McCarthy's magnificent wording and motifs demonstrate the many themes of hospitality, religion, freedom, and the quest for knowledge. The language appears to be deterring because of the author's choice to delete the majority of punctuation marks, however, if he had left the words in proper English format, the novel would have lost its realism and power. Unlike Charles Dickens, who is infamous for his lengthy, soporific descriptions, McCarthy utilizes his language to depict the Mexican landscape in a way that appeals to the reader. Not everything in the novel is pretty; as an adventure story, the book still enbodies the basic blood, guts, and gore; it simply describes them more completely than an average fiction novel. This quest for realism can become overused at times (i.e. entire dialogues written Spanish where occasionally a character may offer some form of explanation but usually leave the reader wondering). McCarthy's realism also extends to his multiple color motifs. Almost every pigment in the color wheel represents a quality in the novel, and because the author describes everything accurately, at least one of these recurring motifs appears on every other page. This does make analysis of the the novel fairly simple, but the overwhelming amount of color can become repetitive. McCarthy has mastered a wonderful command of language and exemplifies creativity well, but by stating the themes outright, he removes the opportunity for the reader to demonstrate his own ability to understand.

All the Pretty Horses embodies all the requirements of an interesting, adventurous novel that anyone could appreciate for its exciting plot and insightful discoveries of human nature. Whether searching for a wonderful book to read purely for entertainment or attempting to discover a piece of literature that is relatively simple to analyze, one should seriously consider All the Pretty Horses as an appropriate choice.


Pretentious or Just Plain Preposterous?   February 23, 2005
 31 out of 58 found this review helpful

Written in a laughably absurd, utterly contrived style, Cormac McCarthy's "All the Pretty Horses" raises a number of important questions, the first of which is: Was the publishing industry temporarily overrun by illiterates in 1992?
Let's cut to the chase. You need only struggle as far as page 5 before you recognize why you're struggling. The sixth sentence on that page has 13 "ands" in it. Yes! The word "and" appears thirteen times in that single sentence! Is this a shallow/pretentious rebellion against grammatical decency or is the author just plain inept? It's preposterous (and painfully unreadable) either way.
Just so you don't think I'm making this up, two sentences later, he drops this tortuous turd of a sentence on us: "He turned south along the old war trail and he rode out to the crest of a low rise and dismounted and dropped the reins and walked out and stood like a man come to the end of something." Does Mr. McCarthy own stock in the word "and"? Does he stand to profit from its appearance in print? And what's with the simile, "like a man come to the end of something?" How does a man come to the end of something stand? Is he sort of looking around perplexed, wondering, "Hey, where did everything go?"
My copy of this book bears a gold seal announcing that "All the Pretty Horses" won The National Book Award. Is that the Hemingway satire contest? Is Cormac McCarthy a Hemingway poseur? What's going on here?
And, so, if you're particularly fond of the word "and" and you want to spend a lot of time reading sentences and sentences and sentences that have a lot of "ands" in them and it doesn't bother you and that's your idea of enjoyable reading and you think it's fun and you want more and it doesn't make you feel like a man come to the end of something, then this is your book! The And.



Grand Tale, Wonderfully Rendered   January 17, 2001
 29 out of 33 found this review helpful

I didn't realize until I looked at the Amazon site that Frank Muller has narrated so many books. They have 84 Muller listings here, primarily for Stephen King, John Grisham and other best-selling authors. The only other Muller audio-book I was familiar with was his rendition of King's , which was excellent. Muller surpasses that here, however, as he renders McCarthy's prose faultlessly. He captures the accents, whether they be Texan or Mexican, faithfully and unaffectadly. This is a great acting-job, natural, unassuming, perfectly in-flow with the narrative. His shift from character to character is seemless. Muller is the latter-day role model for anyone wishing to narrate books. There is ample reason why he is so prolific.

The story itself lends itself to being told orally. It is a myth of the west, but I mean that in the greatest sense of the word. Mythic here does not mean unrealistic. Far from it. It is mythic because it represents higher truths, but tells a human story in as truthful a manner as possible. I hate to use a hackneyed term like "describing the human condition," but it does. There are other high-school terms I could use, such as "coming-of-age story," "piquaresque novel," "story of initiation," etc. , but they would all short-change McCarthy's accomplishment here. McCarthy represents what is increasiningly scarce in modern American letters. He is a truly original novelist. Yes, we can trace his roots, but he has acquired his unique voice by dint of much effort, trial, delving, maybe even bloodshed. He is one of those authors that after reading one of his works, we are left to ask "How did he come by that knowledge?" He doesn't just research a work. He must have, at least in part, lived it. For instance, in this work, I was left wondering how he could have aquired such an encyclopedic knowledge of all things having to do with horses. I worked on the backstretch of racetracks for five years and didn't know my nomenclature with anything like the authority he does.

It would appear that Muller, like McCarthy has thoroughly done his homework. Never once in the course of this unabridged audio does he stumble over a word, much less a passage. He speaks Spanish almost as fluently as English, which is important for this work. In fact I would suggest that if you do not comprehend Spanish readily, you refer to the text-form of the book and maybe a Spanish dictionary before listening to this tape, though you can still appreciate most of it.

My estimation of McCarthy, which was already high, as well as my opinion of Muller, were greatly enhanced by the experience of listening to these tapes.

(This review refers to the unabridged audio-tape version of . I prefer printed versions of good books, but see nothing wrong with listening to books when we dont have our hands free. Cars, obviously. I know what you were thinking!)


John Grady Cole's Odyssey   December 26, 2000
 23 out of 27 found this review helpful

Many people compare, fairly or no, Cormac McCarthy's "All the Pretty Horses" to William Faulkner's literary work. What is neglected is the strain of Flannery O'Connor that runs throughout the novel as well. At any rate, "Horses" more than stands on its own as a startling achievement. It's prose is more accessible than Faulkner, and its themes less esoteric than O'Connor. "Horses" is an immaculate novel, dealing with the extreme facets of the everyday and the ways in which people become who they are.

John Grady Cole, a 16 year old boy, dispossessed of his family lands, wanders off into Mexico, accompanied by Lacey Rawlins, a close friend. Astride their trusted horses, Redbo and Junior, the two young men ride, searching for occupation and meaning. It may be somewhat idealistic that two ranch-hands like Cole and Rawlins should ride about, discussing throughout the novel things like the profundities of religion, life, and human relationships on so advanced a level, but McCarthy's grasp of vernacular - English and Spanish - makes the whole completely palatable.

McCarthy's writing technique leaves nothing to be desired - his evocative use of landscape draws the Texas-Mexico scenery off the page and into immediate experience. Impressionistic and yet utterly tangible, the cold of the evenings and the heat of the days is described as it is felt. McCarthy's characterization is just as remarkable. Minor characters like the various groups of laborers met along the way, Perez the mysteriously powerful political exile/prisoner, or children bathing in a ditch - all bring realism and depth to Cole's struggle into selfhood.

The most wonderful thing about "Horses" is that McCarthy doesn't beat you over the head with his major themes - they exist as constant undercurrents - humanity's relationship to tradition, the divine, to each other - these are the elements that course and pulse through the novel. Epic knife-fights in a Kafkaesque prison, emotional wounds that never heal, a covert love affair with Alejandra (the daughter of a powerful Mexican landowner), philosophical-historical conversations with her aunt Alfonsa, a problematic relationship with 'Jimmy Blevins,' a possessive young boy - all of these moments in the novel are saturated with fundamental thematic significance.

This is not a book to simply read. This book must be lived with, carried, held, gazed upon and treasured. Give it full reign of your mind and let the unknowable horses of your imagination take you into yourself.


Ascent into Hell   November 20, 2005
 20 out of 21 found this review helpful

You read the first sentence of a Cormac McCarthy novel and you know that this is not Grisham or Connolly or Child or Crichton or King, certainly not Patterson, or anyone else writing fiction today. And before the first page is turned he has launched into one of his frenetic poetic riffs that lurches and rambles and stops and starts and doesn't care about punctuation and you can almost hear your high school English teacher scolding about grammar and run-on sentences but you know that she could never even hope to string words together like this even if she dared. And then you realize that maybe you've actually never really understood the English language at all because no one before has ever ripped it and bent it and twisted it as beautifully as McCarthy does while making it all look so easy.

So were it not for McCarthy's ferocious prose, "All the Pretty Horses" may have been just another coming of age story. But in McCarthy's special corner of hell, along with the obligatory introduction to "young love", passage to adulthood may include exile in a foreign country, being hunted on horseback across a barren desert, variously stabbed, shot, tortured, or imprisoned. John Grady Cole is a sixteen year-old son of a Texas rancher who, up until his grandfather's death, worked the ranch and developed an uncommon kinship with horses. With his grandfather gone, his father dying, and his mother flitting around the cultural scene in post-WWII San Antonio, John Grady sets out on horseback for Mexico with buddy Lacey Rawlings. What follows is an odyssey of restless youth across a rugged country, a bleak and sometimes bloody journey that is not without the humor and easy banter of young teenagers on their own; the "road trip" that turns nightmarish and accelerates the process of growing up into hyper drive.

John Grady is an endearing character; there are no Holden Caulfields in the Texas borderlands. A stoic young cowboy, he has had the youthful innocence to which he is entitled ripped out too early, replaced by a work-hardened cynicism and homespun wisdom of the Texas plains. The reader cares for John Grady in the way of the classic Greek heroes, watching helplessly as the protagonist stone-by-stone lays the foundation of his own downfall. This is Cormac McCarthy, and therefore not a fairy tale; the reader would be naive to expect an ending with a smiling John Grady riding into the sunset with his girl's arms around his denim shirt. But since it is Cormac McCarthy, you can expect unparalleled prose that delivers its message with the power and subtlety of a cattle prod. An American classic - required reading.