In some respects, all epic stories owe a debt to the Odyssey. Done right, the value is in the telling, not the tale. McCarthy upholds this tradition admirably in All the Pretty Horses.
John Grady and Rawlings embark on an adventure that is exciting, romantic, grueling, perplexing, tragic, poignant, and heroic. But it's not the tidal swells of this quest that makes this novel such a rewarding read. It's the minute sensations and observations that McCarthy conveys that make it such a transcendent book.
"Nightfall found them in the foothills of the Sierra Encantada. They followed a dry watercourse up under a dark rincon in the rocks and picked their way over a flood barricade of boulders tumbled in the floor of the wash and emerged upon a stone tinaja in the center of which lay a shallow basin of water, perfectly round, perfectly black, where the night stars were lensed in perfect stillness."
The protagonists are teenagers, so it's tempting to view this as a coming of age story, but they are already mature beyond their years. Indeed it is their mature virtues, or at least John Grady's virtues, that propel the story forward. He seems to have burst from the womb fully formed as an adult who is capable of shouldering responsibilities and hardships. Does he grow as a result of his adventure? He emerges unsullied by the pessimism born of experience, so it's hard to say what change he undergoes.
And that's the conceit of McCarthy's style. The story is told almost entirely from the perspective of an outside observer. We watch John Grady and Rawlings from afar. McCarthy almost never reveals their thoughts or feelings. The reader is an objective party in this story and it is your responsibility to piece together the characters' reactions and emotions. It's an odd viewpoint, but one that is deeply satisfying if only because that objective perspective is conveyed so skillfully by McCarthy. A towering achievement in western literature.
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Powerful and tragic story that marked Cormac McCarthy's explosion out of obscurity
I read "The Crossing" (1994) first, motivated by the story of the wolf. Now I have read "All the Pretty Horses" (1992) and "Cities of the Plain" (1998), the first and third books of The Border Trilogy. They are of a piece, set on the U.S. side of the border and in Mexico, the stories of young American vaqueros. The main character of "All the Pretty Horses" is John Grady Cole, the main character of "The Crossing" is Billy Parham, and they are both featured in "Cities of the Plain," though Billy is secondary to John Grady.I will not address the tragic plot. It is easily found elsewhere. McCarthy's writing is magnificent, and the novel was well-deserving of the National Book Award it won. Of course it was also made into a film. His descriptions of landscape and nature are amazing, and the dialogue and dialect are convincing and often humorous, ranging from wry to hilarious. However, necesitarás mucha traducción. (You will need much translation.) There are significant passages throughout in Spanish, and so be prepared to use a Spanish-to-English translator.The real historical figures of Francisco and Gustavo Madero play a role in the story as part of the lengthy monologue by an older Mexican woman (in English) who was a lover of Gustavo when young. Francisco Madero was a leader of the Mexican Revolution. He became the first president of Mexico after Diaz was overthrown, and was then assassinated.Doña Alfonsa says: "Francisco was the most deluded of all. He was never suited to be president of Mexico. He was hardly even suited to be Mexican. In the end we all come to be cured of our sentiments. Those whom life does not cure death will. The world is quite ruthless in selecting between the dream and the reality, even where we will not. Between the wish and the thing the world lies waiting" (238 in Part IV of The Border Trilogy).She also conveys McCarthy's dark worldview: "What is constant in history is greed and foolishness and a love of blood and this is a thing even God -- who knows all that can be known -- seems powerless to change" (239 in The Border Trilogy).After reading the entire Border Trilogy, I found "The Crossing" to be the most memorable and compelling. However, "All the Pretty Horses" is more tightly written, and in formal terms is probably the better novel. Chronologically "The Crossing" actually comes first, set during The War. "All the Pretty Horses" is set a few years later in 1949, and "Cities of the Plain" is set in 1952.*** *** ***"He thought that in the beauty of the world were hid a secret. He thought that the world's heart beat at some terrible cost and that the world's pain and its beauty moved in a relationship of diverging equity and that in this headlong deficit the blood of multitudes might ultimately be exacted for the vision of a single flower" (282 in The Border Trilogy).(verified Amazon purchase of The Border Trilogy in the Everyman's Library)
Top reviews from other countries
John Swanson
Wonderful novel, brilliantly told
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 20, 2024