Mikaela Balkind

All the Pretty Horses Review

1/13/14

All the Pretty Horses Book Review

All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy is far harsher of a novel than what the title exhibits. The journey that the main characters John Grady and Lacey Rawlins embark on is based of the idea and hope provided by the dream of the great American Wild West. When Grady’s grandfathers farm gets sold and there seems to be little left for him in Texas­ -his mother land- he and his friend begin a voyage that demonstrates the loss of youth and transformation into adulthood. The harsh scenes and brutal relationships of the book really carve out a distinctive story. Personally, this genre of book was completely new to me and unlike anything I have delved into before. It is refreshing reading a novel so exuberant in masculinity, because most of the modern works today are based off of unrealistic love stories. While at first I failed to see the compassion and extraordinary love story that everyone was talking about, after a reflection of the book, it’s easy to appreciate how practical the love between John Grady and Alejandra is.

“He saw very clearly how all his life led only to this moment and all after led to nowhere at all. He felt something cold and soulless enter him like another being and he imagined that it smiled malignly and he had no reason to believe that it would ever leave.” The love story in this novel is subtle, the characters don’t spend a lot of time together and the reader gets very few insights into their actual feelings and emotions. Nonetheless, McCarthy was able to demonstrate young love and first love through the actions of Grady, how he risked his life and went back to the ranch to speak to the godmother and gain approval to marry Alejandra.

Throughout the novel, McCarthy was able to string together elaborate sentences that did a fantastic job of really describing the scenery. Its interesting to note though, that his elaborate descriptions were only used to describe the surroundings, never did the reader truly get the chance to explore the thoughts of the characters. McCarthy has a very unique way of writing; his voice and the style are consistently carried throughout the story. The main characters have a very distinctive way of speech, and after the initial confusion due to the lack of quotation marks, the reader is able to get into the flow of conversation. The first couple of pages in All the Pretty Horses are confusing and I believe very messy. It’s hard to follow the story line and train of thought of Grady during this period. Afterwards though, when the boys cross into Mexico, the flow of conversation and scenery seems to fall into place. McCarthy covers a series of events that could take 600 pages in just 300, the book moves very fast and never stops in one spot for too long. While this keeps the reader constantly enthralled, I feel McCarthy failed to allow the reader to truly get to know the characters.

The appeal of the Wild West, the open lands, beautiful horses, and the unknown adventure, all of this drew John Grady and Rawlins into leaving home. The author does a really fantastic job of creating an extremely “macho” book. His writing style is as unique as the story and that is why this work is so exquisite. I am not sure if the larger themes and morals of the story just escaped me while reading this or there simply were none. Besides the concepts of having dreams and the idea of growing up, I feel this book is overrated as a classic American novel. It was defiantly and interesting read, but there isn’t a whole lot to use in terms of themes.