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scipio_africanus's review
adventurous
dark
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
A dark romantic poem of a book written in the cynical masculine voice that is Cormac McCarthy's. A coming of age story in a sense filled with vivid landscapes, musings on horses, politics, beauty, and violence.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
thimbler's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence and Violence
abbylw's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
jfuel's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Shrouded in the black thunderheads the distant lightning glowed mutely like welding seen through foundry smoke. As if repairs were under way at some flawed place in the iron dark of the world.
He stood at the window of the empty cafe and watched the activities in the square and he said that it was good that God kept the truths of life from the young as they were starting out or else they’d have no heart to start at all.
After adjusting to the style, I found this to be an engrossing and beautiful novel. While much of it has a somewhat brooding tone, there are sections that were laugh out loud funny. One of my favorite parts is John Grady eating his lunch under the tree with the Mexican kids.
He stood at the window of the empty cafe and watched the activities in the square and he said that it was good that God kept the truths of life from the young as they were starting out or else they’d have no heart to start at all.
After adjusting to the style, I found this to be an engrossing and beautiful novel. While much of it has a somewhat brooding tone, there are sections that were laugh out loud funny. One of my favorite parts is John Grady eating his lunch under the tree with the Mexican kids.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gun violence and Violence
Minor: Medical trauma
tjcus4ck's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Whatever hype you’ve heard about this book/the entire Border Trilogy - believe it! All The Pretty Horses has some of the most wonderful prose, and even though I understand minimal Spanish, characters’ dialogue is brilliant and I love McCarthy’s use of punctuation (or lack thereof). I have never been to America or Mexico but the way the landscape is described makes me feel as though I have. This is some of the most immersive and compelling writing I’ve ever read. This book is brilliant, this series is brilliant, and I am now on a mission to read all his other books.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
capra's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence and Violence
Moderate: Death, Physical abuse, Sexism, Child death, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture
stanro's review against another edition
adventurous
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
On the day news of Cormac McCarthy’s death reached me, I borrowed All the Pretty Horses and started reading my first book by him.
I was quite soon absorbed within the countryside through which Cole and Rollins, only 16 and 17 respectively, travel. “When is this set?” I wonder, with these young cowboys on horseback. It will only clarify for me much further in.
I was expecting (and found) well-worded and almost poetic descriptions of that border area through which they ride. I was pleased with the generosity and hospitality attributed to a Mexican family they encounter, fairly soon after crossing from Texas. Such acts of generosity recur repeatedly, it seems to be a cultural attribute.
Minor adventures ensue. A younger teenager, Blevins, riding a large and fine bay horse, joins Cole and Rollins and the three ride on together. Blevins needs them, Rollins dislikes him and Cole leads and keeps them together.
Though the book is narrated in the third person, that narrator provides a lot of flowing directly quoted dialog and the personalities of these three, and eventually others similarly, are authentically drawn and I begin to admire Cole’s integrity, thoughtfulness and resourcefulness.
So much so that as the fingerlets of a possible romance delicately stretch out, I hope they will touch something substantial, for Cole’s sake.
There is so much descriptive terminology that both paints a picture and with which I’m unfamiliar - from chaparral, mesquite and arroyo to a hackamore. I know I can look these things up (and eventually do). The problem then arises after looking it up, when you then find yourself doubting McCarthy’s use of a word - one of the words I’ve just listed. But the word is so euphonious I don’t begrudge him.
Various twists and turns find Cole and Rollins arrested and under custody of small town Mexican authorities. When his version of events does not correspond “with the facts,” Cole is told by the police captain that “We can make the truth here.” I love this line! How deeply philosophical that is, and from the mouth of such a pragmatist, who I’d first thought was merely prosaic but later shows more depth.
Eventually the graphically described violence presents, written with the details of motion and counter-motion of a Sam Peckinpah shootout.
And as Cole realises he is about to be released from his brutal incarceration and is told that he is going “to your house,” I think of The Odyssey.
Being set amongst Mexicans, there is quite a bit of Spanish dialog. Some is translated, much of it is not, but context (and my 100-word Spanish vocabulary) pulls me through.
There are a few fleeting references to Australia - a Mexican-owned Australian property that had to be sold, and a town with eucalyptus trees.
This is, indeed, Cole’s odyssey. Beautifully written with a hero to be admired for his integrity, decency, courage and resourcefulness.
And a book to be admired for the excellence of its writing and, as an audiobook, for the excellence of its narration. How good to think there are two more in this series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
scytheria's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Police brutality, Confinement, Blood, Violence, and Gun violence
Moderate: Torture
emmonsannae's review
adventurous
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
I really enjoyed this one! John Grady Cole is such an excellent and endearing American protagonist. The characters are beautifully done (as always), and while John Grady’s coming of age is pretty dark, the preservation of his morality and determination gives this novel a concrete hopefulness many of C.M.’s other books lack. The breathtaking prose describing a landscape and a world that even for John Grady is already passing away makes this a bittersweet love letter to the old American Southwest.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gun violence, Police brutality, Animal death, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, Child death, Death of parent, and Torture
Minor: Sexual content
dee_dreams's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Gore, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Violence