All the Pretty Horses (The Border Trilogy, #1) in Bound Together

Jul 05, 2009 Annet rated it really liked it

Shelves: favorite-author, dark, history, family-ties, have-to-read-again, wilderness-books-can-usa, favorites, wow-impressive

What a great writer, I've become a big fan. This is my fourth McCarthy book and I just love his style, his stories, the way he describes desert country...darkness all round, but so good...
Does anyone know if McCarthy is still writing? I would love a new book.... ...more

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Aug 21, 2022 Chrissie rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2022-read, legimus, relationships, flora, love, usa, hf, classics, mexico, series

The ending is so very nice. It pushed my rating from three to four stars. But let me state clearly, never did I ever consider giving the book anything less than three stars.

The ending left me smiling. After the bad, horrible things we must get through as we travel through the story, the ending, although not sugar sweet, is very, very nice. I didn’t know how much I needed this ending until I had it here in my lap. In this book, the bad is bad and the good is good and this is just as it should be ...more

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Feb 06, 2013 PattyMacDotComma rated it it was amazing

Shelves: aa, favourites-adult, fiction, kindle, historical-fiction

5★
This was the first Cormac McCarthy book I read, and although it took me a while to care about the characters, I was completely taken in by the poetry and wanted to know where the story was going.

I knew nothing about the author, other than that his name kept coming up with talk of Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West and that being a difficult but worthwhile read.

When I realised the author had written No Country for Old Men, I had to give this one a chance. I found the film unforg ...more

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Jan 01, 2024 ☮Karen rated it liked it

Shelves: series, audio, classics, hoopla, read-in-2023

3.5 stars
Such beautiful words but so many long, meandering sentences about mostly the same things over and over (scenery, riding horses, surviving the Mexico desert), I just didn't enjoy it very much. The characters lacked depth, and I couldn't feel anything for them. Guess McCarthy isn't for me, but I'm glad to have this one on my Read shelf finally. ...more

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Mar 07, 2011 Bucket rated it it was amazing

Shelves: bildungsroman, reviewed, 1001-read-all-editions, nature-the-outdoors, culture, diversity, hella-sweet-book-club-read, literary, friendship, life-and-death

All the Pretty Horses is a beautiful novel. I am usually one to get upset about books lacking proper grammar, but I took this one entirely in stride. The style is so effective in evoking the landscape of the american southwest/Mexico - rugged and desolate. The dialogue is highly accurate and believable and the simplicity of John Grady's relationship with Rawlins is beautifully rendered. I like that the love story doesn't take over and neither does the crime/violence. All in all, this is a story ...more

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Oct 24, 2012 Glenda rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: books-read-in-2012

John Grady Cole is a sixteen year old cowboy living in Texas who was raised on his grandfather’s ranch after his parents split up. After his grandfather dies, the ranch is being sold. With no where else to go, John and his best friend Lacey Rawlins ride off for Mexico. Along the way they hook up with a runaway kid, Jimmy Blevins, who is nothing but bad news. They find work on a large ranch where they capture and break wild horses. John catches the owner’s eye with his skilled handling of the hor ...more

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Apr 24, 2014 Irene rated it liked it

This is a “coming of age” novel for the lone cowboy audience. The spare writing evoked the lonely, barren landscape. The emotional understatement captured the reserve and solitary nature of the characters. Although the author captured characters and setting quite well, the sparse style kept me at a distance. This was a world with which I had no connection as I began the book, and I never found a foot hold by which to climb into the story.

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