All the Pretty Horses ("The Border Trilogy", volume one)

by Cormac McCarthy

No cover — Cormac McCarthy: All the Pretty Horses ("The Border Trilogy", volume one) (Spanish language, 1992, kNOFF)

Hardcover, 515 pages

Spanish language

Published Jan. 8, 1992 by kNOFF.

(11 reviews)

All the Pretty Horses is a novel by American author Cormac McCarthy published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1992. Its romanticism (in contrast to the bleakness of McCarthy's earlier work) brought the writer much public attention. It was a bestseller, and it won both the U.S. National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Along with The Crossing (1994), and Cities of the Plain (1998), it constitues McCarthy's "Border Trilogy", an elegy for the American Frontier, written in an unconventional format which omits traditional Western punctuation (such as quotation marks) and makes use of polysyndetic syntax in a manner similar to that of Ernest Hemingway. The book was adapted as a 2000 eponymous film, starring Matt Damon and Penélope Cruz, and directed by Billy Bob Thornton. (main source EN.wikipedia)

26 editions

Eduardo Santiago reviewed All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy (The Border Trilogy, #1)

Review of 'All the Pretty Horses' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

I can finally understand why people read McCarthy. If you haven't read him before, this might be a good one to start with: beautiful evocative language, memorable setting, not too much violence. But OK, that's it. I don't need to read it again, nor read any more of his books. I get it, and I get that I'm not smart enough to really appreciate his style, and that's fine.

Aside: do any women read McCarthy? And enjoy? I'd love to hear your perspectives if so.

markgalassi reviewed All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy (The Border Trilogy, #1)

Review of 'All the Pretty Horses' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Still not quite done, but I had this reflection:

Just came across a very effective turn of phrase in Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses. I have been reading this book very slowly so as to savor all the amazing passages.

Page 226 of this edition, the main character has been riding past the ruins of an old cabin:

"There was a strange air to the place. As of some site where life had not succeeded."