A review by whoischels
All the Pretty Horses, by Cormac McCarthy
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
You think this book isn't doing anything for you and then time slows down as you are with John Grady making eye contact with Alejandra for the first time, and your heart is racing when the captain in Encantada questions you and it becomes clear you will go to prison. This is the first McCarthy book I've read and the length of his sentences and the peculiar punctuation he uses made it hard to get into. Once I got used to it though, it felt very natural. The next book I read with standard punctuation will probably feel odd.
A number of things really blew me away about this book. Chief among them is the fact that part of the thing making the characters feel real was the understanding that each had a vast emotional world under the surface to which no one, not even the reader, was privy. Just like how real people are. John Grady makes a number of non-overt assumptions about the drives of other characters, and most of those assumptions are turned on their heads when the characters reveal the complexity of how they walk in the world.
The setting is just as much a character as any of the people. A lot of love goes into the descriptions of Texas and Mexico, but it's not a gooey love, it's one based in respect and understanding. This is also how McCarthy writes about horses, and writes about people thinking about horses.
A number of things really blew me away about this book. Chief among them is the fact that part of the thing making the characters feel real was the understanding that each had a vast emotional world under the surface to which no one, not even the reader, was privy. Just like how real people are. John Grady makes a number of non-overt assumptions about the drives of other characters, and most of those assumptions are turned on their heads when the characters reveal the complexity of how they walk in the world.
The setting is just as much a character as any of the people. A lot of love goes into the descriptions of Texas and Mexico, but it's not a gooey love, it's one based in respect and understanding. This is also how McCarthy writes about horses, and writes about people thinking about horses.