing> was almost a penance or a duty that I had to fulfill to get to here. And here? Here is <Cities of the Plain>. An astonishing piece of writing that turns into a manifesto on writing, on telling stories, on life. Forlorn, emotionally destitute people without too much to be going on with. Dead friends. Dead hearts. Dead dreams. But the story lives on. The blowing of the desert sand on the evening breeze becom
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Jan 17, 2012
Patrick
rated it:
The last installment of the adventures of John Grady Cole. There are some burst of witty dialogue between Billy and John Grady, but they are too few and far between. As always, Mr. McCarthy writes an outstanding bad guy, Eduardo, but this character comes and goes quickly. The overall impression is that I wanted a more from the characters. The knife fight is a provocative scene and the roping digression is unique, to say the least.
The story focuses upon an interesting time in the More...
The story focuses upon an interesting time in the More...
Oct 02, 2010
Daryl
rated it:
All written words, I believe are autobiographical, in that they are a product of the writer and all that he is in this point in time. Yet, the previous novels I have read never allowed me to come as close to McCarthy as this one did. So, while "Blood Meridian" was awe-ful in its scope and its implacable and remorseless march to an ending worthy of the greatest of the Greek tragedies, this novel was the most approachable, as well as the most hopeful, of his novels that I have read to d
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