A review by kateabane2003
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
4.0
If I'm being brutally honest, this is what I thought All the Pretty Horses was going to be like:
I've never been a huge fan of cowboy stories, and the negative feedback I heard from friends about this book's irritating lack of proper punctuation made me dread picking it up. Yet, despite an excruciating start during the first 30 pages, I was surprised to find myself fully engrossed in the narrative thereafter. This can be credited to the wonderfully written dialogue between John Grady Cole and Lacey Rawlins. It's no secret that I'm a sucker for realistic character interactions, and with each comic exchange of words and/or earnest conversation between the two, John and Rawlins' friendship helped solidify my interest. This made me engage more with the novel's flow and unique formating and by its conclusion, I didn't even give a thought about missing quotation marks.
McCarthy's strength as a writer is most exhibited in his beautiful descriptions of both American and Mexican landscapes.
All the Pretty Horses surprised me, and I'm almost interested in checking out the other novels part of this trilogy to see how John's character continues to mature. If all cowboy adventures were written with this much care, maybe I'd be more excited about reading them.
I've never been a huge fan of cowboy stories, and the negative feedback I heard from friends about this book's irritating lack of proper punctuation made me dread picking it up. Yet, despite an excruciating start during the first 30 pages, I was surprised to find myself fully engrossed in the narrative thereafter. This can be credited to the wonderfully written dialogue between John Grady Cole and Lacey Rawlins. It's no secret that I'm a sucker for realistic character interactions, and with each comic exchange of words and/or earnest conversation between the two, John and Rawlins' friendship helped solidify my interest. This made me engage more with the novel's flow and unique formating and by its conclusion, I didn't even give a thought about missing quotation marks.
McCarthy's strength as a writer is most exhibited in his beautiful descriptions of both American and Mexican landscapes.
Spoiler
The various sets of this novel radiate with atmosphere, and what I found most fascinating was how these setting descriptions evolved alongside John Grady's character development. We start with a romanticized, almost picturesque version of the "wild west," as John takes in his new surroundings. Yet, following a series of traumatic and emotionally trying events for John, we see more bleak and violent descriptions of the world, coinciding with the more critical perspectives on society from characters such as Alfonsa.All the Pretty Horses surprised me, and I'm almost interested in checking out the other novels part of this trilogy to see how John's character continues to mature. If all cowboy adventures were written with this much care, maybe I'd be more excited about reading them.