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From the Bookshelf of Never too Late to Read Classics…

All the Pretty Horses (The Border Trilogy, #1)

Cormac McCarthy

Start date: April 1, 2024

Finish date: June 30, 2024

Discussion: Frontier Western Classics

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Frontier Western Classics

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What Members Thought

Aug 21, 2022 Chrissie rated it really liked it

Shelves: hf, classics, series, mexico, life-stages, westerns, usa, contemp-novel, flora, legimus

The ending is so very nice. It pushed my rating from three to four stars. But let me state clearly, never did I ever consider giving the book anything less than three stars.

The ending left me smiling. After the bad, horrible things we must get through as we travel through the story, the ending, although not sugar sweet, is very, very nice. I didn’t know how much I needed this ending until I had it here in my lap. In this book, the bad is bad and the good is good and this is just as it should be ...more

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Mar 27, 2024 Natalie rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction

Rating 4.5. All the Pretty Horses is a story that reveals the author's love of the desert and horses. We follow two young men as they journey through the desert with their horses. John Grady and Rawlins have several adventures that teach them life is largely unfair but they can sometimes have what they work for. The descriptions are vivid and the characters well drawn.
Grady and Rawlins decide to head to Mexico on horseback. Both are young but know ranching and the landscape well. They run across Rating 4.5. All the Pretty Horses is a story that reveals the author's love of the desert and horses. We follow two young men as they journey through the desert with their horses. John Grady and Rawlins have several adventures that teach them life is largely unfair but they can sometimes have what they work for. The descriptions are vivid and the characters well drawn.
Grady and Rawlins decide to head to Mexico on horseback. Both are young but know ranching and the landscape well. They run across a young boy, Blevins, (about 14) and he joins them in their journey. Blevins is afraid of lightning and so runs to hide during a storm. He loses his clothes, pistol, and horse so they go to a nearby town to search. Someone has taken his horse and gun so Blevins steals them back and takes off.
Grady and Rawlins continue into deep Mexico and find a grand hacienda where they are hired as ranch hands by the owner, Don. They are put in charge of taming wild horses, which they do exceptionally well. Grady sees the Don's daughter and falls in love. She secretly meets him at night and they become close. But Alejandra's grandmother meets with Grady and tells him to stay away.
Then, men come down to the ranch and arrest Grady and Rawlins for stealing horses and put them in a rough prison. Along the way, they see Blevins again but he is shot for being a thief. Grady and Rawlins must fight daily and Grady is nearly killed. The unfairness of the situation is stark. The grandmother sends money and they are let go. Rawlins decides to return to Texas but Grady is determined to try to win Alejandra back.
When Grady gets back to the hacienda, the grandmother lectures him about the family history and the need for Alejandra to marry someone wealthy and well educated. She tells him a history of Mexico that men she knew (Gustavo and Francisco) were educated in Europe and came back to change things but were unsuccessful. (view spoiler)
Grady, again determined to right what he feels is a great wrong, searches for the travelers' three missing horses, steals them back, and forces the captain of the local jail to travel with him as protection from those who want the horses. Grady is shot and has a serious wound but is able to stave off infection. (view spoiler)
In the end, he has to plead his case that the horses are his in Mexico. Grady talks with the judge, revealing he is honest and conscientious. He goes in search of Blevins family and meanwhile realizes he is a wanderer and can't stay at home in Texas.
The only reason I didn't give this 5 stars is a section in the beginning and the second conversation with Alejandra's grandmother drag a bit. But the description reminds me of Edward Abbey, with a love of nature and the life of a cowboy; beautifully told. ...more

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Jun 30, 2018 Karen rated it really liked it

Shelves: 1001

I have heard that Cormac McCarthy is the greatest living author. Well, I don't know about that, but I can tell you that this first book in the Border Trilogy is beautifully written. Loved the landscape and the characters. I felt as though I was right there riding with the teenage cowboys in Mexico.

I have only one complaint. I don't know Spanish (I took French and Italian). There was a lot of Spanish in this book without any translation. Although, I was able to figure many things out. I think it ...more

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Jan 25, 2019 AZ BOOKS rated it it was amazing

Shelves: book-club-reads

Pg 239.. It is supposed to be true that those who do not know history are condemned to repeat it. I don't believe knowing can save us. What is constant in history is greed and foolishness and a love of blood and this is a thing that even God-who knows all that can be known-seems powerless to change.

pg 285 He crossed on through the high country and in the evening descended the north slope and rode out onto the foreplain where the creosote deep olive from the rains stood in solemn colonies as it h ...more

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