This was an odd one. Upon returning Cannery Row to its rightful place in a pile of books at my lake house, I stumbled upon my third Cormac McCarthy book: All the Pretty Horses. If the name sounds familiar, it's because it was turned into a movie back in 2000 with Matt Damon and Penelope Cruz. You might remember some of the other books I've posted about here: Blood Meridian details mass murder in Mexico, while The Road has a father and son struggling to survive after the apocalypse. Manly plots, no? All the Pretty Horses has plenty of manliness, sure, but was apparently McCarthy's first attempt at romanticism. There wasn't really a love interest in either of the other books I've read by him, nor in No Country for Old Men, so it definitely took a bit to get used to. The book is seperated into four parts- in part one, protagonist/dumb kid John Grady Cole leaves Texas for Mexico seeking a life of adventure; Part two sees him falling in love with the beautiful Alejandra; in part 3 he's imprisoned with a few friends over a stolen horse, and then in part 4 after realising he'll never win Alejandra back he just goes berserk on a quest for vengeance. The book dealt with a lot of the same themes as Blood Meridian, and definitely had a lot more to it than a simple tale of love lost in Mexico. I guess my only real beef is that damn title- you're a well-respected author, Cormac, why you gotta make me feel like I'm reading a book for little girls?July 27, 2010
All the Pretty Horses
This was an odd one. Upon returning Cannery Row to its rightful place in a pile of books at my lake house, I stumbled upon my third Cormac McCarthy book: All the Pretty Horses. If the name sounds familiar, it's because it was turned into a movie back in 2000 with Matt Damon and Penelope Cruz. You might remember some of the other books I've posted about here: Blood Meridian details mass murder in Mexico, while The Road has a father and son struggling to survive after the apocalypse. Manly plots, no? All the Pretty Horses has plenty of manliness, sure, but was apparently McCarthy's first attempt at romanticism. There wasn't really a love interest in either of the other books I've read by him, nor in No Country for Old Men, so it definitely took a bit to get used to. The book is seperated into four parts- in part one, protagonist/dumb kid John Grady Cole leaves Texas for Mexico seeking a life of adventure; Part two sees him falling in love with the beautiful Alejandra; in part 3 he's imprisoned with a few friends over a stolen horse, and then in part 4 after realising he'll never win Alejandra back he just goes berserk on a quest for vengeance. The book dealt with a lot of the same themes as Blood Meridian, and definitely had a lot more to it than a simple tale of love lost in Mexico. I guess my only real beef is that damn title- you're a well-respected author, Cormac, why you gotta make me feel like I'm reading a book for little girls?
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I plan on jumping into The Road as soon as I'm done with Hawaii, and if it's as good as people say it is, I may need to check out more Cormac. But this one sounds pretty skippable, no?
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