Rating: 
Summary: Good, but not a classic
Review: I understand why everyone likes this book, but all the hyperbole seems to be feeding off itself. There is little about "All the Pretty Horses" that will have people still talking about it a generation from now. It is not a classic, in my opinion, but I thought it might be one all through the first half of the book. The language is so evocative and poetic as it describes the south-western scenery and establishes the characters. Very spare and beautiful and pure. Then, when the story's complications set in down in Mexico, the book degrades quickly to a run-of-the-mill adventure tale. All the subtlety and poetry in the book vanishes as McCarthy does nothing more than relate a series of increasingly violent actions. This is a problem since the pristine poetry of the first half promises a revelation of truth - a promise that is not kept. Instead of any kind of rare, penetrating insight, the reader is served up an action movie in print. The story devolves from fine literature to genre fiction with alarming abruptness. As I read this book, I was reminded of the countless Hollywood films I've seen that start out so promising with clever, engaging scripts, only to lose their nerve and segue into the typical car chases, explosions and gun play. Very entertaining, perhaps, but common. Even the book's romance is generic. ... In the end, "All the Pretty Horses" is still a great read, it's just not great literature.
Rating: 
Summary: Awesome
Review: I read this book for an English Class. You would think that for an English Class the book would be boring because it is one of those "have to read or fail" things. I not only read and kept up with this book, but I read ahead. I got lost in time with the book. The words, once I got used to McCarthy's prose, flowed together like nothing I had ever read before. The pages jumped out at me, and before I knew it, it was 2 oclock in the morning, and I had read my assignment for that night and the next night. McCarthy has a wonderful was of describing the events that Grady goes through to achieve what he wants to be. I highly recommend this book to everyone who get past the punctuation, or lack thereof if you will. This book is one of the best that I have ever read.
Rating:
Summary: you owe it to yourself,..read it!
Review: i first read this book in 1993. since then i've followed reviews from readers to see if this book touched something in them as it did for me. and from the countless reviews i've read, it seems that for many many others, this book touched in them something that no other book has. it simply is an amazing book. but don't take my or anyone else's word for it. read it for yourself and see if it sparks something within you that makes you seldomly re-read this book and read every other work by mccarthy. and if it does touch within you something special, consider yourself lucky as you found something pure and esoteric.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: I found this book on an empty, dusty bookself at the back of my high school library, it's cover and first few pages torn away and the corners burned round. I thought that either someone was very bored and destructive or frustrated by the difficulty of the first few chapters (this only after flipping it open to find out it's title, the side being illedgable). After reading it I realize it could even more easily have come from the frustration of wanting more! This book kept me reading from cover to cover and still awake enough to wish it were double it's size. While reading it I had no clue as to it's popularity or award, but I knew it deserved one. John Grady Cole is an amazingly believable hero. I found myself trusting him and not the author to carry the book, knowing that he would come through no matter what. Even as the dialogue turned increasingly to spanish I felt that there wasn't a need to understand every word, I knew Grady enough to know what he would say. After getting a friend to translate a bit I found that this was true. I can only hope the movie is even half as good! I'm going to buy my school a copy to replace the destroyed version that I found.
Rating:
Summary: Loved it, Loved it -- and it IS a beach book
Review: I abandoned this book after 5 pages a year ago -- and for all the 'annoying' reasons above, ie the non-quoted dialogue, the Spanish, the dry, terse and 'lengthy' landscape narrative.Read the reviews--and made it a goal to read it during my Mexican vacation. This was a very easy goal because once I read the reviews I realized that I hadn't given the author's obvious talent a chance. By far the best book of the year I have read. It is not a difficult read at all, but it simply can't be skimmed, and you won't want to. The beauty of it is hearing every word in your mind - as if you are sitting by a campfire and hearing a very, very wise person tell the story.I hate (!) westerns, but all the really significant themes of living one's life are here.Take the time to savor this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Adventure
Review: Cormac McCarthy's tale of adventure and reckless abandon was written with such detail and clarity I felt like I was there in the Mexican desert with the characters. It is a moving tale with moral undertones that speaks volumes to the endurance of the human spirit. Although the beginning of the novel was rather slow and the dialog a bit hard to get used to, I was unable to put the book down after about three chapters.
Rating:
Summary: I was there
Review: i was able to identify with this mainly because i had spent 4 years and 2 weeks in the jail that was described in the book "all the pretty horses". I will never forget reading this book about 2:00AM one morning a few years ago and was so amazed and shocked that they had carried this cowboy to a prison on Castelar Street in Saltillo. I must say that this author had to have been inside this prison to have described it so well. even more amazing was that the cowboy was thrown in a corner cell on the sixth floor of this place and I was thrown in a corner cell on the sixth floor, the first night that i was there and preceeded to spend the next few years in that same cell. The kitchen scene was well described and came vividly to mind when i read it and beleive me I saw many just as brutal scenes on my sojourn in Castelar 203. i wrote the publisher asking about being able to get ahold of Mccarthey but got no response. I understand that a movie is being filmed currently in New Mexico. Anyway, It was the best and worse four years of my life. The stories i have to tell! I was there between 1973 and 1977 for having violated their laws concerning antiquities. I am fifty years old now and there is not a day goes buy without a thought back to the biggest and greatest challenge a man can go through. Is this a book reveiw - only that i loved the book and have read all the rest of them. If anyone has any info over how he was able to describe the inside of this prison with such detail - i would like to hear it. thanks, a guy who lived it.
Rating:
Summary: a great story
Review: Cormac McCarthy writes the more vividly than any writer I have ever read. His plotlines absolutely refuse to be boring; they mix gunplay, love and greed in a way that I find utterly compelling, fascinating reading.My only criticism -- and it is a minor one -- is that in this book I had a harder time finding a ``point'' to the story as a whole. There is no shame in writing a story without a clear moral (esp. if the story is as good as this one), but I urge readers to check out some of McCarthy's earlier work that blends thought with plot a little better.
Rating:
Summary: challenging
Review: Clearly "genius" is in the eye of the beholder. Sometimes reading through even a classic is slogging through muck, but ya make yourself do it, cause you know it's an established classic. I felt like I was reading great writing, but did find it fairly difficult to understand in places. Even after rereading passages (especially dialogue-who said what), it seemed not terribly clear. The genius of his style (if that's what it was) was lost on me, although I did like it allright. Also, while I appreciated the authenticity of Spanish dialogue, I felt like I could have been missing something significant, which annoyed me (I broke down finally and used a Spanish dictionary). Thought the story was brilliant, and the characters soulful. There do exist in this world precocious people, but John Grady Cole must be the most maturely drawn 16 year old in the history of literature. 18 woulda made a little more sense. I'd say it's a great book that I only liked a whole lot.
Rating:
Summary: A Finely Honed Bone
Review: My least favorite of McCarthy's works. I found this diorama and even the words he used extremely fine and spare, like the elegance of a bone found bleached white in the desert, but I personally prefer the rich gothic settings and language of his earlier work. Despite my dislove of the Border Trilogy McCarthy is still one of my all time favorite writers.
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