A review by highestiqinfresno
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
3.0
A beautifully written, if completely humorless, novel about coming of age in a transitional period of American history. John Grady Cole, the protagonist, is born in the wrong time. He's more in tune with horses than cars and can't see himself in a rapidly modernizing America. So, he travels south to Mexico with his friend Rawlings. In Mexico, he gets into all sorts of trouble, falls in love, and endures the brutality of prison.
As always, McCarthy's descriptions of nature are beautiful and fully realized. His characters are less so. Cole is the kind of wooden cowboy you see in spaghetti westerns. The romance at the center of the story lacks both steam and feeling. Like in Blood Meridian, the setting as often the most compelling character. Unlike Blood Meridian, however, All the Pretty Horses isn't interested in large philosophical questions about good and evil. It's a much smaller book.
While reading All the Pretty Horses I felt like it was an inverted take on Huckleberry Finn. Both protagonists go on these coming of age journeys where they encounter new people and ideas. While Huck grows and matures through his experiences, Cole is stagnant. McCarthy, by contrast, rejects personal growth as part of the coming of age narrative - it's a story where, in the immortal words of Craig Finn, no one learns a lesson. Ultimately, this is kind of unsatisfying from a narrative perspective. There are two more books in this trilogy, but All the Pretty Horses just kind of peters out. The question with the trilogy is: if Cole learned and changed so little from his time in Mexico, why should I follow him on his next adventure?
As always, McCarthy's descriptions of nature are beautiful and fully realized. His characters are less so. Cole is the kind of wooden cowboy you see in spaghetti westerns. The romance at the center of the story lacks both steam and feeling. Like in Blood Meridian, the setting as often the most compelling character. Unlike Blood Meridian, however, All the Pretty Horses isn't interested in large philosophical questions about good and evil. It's a much smaller book.
While reading All the Pretty Horses I felt like it was an inverted take on Huckleberry Finn. Both protagonists go on these coming of age journeys where they encounter new people and ideas. While Huck grows and matures through his experiences, Cole is stagnant. McCarthy, by contrast, rejects personal growth as part of the coming of age narrative - it's a story where, in the immortal words of Craig Finn, no one learns a lesson. Ultimately, this is kind of unsatisfying from a narrative perspective. There are two more books in this trilogy, but All the Pretty Horses just kind of peters out. The question with the trilogy is: if Cole learned and changed so little from his time in Mexico, why should I follow him on his next adventure?