| All the Pretty Horses | 
 enlarge | List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $1.00
You Save: $13.95 (93%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $1.00
Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 302 reviews)
Sales Rank: 2515
Category: Book
Author: Cormac Mccarthy
Publisher: Vintage
Studio: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Label: Vintage
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.1 x 0.8
ISBN: 0679744398
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780679744399
ASIN: 0679744398
Publication Date: June 29, 1993
Release Date: June 29, 1993
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The national bestseller and the first volume in Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy, All the Pretty Horses is the tale of John Grady Cole, who at sixteen finds himself at the end of a long line of Texas ranchers, cut off from the only life he has ever imagined for himself. With two companions, he sets off for Mexico on a sometimes idyllic, sometimes comic journey to a place where dreams are paid for in blood. Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction.
Amazon.com Review
Part bildungsroman, part horse opera, part meditation on courage and loyalty, this beautifully crafted novel won the National Book Award in 1992. The plot is simple enough. John Grady Cole, a 16-year-old dispossessed Texan, crosses the Rio Grande into Mexico in 1949, accompanied by his pal Lacey Rawlins. The two precocious horsemen pick up a sidekick--a laughable but deadly marksman named Jimmy Blevins--encounter various adventures on their way south and finally arrive at a paradisiacal hacienda where Cole falls into an ill-fated romance. Readers familiar with McCarthy's Faulknerian prose will find the writing more restrained than in Suttree and Blood Meridian. Newcomers will be mesmerized by the tragic tale of John Grady Cole's coming of age.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 297 more reviews...
 No Country for John Cole December 29, 2008
Frank Muller does an excellent job narrating this novel by Cormac McCarthy. Moreover, listening to the Audio CD allows the listener to sidestep the McCarthy's liberties with the punctuation e.g. the absence of quotation marks. This isn't to demean McCarthy's prose; far from it, he presents a nostalgic picture of Texas and Mexico in the 1940's. Indeed, one of themes seems to be how this `country' is disappearing and being replaced by a modern, industrial one. The hero of the novel, John Grady Cole, is depicted as near mythical; we are left with the impression that such a young, courageous man would not exist today-if he ever did it all. This parallels a theme from a recent novel of McCarthy's, No Country for Old Men. Actually, the two novels are related on many other points as well e.g. the symbolic coin toss and how it represents Fate. While the parallels between McCarthy's novels seem clear, a particular one within the novel does not: how Francisco's story relates to John Grady's. Leaving that aside, to see the author work through such wide ranging questions (Culture's decline, Fate v. Free Will) is a joy and one of many reasons to read his work.
 Nice story but way too artsy writing December 5, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Just read this book. Like all of McCarthy's stories, this one pulls at your heart. A superman cowboy falling in love with the perfect senorita in Mexico. But in my humble opinion, the writing is too deep, too artsy, too ambitious. It's like he's trying to win a trophy for elegance. I found myself reading many of his sentences over and over and over trying to figure out what exactly he was saying. For many of the sentences, I still don't know. Clueless. One sentence took up half the page, and rambled on and on and on about the sky and the mountains and Lord knows what else. Don't get me wrong, I love his stories. The Road still haunts me to this day. Read it if you haven't. But sometimes I think his writing could be more succinct without losing its depth and color. I'm ashamed to say this, but with All The Pretty Horses, I found myself skipping over large chunks of description just to get to the meat of the story. I've never done that before. I'm an avid reader. Have been all my life. But this book wore me out. Of course, it did win some pretty prestigious awards. So I imagine someone out there enjoys his over the top style of writing. I'll keep reading McCarthy, but I'll also keep skipping over 120 word sentences. By the way, if you're going to read this, get a library card and read it for free. You might also have a Spanish translator handy.
A compelling story that sacrifices some of its insight, in favor of action and adventure November 11, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I really enjoyed this novel, although it's probably more highly praised than it deserves to be. You can tell its serious literature because of the general lack of punctuation and unconventional composition. McCarthy's writing style is likely to be off-putting to some, but there is a lot to like about this novel. While novels that are branded (rightly or wrongly) as works of serious literature generally have something to say, they often don't have a story to tell. This is something that I really appreciate about McCarthy as an author. There are issues and themes that he clearly wants to explore in his fiction, but he builds his novels (at least the one's I've read) on the foundation of a compelling story.
Ultimately, the theme of this novel reminded me a lot of No Country for Old Men. From my perspective, both novels are essentially about how the world (or at least the Country) is changing and how futile it can be for one man to resist it. In All the Pretty Horses, John Grady Cole romanticizes the cowboy era, a way of life that is fading away, like the setting sun. He stubbornly refuses to compromise his world view, speaking plainly and honestly, doing what he feels is right no matter what the cost, and standing up for what he believes in. Needless to say, this kind of integrity comes with a price and Cole, and his companions suffer greatly for these choices.
McCarthy's prose is at times stark, at times gorgeously realized. Descriptions of the harsh land and vivid sunsets are, at times, quite astonishing. But it is the dialogue in this novel that is especially sharp and insightful. McCarthy draws obvious contrasts between the straight-forward words of John Grady Cole and characters who engage him in philosophical discussions, speaking with eloquence and manipulating language. Some of the best dialogue occurs between Cole and the great aunt of the girl he loves. These passages are worth reading again and again.
I do have a few complaints though. One definite shortcoming is the romance in the story. The character of Alejandra is superficial at best and the entire romance feels a little too contrived. My other complaint might sound strange but I found the action in the final pages of the novel, while compelling, actually held the novel back a little. In the end, the action takes over the final pages of the novel and reflection on the larger issues and themes become secondary. While the pages turn quickly as Cole engages in shootouts and a race across the Mexican badlands, the strength of this novel comes in subtler forms; in the dialogue and ruminations about fate and religion. It's as if the novel abruptly switches gears. While on some level I enjoyed the pacing at the end, I was left with a sense that much of the story's potential had been sacrificed.
McCarthy is fast becoming one of my favorite authors. All the Pretty Horses is not a perfect novel, and perhaps not worthy of all the aclaim it has received, but its well worth reading. 4 1/2 stars.
A Masterpiece October 26, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
McCarthy is a great writer, and this a great American novel. The novel is conventionally plotted and very readable. Like "The Road", it is a book that one can love; it does not require the effort that the novels of writers like Pynchon or Dellilo do, nor does it tax the reader's patience. Reader-friendly fiction is a good thing, and the novel's accessability makes it no less literary or substantial.
McCarthy's prose is breathtaking. His descriptions of the landscape, his dialogue (including dialogue between the American hero and a variety of Mexican characters) is flawless, and every now and again McCarthy will deliver lines with the force of a shot to the solar plexus. Literary critics compare him to Faulkner, though sometimes he sounds like Hemingway. It is amazing that McCarthy could be compared to two such different writers. But he does have elements of both, and is a great stylist in his own right. I must say that McCarthy moves me in a way that Faulkner never did.
The protagonist, John Grady Cole, and his sidekick Rawlins are two very appealing characters. Cole's Mexican lover and her family are also complex and ultimately very appealing characters. These may well be the most lovable characters in McCarthy's fiction. This is part of what makes this book so appealing.
McCarthy is a Pulitzer-prize and even Nobel-prize caliber writer because he struggles with ultimate themes. The book is more than a coming of age novel, though for that genre I think it is much better than "The Catcher in the Rye", "A Separate Peace", or "Rule of the Bone." I see the youth of the protagonist as a good device for placing the individual in his proper context vis a vis nature and human society. The individual is small and insignificant compared to nature, and even humanity seems dwarfed in McCarthy's view. Cole struggles to meet his basic needs -- love, craft, survival -- in the face of a hostile world and alien culture.
Most striking is Cole's desire to do the right thing. Ethics seems almost quixotic and comic in the face of the sheer ruthlessness of the natural and man-made forces arrayed against the individual. Cole's decision to go back to his tormentors and reclaim his property is remarkably foolish and self-destructive, but somehow necessary and appealing. In a nice touch at the end of the novel, Cole goes to an American judge for judgment and validation. Ultimately, he's his own harshest critic.
Given Cole's appeal, I find the book to be ultimately positive and humanist in outlook, though perhaps Mr. McCarthy would snicker at this sentiment.
This book is a masterpiece.
 The word And October 20, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I agree with mr. niceguy. What is with McCarthy and his excess use of word 'and'? Admittedly, the word 'and' is very important in the English language, however, excessive use of this word is outrageously ignorant, not to mention very distracting? You hear 'and'quite a bit in everyday speech, I admit. But no one really use 'and' like a gazillion times in one sentence, like McCarthy attempts in all of his books, not just in 'All the Pretty Horses'. The first McCarthy's book that I read is 'The Road'and I have to say, it wasn't a bad read, although not very original. Nevertheless, I read on to his other books and it was uncanny how much he tries to be Hemingway, except he does not use the apostrophe for a word like 'didn't' (he writes didnt, how about a good typewriter huh?) nor does he use the quotation marks, just to be original I guess. But hardly, this guy is a hack. I love Hemingway and I appreciate his use of the word 'and' in his writing. This guy is no Hemingway. He just tries too hard to be the great Hemingway and he uses a lot more 'and' than he should. Anyone who reads and loves this guy, I'm sorry to say, is just not willing to admit that, deep down, this guy is untalented, unoriginal, and a hack of Hemingway at best. I would puke, yes puke, if they are stupid enough to award him the Nobel Prize. Well, they did give him the Pulitzer for a book about nothing more than a man, a boy, and a shopping cart with one bad wheel, " The Road" I admit is not a bad read, but for crying out loud, not something deserving of a Pulitzer Prize?
|
|
|
