All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy

I believe I attempted to read this book over a decade ago. At the time it could not hold my interest. My reading habits have changed greatly in the last ten to fifteen years and with a more literary bent now I wished to try again.

In this book by McCarthy we meet John Grady Cole a sixteen year old in Texas in 1949. His Grandfather has died and his Mother, now divorced from his father has no interest in keeping her Father's ranch. Cole has never wanted to be anything more than a rancher and implores his Mother to let him run the ranch to no avail.

Faced with moving to town Cole instead sets off with his best friend Lacey Rawlins traveling by horseback south through Texas. Crossing into Mexico they intend to travel South to work as cowboys.

Just before crossing the Rio Grande they meet a young man who calls himself Jimmy Blevins. He rides a big bay horse which it seems doubtful is his and though he claims to be sixteen does not appear to be past 13. Eventually he falls in with the boys, much to Lacey's disgust.

After losing his horse and gun in a thunderstorm Blevins convinces the boys to go with him into a nearby town to see if his horse landed there. He did, they steal it back and are chased. The boys and Blevins split and they continue South eventually finding work on a large ranch. Thier expert horse skills find them both work, Cole as a horse trainer.

The ranch owner's daughter the bueatiful Alejandor tempts Cole and they fall into an affair.

The story continues. Betrayal, prison, proving oneself, love, love lost, revenge and eventually isolation.

McCarthy writes beautifully. His prose is as descriptive as will be found. It reminded me instantly of Hemingway. Short declaritive sentences and then again the description of nature and scenery so evocative as to place you there. I was pleased to see after reading and having the Hemingway thoughts that other reveiwers mentioned the same thing. Certainly anyone with experience with both can see the similarity. For my money being compared to Hemingway is never a bad thing.

One unfortunate in the book was the use of Spanish conversation with no translation. Not knowing Spanish I am sure I missed a few things. I do not believe it was integral to the story, often it seemed to be very simple conversation.

Still that in itself lent an air of additional authenticity to the book and the story itself is a strong one. Always liking Western imagary this was a book I greatly enjoyed. I look forward to the rest of The Border Triology.