capra's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence and Violence
Moderate: Death, Physical abuse, Sexism, Child death, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture
stanro's review against another edition
adventurous
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
On the day news of Cormac McCarthy’s death reached me, I borrowed All the Pretty Horses and started reading my first book by him.
I was quite soon absorbed within the countryside through which Cole and Rollins, only 16 and 17 respectively, travel. “When is this set?” I wonder, with these young cowboys on horseback. It will only clarify for me much further in.
I was expecting (and found) well-worded and almost poetic descriptions of that border area through which they ride. I was pleased with the generosity and hospitality attributed to a Mexican family they encounter, fairly soon after crossing from Texas. Such acts of generosity recur repeatedly, it seems to be a cultural attribute.
Minor adventures ensue. A younger teenager, Blevins, riding a large and fine bay horse, joins Cole and Rollins and the three ride on together. Blevins needs them, Rollins dislikes him and Cole leads and keeps them together.
Though the book is narrated in the third person, that narrator provides a lot of flowing directly quoted dialog and the personalities of these three, and eventually others similarly, are authentically drawn and I begin to admire Cole’s integrity, thoughtfulness and resourcefulness.
So much so that as the fingerlets of a possible romance delicately stretch out, I hope they will touch something substantial, for Cole’s sake.
There is so much descriptive terminology that both paints a picture and with which I’m unfamiliar - from chaparral, mesquite and arroyo to a hackamore. I know I can look these things up (and eventually do). The problem then arises after looking it up, when you then find yourself doubting McCarthy’s use of a word - one of the words I’ve just listed. But the word is so euphonious I don’t begrudge him.
Various twists and turns find Cole and Rollins arrested and under custody of small town Mexican authorities. When his version of events does not correspond “with the facts,” Cole is told by the police captain that “We can make the truth here.” I love this line! How deeply philosophical that is, and from the mouth of such a pragmatist, who I’d first thought was merely prosaic but later shows more depth.
Eventually the graphically described violence presents, written with the details of motion and counter-motion of a Sam Peckinpah shootout.
And as Cole realises he is about to be released from his brutal incarceration and is told that he is going “to your house,” I think of The Odyssey.
Being set amongst Mexicans, there is quite a bit of Spanish dialog. Some is translated, much of it is not, but context (and my 100-word Spanish vocabulary) pulls me through.
There are a few fleeting references to Australia - a Mexican-owned Australian property that had to be sold, and a town with eucalyptus trees.
This is, indeed, Cole’s odyssey. Beautifully written with a hero to be admired for his integrity, decency, courage and resourcefulness.
And a book to be admired for the excellence of its writing and, as an audiobook, for the excellence of its narration. How good to think there are two more in this series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
scytheria's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Police brutality, Confinement, Blood, Violence, and Gun violence
Moderate: Torture
emmonsannae's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
I really enjoyed this one! John Grady Cole is such an excellent and endearing American protagonist. The characters are beautifully done (as always), and while John Grady’s coming of age is pretty dark, the preservation of his morality and determination gives this novel a concrete hopefulness many of C.M.’s other books lack. The breathtaking prose describing a landscape and a world that even for John Grady is already passing away makes this a bittersweet love letter to the old American Southwest.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gun violence, Police brutality, Animal death, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, Child death, Death of parent, and Torture
Minor: Sexual content
dee_dreams's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Gore, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Violence
reillyplymail's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Favorite book ever.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content and Violence
dee_dreams's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
You know what a blivet is?
My senior year English teacher—who insisted we call him Caesar—enjoyed playing the part of a bombastic, talkative, self-aggrandizing sadist. At least, I assume he was just playing a part. There were times when the class would question if he was acting or not: the fury in his eyes if you talked over him in class, his unrelenting homework assignments, his constant narcissistic boasts to the audience of bored 18-year-olds. But one of the most notable times I questioned his sanity, was when he had us read All the Pretty Horses.
Droning run-on sentences with no punctuation. Horses. Microscopically detailed descriptions that I had to reread over and over and over and over again to understand. Horses. Cryptic sayings. Over and over and over again. Español. Guns. Cavallos. It seemed fitting that “All the Pretty Horses” is the name of a lullaby because this book made me want to snooze.
I remember groaning to my friends at the lunch table, slapping the hard cover book down on the table. Ugh. What the hell was this book? The jerk wasn’t even going to test us on it; he just wanted us to read it, and then have class discussions which, aside from the self-proclaimed class clown constantly quipping, “So, how ‘bout them horses?,” were like pulling teeth. How dare he make us read for pleasure?
And then, suddenly, as I was catching up on my reading at the lunch table, my friends witnessed me do a 180. I completely and utterly fell head over heels for this book, and McCarthy’s odd way of writing, and its imagery and spirituality and humor and romance. It was after reading this passage:
[The old man] said that he had seen the souls of horses and that it was a terrible thing to see. He said that it could be seen under certain circumstances attending the death of a horse because the horse shares a common soul and its separate life only forms it out of all horses and makes it mortal. He said that if a person understood the soul of the horse then he would understand all horses that ever were.
Y de los hombres? said John Grady.
The old man shaped his mouth to answer. Finally he said that among men there was no such communion as among horses and the notion that men can be understood at all was probably an illusion.
It seems fitting that “All the Pretty Horses” is the name of a lullaby because this book will lead you vividly and breathlessly through a dream. At times achingly gorgeous, at times utterly absurd, walking the line between deeply meaningful and beautifully pointless. The ending absolutely blew me away, so satisfyingly unsatisfying. It’s like that feeling of profound confusion you sometimes get after waking up from a deep sleep, where you're questioning if what you just dreamt really happened or not.
After our last class discussion over this book, I told Caesar how much I loved All the Pretty Horses and thanked him. The insanity in me bowed to the insanity in him.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
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