Aleksandr's review
The Border Trilogy: All the Pretty Horses / The Crossing / Cities of the Plain (Everyman's Library)
by Cormac McCarthy
Aleksandr's review
The Border Trilogy: All the Pretty Horses / The Crossing / Cities of the Plain (Everyman's Library) by Cormac McCarthy
Aleksandr's review
rating:
"All The Pretty Horses" is a great read, but surprisingly mainstream for McCarthy. "Cities on the Plain", on the other hand, may turn off casual readers due to its somewhat obtuse plot (there is, however, a scene in the book that is one of the most intense ever written, and its worth reading the book just for that). Personally, i prefer "The Crossing". Its extremely cinematic without being verbose, and whole sections are in Spanish (two ways to read this-not understand whole paragraphs, which re-enforces a kind-of dissociation, or with a translation that can be found on the net. I recommend the latter). It fluctuates between scenes of breathtaking tenderness and beauty and those of sudden violence and apocalyptic portents. Fantastic stuff that firmly places McCarthy in the pantheon of great American writers who have developed their own distinct style such as London, Hemingway, Crane and Faulkner.
