All the Pretty Horses (The Border Trilogy, Book 1) (edition 1992)

All the hallmarks of a great western novel. At turns, funny, exciting, sad, and thought-provoking. Imbued throughout with lush imagery. I only regret not getting to Cormac McCarthy earlier. ( )

I enjoyed No Country for Old Men a little bit more because I'm more familiar with rednecks in pickups trucks than I am cowboys on horses, but this book was still great.

I'm not sure what to think about the climatic scene with the Aunt. She represents so much moral ambiguity. Nothing in life is cut and dry.

Frank Muller nails the voices perfectly. I've been cussing in the cadence Lacey Rawlins for weeks. ( )

I struggled to get into this after thoroughly enjoying The Road and No Country For Old Men. It's certainly not as easy a read as those two books though I'm glad I persevered. I might enjoy it more after a second read but for now it's not high on my list to re-read. ( )

I am now officially a member of the Church of Cormac McCarthy, just as I am of the Churches of Steinbeck, of Atwood, of Twain, of Nabokov. Writers who for me can do no wrong.

In this book we meet John Grady Cole, a cowboy of sixteen years. In 1949, his mother has sold off the family ranch, leaving John Grady to his own devices. He sets off from Texas to Mexico with his friend Rawlins, riding their horses through the now fenced and parceled land, carefully dismantling and reattaching fencing as they go. The two end up reluctantly taking on a companion, the younger Jimmy Blevins, a loose cannon, who'll cause them a lot of trouble. South of the border, the country is unfenced and wilder. John Grady and Rawlins end up working as ranch hands. Part of their responsibility is to capture and break wild horses. John Grady ends up in a dangerous love affair, before the two young men run afoul of corrupt officials.

I'd call this a coming of age novel, except John Grady is already as seasoned, decent, and mature as any adult you're likely to meet. It's more a story of how the world itself doesn't measure up to the best of us. How the world is harsh. How it tends to knock the good right out of us. Well, it doesn't knock the good out of John Grady. By the end of the story he's troubled by guilt, though, even though he's blameless. He takes on guilt for the way the world is, how it makes a good man feel uneasy and out of place.

John Grady doesn't talk much. But there are three characters who are given a soapbox to speak fascinatingly for several pages. One is a wealthy man who runs a crime cartel from his prison cell. One is an old woman, a free thinker whose revolutionary ideas about her nation have narrowed into preservation of those nearest to her. The other is a judge who, like John Grady, has taken on guilt for things he shouldn't have, and knows it, but still can't shake it.

Strange to say it, but the best among us are the most troubled. They're the ones that are always second guessing themselves. ( )

violent, poignant, philosophical - but also another example of literary teenagers; John Grady Cole, Lacey Rawlins, & the psychopathic Blevins runaway to Mexico