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TITLE: All the Pretty Horses
AUTHOR: Cormac McCarthy
PAGES: 301
John Grady Cole is the son and grandson of Texas ranchers, born to live and die riding horses across the plains. But when his mother decides to sell the ranch that he loves beyond measure, John Grady decides to pack up and ride out, taking only his horse and accompanied by his best friend Lacey Rawlins. The two ford the Rio Grande and make their way into 1948 Mexico, sharing meals with traveling herders and contending with a boy named Blevins who stumbles across their path. The travelers eventually find work at a sprawling hacienda, where they labor from sun-up to sundown in a land of wild horses and howling dust storms, violent laws and a passionate people. Blevins, his stolen horse, and his misguided trigger finger all play a part in what will become John Grady’s coming of age. However, it is not the only force that will bring change, destruction, and rebirth.
Fun fact: this was adapted into a (highly acclaimed) movie starring Matt Damon and Penelope Cruz, which I have never seen, but now plan to. Another Cormac McCarthy novel-turned-film would be the recent heavily praised film No Country For Old Men. I don’t blame people for wanting to make movies out of this man’s books, he writes an amazingly detailed, forceful story out of the sparsest adjectives and most unexpectedly beautiful scenes. He could describe a shriveled cactus with only five words and make you think it was comparable to a sunset bleeding color and light across the sky. The book is sometimes a difficult read, because there are brutal moments that make you want to close your eyes and your book and just quit there, but most of the novel is so disgustingly beautiful that I could have cried. I would have to say that it’s definitely more of a man’s book, written by a man, in a man’s signature prose, but this didn’t detract from my experience. I read a lot of books that talk about love, life, and etc, mostly written by women, and so to read about the same things from a man’s point of view was somewhat refreshing. And I have to say that the thread of romance that runs through this book was, if not the center of the story, an integral part nonetheless. (I would harp on some more about how I squeaked and squealed my way through John Grady’s star-crossed love story, but I’ll spare you…haha)
