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All the Pretty Horses (Border Trilogy, Vol 1)
by Cormac McCarthy

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/469571.All_the_Pretty_Horses?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="All the Pretty Horses (Border Trilogy, Vol 1)" border="0" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1204745310m/469571.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/469571.All_the_Pretty_Horses?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">All the Pretty Horses</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4178.Cormac_McCarthy">Cormac McCarthy</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/12790583?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 5 of 5 stars Cormac McCarthy is, in my opinion, doing for novels what Raymond Carver did for the short story 30 years ago. His style of breaking the rules works not only because it effectively sheds extraneous formatting to create a more immediate, visceral reading experience, but also for his carefully constructed and insightful metaphors that offer a musical balance to the format, without which the storytelling would eventually feel dry and uninspired. He trusts the reader in a way that few writers do, striking the right balance between showing and letting our imaginations fill in the blanks. 
 
 It's a style that will be copied for decades. I could be projecting, but I'm going to pretend my opinion is the one that will be adopted universally by the literati. But maybe we don't even need to look beyond the fact that the guy just won the Pulitzer, and while the genius of the Cohen brothers certainly had a lot to do with it, a film adaptation of one of his lesser known novels is probably going to sweep the Oscars (if everybody forgets about "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" Such a manly year for movies...).
 
 All the Pretty Horses has an imagination that is more subdued and traditional than The Road - Two young men wander the wilds of Mexico, get into some trouble because of their reluctant association with an unpredictable third, hide out, find the trouble catch up to them because of a forbidden love. It's a clear fantasy with inserted conflict. The themes - what it is to be a man, the passion of youthful love - are dealt with so vividly and sensitively that it was difficult to not read the author's longing for his own youth between the lines. 
 
 I enjoyed this book more for the character interactions than for the plot elements, as interesting as those were. For example, there are several characters who exist in the novel for a grand total of three or four pages - a crooked police captain, a patron on a Mexican ranch, a Mexican field hand - and yet it was their conversations with the protagonist, John Grady, that I remember most, that I found most riveting, because each clearly, thoroughly represents the world that they live in and that he had come at odds against, which I'm wondering now whether that should be the sole purpose of a satellite character. The romance was particularly beautiful, doing what romance is supposed to do - remind us of our most passionate moments while showing the story unfold. It also has easily the bloodiest hand-to-hand fight scene I've ever read. And there's lots of untranslated Spanish, which was fun to read and figure out. Good read. 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/275288?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Pato's review
rating:
bookshelves: recently-read
recommended for: Everyone, but especially writers

Cormac McCarthy is, in my opinion, doing for novels what Raymond Carver did for the short story 30 years ago. His style of breaking the rules works not only because it effectively sheds extraneous formatting to create a more immediate, visceral reading experience, but also for his carefully constructed and insightful metaphors that offer a musical balance to the format, without which the storytelling would eventually feel dry and uninspired. He trusts the reader in a way that few writers do, striking the right balance between showing and letting our imaginations fill in the blanks.

It's a style that will be copied for decades. I could be projecting, but I'm going to pretend my opinion is the one that will be adopted universally by the literati. But maybe we don't even need to look beyond the fact that the guy just won the Pulitzer, and while the genius of the Cohen brothers certainly had a lot to do with it, a film adaptation of one of his lesser known novels is probably going to s...more Cormac McCarthy is, in my opinion, doing for novels what Raymond Carver did for the short story 30 years ago. His style of breaking the rules works not only because it effectively sheds extraneous formatting to create a more immediate, visceral reading experience, but also for his carefully constructed and insightful metaphors that offer a musical balance to the format, without which the storytelling would eventually feel dry and uninspired. He trusts the reader in a way that few writers do, striking the right balance between showing and letting our imaginations fill in the blanks.

It's a style that will be copied for decades. I could be projecting, but I'm going to pretend my opinion is the one that will be adopted universally by the literati. But maybe we don't even need to look beyond the fact that the guy just won the Pulitzer, and while the genius of the Cohen brothers certainly had a lot to do with it, a film adaptation of one of his lesser known novels is probably going to sweep the Oscars (if everybody forgets about "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" Such a manly year for movies...).

All the Pretty Horses has an imagination that is more subdued and traditional than The Road - Two young men wander the wilds of Mexico, get into some trouble because of their reluctant association with an unpredictable third, hide out, find the trouble catch up to them because of a forbidden love. It's a clear fantasy with inserted conflict. The themes - what it is to be a man, the passion of youthful love - are dealt with so vividly and sensitively that it was difficult to not read the author's longing for his own youth between the lines.

I enjoyed this book more for the character interactions than for the plot elements, as interesting as those were. For example, there are several characters who exist in the novel for a grand total of three or four pages - a crooked police captain, a patron on a Mexican ranch, a Mexican field hand - and yet it was their conversations with the protagonist, John Grady, that I remember most, that I found most riveting, because each clearly, thoroughly represents the world that they live in and that he had come at odds against, which I'm wondering now whether that should be the sole purpose of a satellite character. The romance was particularly beautiful, doing what romance is supposed to do - remind us of our most passionate moments while showing the story unfold. It also has easily the bloodiest hand-to-hand fight scene I've ever read. And there's lots of untranslated Spanish, which was fun to read and figure out. Good read. ...less

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