Helpful Score: 9
This is good reading! A NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER and NATIONAL CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD and after a few pages you will begin to see why this is such an acclaimed novel. This is a modern work of fiction set in the Texas badlands and Northern Mexico. Today it is still cattle ranching country and the region clings to the romance of the "Wild West". The story begins when a sixteen year old boy, devastated by the death of his grandfather and the inevitable sale of the family ranch, decides to run away to Mexico. He convinces his best friend to accompany him. They take only their saddle horses, light provisions and their cowboy skills. The boys discover that life isn't as kind or idyllic as they envisioned. There is a lot of conversation in this novel, lots of it in basic Spanish, which is not clearly translated. I think this was a clever ploy by the author to let the reader feel the confusion the two boys experience. It will not interrupt the flow of the story, it fact, it makes it come alive. There is factual description of ranching life and the desert regions with great attention to detail. At times funny, other times gut wrenching, this is the story about these two boys coming to grip with the reality of life, which is often cruel and unfair. The adventure is full of horses, gun play, bad guys and romance. Somewhere along the way, the boys become men. I really liked this book. I would highly recommend it for young adults. It is a great book about the rites of passage from childhood to adult hood.
Helpful Score: 7
This is a National Book Award winner (for fiction). It is a beautifully written book. We all enjoyed it very much - we being myself, my father & my husband. Highest recommendation to those readers who enjoy well-written, well-developed stories.
Helpful Score: 6
Cormac McCarthy's sage of a two young friends set out to Mexico for an adventure that leads them to love, prison, murder, and growing up. The poetry with which this man writes leaves awesome pictures of the countryside he loves as well as the horses. An true western.
Helpful Score: 6
Wonderful realistic adventure set in the 1930's - of two young men who journey by horse down into Mexico, sometimes funny, but moving and heartrending in places. Cormac McCarthy's writings are very authentic. If you haven't seen the movie, you must read this first.
Helpful Score: 3
western. the plot was engaging, but i did not like the writing style. however, it is a national bestseller, won 'the national book award for fiction' and 'national book critics circle award for fiction', and received rave reviews, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt.
Helpful Score: 2
I was pleasantly surprised by this one, it was better than I thought it would be. The story has a very deliberate pace (indicative of unrushed lifestyle along the border, I suppose) and the characters were intriguing. I like how a little bit of the dialoge is in Spanish. But toward the end the detailed landscape description was tiring. I wish I could have had more insight as to what was going on inside John Grady Cole's head, rather that waiting to see how is actions panned out.
Helpful Score: 2
I was anxious to read a good book about the Southwest US/Mexico, and began reading this book soon after it arrived in the mail. I hadn't read many pages before I realized that the language was going to be tantamount to trying to walk through the barnyard without picking up manure on my shoes. I'm sure there was a pretty good plot and development of characters somewhere in those pages, underneath all the cursing and barnyard words. It depends on your appetite, of course; but I have no stomach for such language. Why is it that so many modern writers rely on empty, blathering curse words to fill in their stories, while early authors of the classics could simply tell an amazing story in 'the King's English'? I do not recommend this book to anyone who does not enjoy immersing their self in a steady string of profanity.
Helpful Score: 2
A wonderful book. Deserving of every award it won. A delight to read.
Helpful Score: 2
I'm not usually into westerns, but this is very literary. Great characters, nice imagery, easy and enjoyable read.
Helpful Score: 1
loved the book
Helpful Score: 1
Good book but it took a while to get used to McCarthy's non-use of dialogue punctuation--McCarthy does have a great literate style and has some good insights into the border culture between US and Mexico.
Surprisingly upbeat in view of other McCarthy novels I've read. There is something riveting about his style. I enjoyed the book a lot.
Beautiful prose, but difficult to follow. Plot wasn't as engaging for me. I'm sorry to put it down without finishing, but it just wasn't for me.
This book was just "ok" to me. I didn't hate it, but didn't love it either. The best part was the dialect the characters used. I felt almost like I was listening to the characters talk in real life. The author doesn't use quotation marks and many times doesn't indicate who says what, which is annoying at first. He also uses a lot of run on sentences that made me cringe at times. If you can get past that, this is a pretty interesting story. Just don't expect all loose ends to be tied up at the end of the story. This is part of a trilogy but I didn't enjoy it enough to read the other two in the series.
Shannon M. (confuzzledbooks) reviewed All the Pretty Horses (Border, Bk 1) on + 482 more book reviews
Sixteen year old John Grady decides to leave his home in Texas and go to Mexico. He leaves with his friend Lacey Rawlins. As they travel and collect a third person, Jimmy Blevins, they find that the world gives more downs than up on the rollercoaster of life.
I had not read any of Cormac McCarthys books. I think this is a good one to start with because I thought it sometimes reminiscent of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn stories. The only difference was a little more violent, dark and some sex mentioned. From what I read of other reviews this book is fairly happy compared to McCarthys other works.
The first things that bothered me about the book was no quotations when people spoke and also quite a bit of Spanish that does not get translated in the book. The Spanish really bothered me because I did not feel like grabbing a Spanish dictionary and looking up every other sentence.
So even with the books negative traits I still found it refreshing different from what I normally read. I dont know if I would read the rest of the series though.
I had not read any of Cormac McCarthys books. I think this is a good one to start with because I thought it sometimes reminiscent of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn stories. The only difference was a little more violent, dark and some sex mentioned. From what I read of other reviews this book is fairly happy compared to McCarthys other works.
The first things that bothered me about the book was no quotations when people spoke and also quite a bit of Spanish that does not get translated in the book. The Spanish really bothered me because I did not feel like grabbing a Spanish dictionary and looking up every other sentence.
So even with the books negative traits I still found it refreshing different from what I normally read. I dont know if I would read the rest of the series though.
lyrical, old west atmospheric, solid story and characters, loved this book. movie does justice to the book, loved it too
A must read.
Modern day western.....quite nice.
Beautifully written.
AModern Day Western,great read even if you are not a wesrern buff.
I tried to read it, but couldn't get into it. It comes highly recommended, though, and the movie was interesting.
Loved it
Enjoyed the book, but found it hard to follow. Worth the effort.
Classic literary Western.
Great book - well written.
The story of two young men trying to find their way in the West. Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction, the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and a national bestseller.
A modern day Western full of horses and gunplay and romance. Winner of National Book Award for Fiction.
"A modern-day Western full of horses and gunplay and romance, it transcends the bounds of its genre. A National Book Award for Fiction Winner."
a "new western classic"
Beautiful book!
Now a major motion picture from Columbia Pictures starring Matt Damon, produced by Mike Nichols, and directed by Billy Bob Thornton.
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.
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.
If you want to see the cover, just go to amazon.com and type in the title.
Looks like a good book and one I would enjoy, but I couldn't get past the writing style. This book is registered at bookcrossing.com
knopf = publisher; 1992 = copyright date
