salbulga's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-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? Yes
3.25
bdesmond's review against another edition
5.0
A deep and contemplative culmination is Cities of the Plain, Cormac McCarthy's final novel in his Border Trilogy. It sees the protagonists of the first two books, John Grady Cole and Billy Parham, working on Mac's ranch near El Paso, Texas, near the border. It is, I think, the closest I'll ever get to a novel of McCarthy's that consists of a bunch of cowboys sitting around and talking with one another. About days gone by, a country changed, the progression of an uncaring world. He writes the world-weary better than anyone. He writes characters that feel eternal; immovable. As eternal as the human condition. It's writing that you sit with. You get inside it and then it gets inside you, and stays there. It permeates you in a way. Makes you feel things that seem a core part of being. It feels like remembering.
The Border Trilogy is calmer than his other work, this entry especially. And so it provides the time and setting for these types of musings; this reminiscence and remembrance. The years advanceth. Men grow old. Men die. Life offers hard lessons.
No one writes about the simple pleasures like McCarthy, nor about horses, nor dreams... It does feel like McCarthy at his most contemplative, and that's saying something. He never fails to write about dreams, as they are as much a part of man as is his waking life. He confronts the unknowable intricacies that make up a life. The things that make you wonder about fate, and the steps predestined for us. About the roles we take and the roles we fill. What lines separate dream from dreamer? What lines life from the one who lives it?
When he woke it was not from this dream but from another and the pathway from dream to dream was lost to him.
There’s hard lessons in this world.
What’s the hardest?
I dont know. Maybe it’s just that when things are gone they’re gone. They aint comin back.
Yessir.
The Border Trilogy is calmer than his other work, this entry especially. And so it provides the time and setting for these types of musings; this reminiscence and remembrance. The years advanceth. Men grow old. Men die. Life offers hard lessons.
No one writes about the simple pleasures like McCarthy, nor about horses, nor dreams... It does feel like McCarthy at his most contemplative, and that's saying something. He never fails to write about dreams, as they are as much a part of man as is his waking life. He confronts the unknowable intricacies that make up a life. The things that make you wonder about fate, and the steps predestined for us. About the roles we take and the roles we fill. What lines separate dream from dreamer? What lines life from the one who lives it?
When he woke it was not from this dream but from another and the pathway from dream to dream was lost to him.
There’s hard lessons in this world.
What’s the hardest?
I dont know. Maybe it’s just that when things are gone they’re gone. They aint comin back.
Yessir.
elturko64's review against another edition
4.0
'Cities' provides a satisfying and fulfilling conclusion to McCarthy's fantastic Border Trilogy. Though there were moments where the writing was too dry for my taste, this book still provides a wallop of a punch. As usual, McCarthy's writing is stunning. Stark and beautiful, to the point where it matches the rawness of the story. McCarthy's philosophical ideas are still here and are just as poetic and deep as they were from his previous works. The violence is more tamed in this book but when it comes it comes fast and brutal, making certain scenes so intense to the point where I couldn't look away from the book even if I wanted to.
'Cities of the Plain' concludes the border trilogy a fulfilling conclusion. This book along with the trilogy is all about the journey that is life, friendship, love and death. A journey in life and the beauty and brutality of existence and how we do what we must for the things we love.
'Cities of the Plain' concludes the border trilogy a fulfilling conclusion. This book along with the trilogy is all about the journey that is life, friendship, love and death. A journey in life and the beauty and brutality of existence and how we do what we must for the things we love.
raulbime's review against another edition
3.0
A definite star rating for this would be 3.5. This is because there are parts of this book I loved and others that I didn't.
This is the story of John Grady and his friend Billy. Two cowboys working in country Texas at the borderarea with Mexico. As the title of this book alludes to the biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah, and Juarez, is the Mexican town where American cowboys go for drink and "excitement". It is during one of such trips that John Grady falls in love with a girl human trafficked into sex work and devices a way to rescue her.
A lot of the reviews that were on the front pages and the backcover of this book had the words "brutal", "beauty", "sadness" to describe this work. And it is true all these are found in it. A curious one talked about "masculine romanticism" and I don't quite understand what it means. Perhaps it is because he tells of a love story with cowboys and pimps and violence and death?
What I admired most about this book and the other McCarthy books I've read, is how with such few words he paints very rich and detailed scenes.
This is the story of John Grady and his friend Billy. Two cowboys working in country Texas at the borderarea with Mexico. As the title of this book alludes to the biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah, and Juarez, is the Mexican town where American cowboys go for drink and "excitement". It is during one of such trips that John Grady falls in love with a girl human trafficked into sex work and devices a way to rescue her.
A lot of the reviews that were on the front pages and the backcover of this book had the words "brutal", "beauty", "sadness" to describe this work. And it is true all these are found in it. A curious one talked about "masculine romanticism" and I don't quite understand what it means. Perhaps it is because he tells of a love story with cowboys and pimps and violence and death?
What I admired most about this book and the other McCarthy books I've read, is how with such few words he paints very rich and detailed scenes.
bobbo49's review against another edition
5.0
Last of the Border Trilogy; loved every one of them. Although these books have some of McCarthy's trademark darkness, they are not nearly as grim as, say, Child of God or The Road; instead, they are wonderfully intimate stories of friendship between young men, growing up into the frontier world along the Mexican/US border in the early and mid-20th century. Beautifully written, with profound insights into human behavior, aging and life itself - I just had to read parts of this out loud to my friend while sitting in the sun together! The epilogue is simply brilliant: an old homeless American cowboy and an old homeless Mexican sitting together at a freeway overpass, discussing the meaning of a dream about a dreamer, and how - or whether - we can tell the difference - if there is any - between what is real and what is only in our minds. McCarthy's conclusion, here as elsewhere in his writing: there is no reality called tomorrow or yesterday, there is only today.
shaykeretz's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
nicofic's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
msaari's review against another edition
4.0
An elegant novel. I like McCarthy's style, and the way this wraps up the trilogy is good. The timeless life on the plains, the short-worded dialogue; all good. The trilogy comes well-recommended.
andyv's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
medium-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
3.75