"All the Pretty Horses" by Cormac McCarthey
A 16-year-old Texan rides deep into Mexico with his friend. Other than falling in love with a rancher’s daughter, things don’t go well for him.
The Road and Blood Meridian are the McCarthy novels I see most frequently cited as his masterworks. But when I talk with McCarthy fans, All the Pretty Horses usually gets the most love. And there’s a lot to love in this book – the characters, the dialogue, the occasional lack of dialogue, the story itself, and of course, McCarthy’s writing style. All the Pretty Horses feels to me like a stripped-down, hardboiled version of Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove. (But these books are so unique, maybe that comparison is a disservice to them both.)
I saw the Billy Bob Thorton-directed movie when it came out in 2000. I had no idea who Cormac McCarthy was, but I liked it. I remember it being a cowboy movie that focused on the romance between the Matt Damon and Penelope Cruz characters. But their relationship is just part of the novel. Having read The Road and No Country for Old Men, I’ve learned McCarthy stories aren’t exactly tidy.
The novel follows 16-year-old John Grady Cole who leaves Texas when he learns his grandfather’s ranch will be sold. He and his friend Lacey Rawlins ride into Mexico to find work, and encounter a sketchy young American named Blevins who rides a horse and totes a gun both way above his experience. In No Country, Llewelyn Moss makes the moral decision to bring water to a dying man in a drug deal gone horribly wrong, and those good intentions cause all kinds of horrific problems for him. Similarly, John Grady Cole’s decision to tolerate Blevins tips the first domino in a series of snowballing misfortunes. In both cases it’s a moral decision that gets them into trouble, but it’s the same moral compass that gets them through (mostly) the ensuring adversities.
All the Pretty Horses is the first book in McCarthey’s Border Trilogy. The second book introduces new characters, and the third brings them together. And of course, by this point, I’m all in.
READ IT IF: You like westerns, and/or McCarthey, and/or really good novels.
Bonus: Read the review from my friend Jim here.
Trailer for the 2000 movie. I know this is just a trailer, but that rockin’ guitar track is so out of place with the tone of this novel.