All the Pretty Horses

Rating:
Summary: Blimp material, folks, blimp material
Review: There is no option for zero stars, but that is what it really deserves. Mexico is depicted as a land made up of two elements--mysticism and whorehouses. Mr. McCormick has an infallible ear for local Texas speech, but everything else is blimp material--hot air. As a resident of Mexico, I can assure you that it is inhabited by ordinary people who don't spout profundities while selling you a Coke, and the country is not made up of heart-of-gold prostitutes, knife-fighting pimps, and other very, very silly characters painted in such shallow tones that they are little more than stereotypes.

Rating:
Summary: Overall boring; sometimes entertaining
Review: There was an insane amount of description in this book. Too much for my liking. I skipped over parts because I couldn't bear to read anymore about riding across the grassy plains. And I mean pages and pages of it. The author put in plenty of description about the surroundings, but then left out important details about the plot and conversation. Sometimes I had to read a part over several times just to find out who was talking to who, and even then I still didn't know sometimes. If you like an overload of description, then be my guest and buy this book. But if you feel that the plot deserves more attention than the grassy plains, I suggest you look elsewhere for good reading.

Rating:
Summary: A towering achievement in modern American literature.
Review: All the Pretty Horses grabbed me from the outset by its alternately terse and unusually descriptive prose. The hero, John Grady Cole, appeared to me as the apotheosis of young manhood--valiant, honest, and smart--and seemed at times to have been blessed with the noble soul of a fabled knight. That McCarthy highlighted Cole's fallible traits--such as naivete and (occasional) recklessness--eased my own ability to find strains of myself in Cole as I reflected on my own view of the world as a young man. His equine and topographical descriptions can be a bit much at times, but I often found myself rereading passages in astonished admiration. His disregard for grammatical convention is more than compensated for by his poetic passages. The to-the-point dialogue between Cole and Rawlins , Cole and his father, and Cole and everybody else, come to think of it, underscores Cole's strength, and yields a great impact whenever he speaks. The violent scenes are well-written and highlight the idea that life--particularly life in the Southwest for the last cowboys--is a battle. Women may not like this book, for it is largely about the pain and rewards of becoming and being a man. I urge anyone who picks it up to stick with it and not to fight McCarthy's tide. In sum, I was extremely moved by All the Pretty Horses.

Rating:
Summary: Covered the basic characteristics of the book
Review: The first part of the book is slow and confusing. McCarthy make it hard to distinguish between the characters. Once I got into the book it was easyer to understand and more exciting. McCarthy did an excellent job of writting with a lot of detail, which makes the book all the more interesting.

Rating:
Summary: Ok, but if you have a choice, don't read it
Review: This book was pretty boring from the start. It's about John Grady Cole a teenager who left home to go to Mexico. On the way he has many adventures and trials. Him and Rawlins leave and ride across the border. On the way they pick up a skinny little guy named Blevins. He has a real nice horse and gun. In a freak storm he loses his horse and his gun. In Mexico they are hired to break horses at a hacienda. Grady falls in love for the owner's young daughter. Which in turn leads to an arrest and a sentence to a Mexical jail. He murders a man that is trying to kill him in jail and ends up getting out of jail. After he gets his horse back from a Mexican ranger. At the end of the story he goes home and meets up with Rawlins and says hello. Then he just drifted away. This book is great for anyone who likes boring reading that takes a long time to get to the good stuff.

Rating:
Summary: "All the Pretty Horses" is not a simple cowboy novel
Review: English 122 (extra credit) Mieko T.

Young American cowboys, John Grady Cole and his bud Rawlins went to Mexico from Texas and sought their successful life on a Mexican ranch. McCarthy described details such as eating food and riding horses lively. After falling in love with a Mexican girl Alejandra, John Grady started getting in trouble. Mexican rangers caught John Grady and Rawlins, who were suspected as horse thieves and murderers. Alejandra's family tried to separate her from John Grady. Sadly, they didn't get married. At the climax of the story, John Grady, holding his rifle, got his horse back from a Mexican ranger captain. Finally, he returned his hometown where Rawlin had already been. He had a short conversation with Rawlins, and then he drifted away. Adventures and romance, this book is great for pleasure reading.

Rating:
Summary: yowch!
Review: Flaubert once said words the effect that if your writing doesn't correspond to the rhythm of the human lungs it ain't worth squat. And this stuff, with its pompous drawn out sentences, ain't worth squat either.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Books ever written!!!!
Review: This is a great book. It has everything in it. It has SEX Murder Fights Killings love that just can't be. It's a romance and an adventure book!!

Rating:
Summary: What did that guy say?
Review: No way. He gave the book ONE star? idiot. Sometimes you may think that the only intelligent person in a group is the minority, right? Cause after all, when does the crowd know anything? well, let me tell you, that guy up there must really have the worst taste on earth not to like this one. I wont even write about what i love about this book. its been covered by plenty of other people here!

Rating:
Summary: ignore everything but the love and the murder
Review: The love story in this book is prefect, lyrical. Otherwise the kid couldn't stir my empathy or interest much. Blood Meridian was an epic with sublime characters (atleast a few). The Crossing surpasses this book easily in depth and poetry.