Rating: 
Summary: Y'all aint cowboys and this aint art.
Review: If you can get past the naive plot and the apparent hero worship of the author of his own limited creation then you may be able to enjoy this novel. Novel however is an incorrect term as there is nothing new about what there is to enjoy which is every tenth line that in its stark simplicity and roughness harks towards the stylistic terms of Hemingway and the countless hacks who follow him. Is shallow masculinity a given in this territory? It would appear so if Mr McCarthy is to be taken as the future(ha,ha) of American writing. Why don't we all just admit what we like in his work, the pseudo-intelligent manliness...yes this is just a trumped up dime cowboy story so its best enjoyed as such. Indulge, preferably by getting all liquored up or by lighting up a butt(excuse the non pc image) out in the noonday heat of the ranch and read a little by little of a watered down teenage John Wayne. Just don't kid yourself that this is great writing, it is just great at delivering what we all hanker after, depressing as it may be to admit it. If you are riled by my suggestions calm yourselves with the lovely thought of an imminent movie version starring a Brad Pitt trying to look half his age. Ouch! Am I too cynical?
Rating: 
Summary: A mythic, poetic symbolism manifested in auspices of prose
Review: The richness and sensuality and mythology of McCarthy's work cannot be denied. As with all works of genius and its consequent complexities, this laconic work of love and loss interspersed with death and idyllic ignorance is indubitably bound to be unappreciated by a fair amount of people. However, the stature of McCarthy as perhaps the most important Southern writer of the century, omitting Faulkner, necessitates that the reader should attempt to experience his work on its numerous levels. At once a bildungromanic saga of a Southern boy's violently tragic yet uncomplaining initiation into a manhood governed by forces beyond his control, forces which over time clearly become other than those in whom he was brought up to believe--it is also an important continuation of the creation myth first established in "Blood Meridian" of the United States not only as a nation and a people, but also as an ideology, an experience, and a consequential destiny other than that promised by forefathers whose alleged intent and perfection had already been engraved in the halls of false American deism. This parable of disenfranchisement and the exile of the damned impoverished descendants of Southern society, the wandering sons of Cain who, disadvantaged and sensing their more naturalistic way of life vanishing in the vacuous moral chasm surrounding the years of the Second World War, have found the face of country their ancestors have taken from the Native Americans suddenly foreign and unwelcome, devoid of an enriching culture which is needed to sustain a society. The wanderings and listlessness of John Grady Cole are not just driven by youthful wanderlust, but by an ancestral guilt as well as an inherited subconscious longing for other lands, the same longing his forefathers felt and left their countries for to invest their tears and blood into the violent earth of a youthful America. Through his poetry not only of incredibly described landscape and locals of various locales, but his poetry of underdescription, of painful destinies and thoughts born but left unsaid, McCarthy presents us with not only a criticism of what the modern Americas have become, but also a lament for the loss of traditions and inherited cultural strengths which have either been whittled away by war or drained by the imminent encroaching standards of materialism which have led Northamerican society to judge a man not by the merits and resiliences of his heart but by the quality of fabric of which his garments are made. By presenting his myth of seemingly senseless death and pain and destined wandering into lands south of the border through the only truly Northamerican symbol that approaches the archetypical, that of the vagabond cowboy, McCarthy simultaneously calls into question and subverts the religion of superiority and violence named Manifest Destiny, thereby calling into question the very bloodstained foundations upon which our society has been built at the exact postwar point in historical time when America can truly be said to have lost its farcical innocence and purity and soon began to tear itself apart in an internal revolution criticizing the inhuman treatment of non-european Americans, and eventually combusting in the sixties into a criticism of the very aggrandizing imperialism upon which the country was built. At the end of McCarthy's work, all of the violence and malevolence lurking just beneath the surface of substances seems to presage the destined course of Cole's country, and after all of his wandering upon an endless terrain of sand, one begins to question just what the foundations of his country were built upon in the first place. Despite this, Cole survives, not as an American, not as a Mexican, but as a man who transcends national boundaries and is left without a home, left only with the resilience, the strength, and the stubborness of his forebears; and perhaps also a love for an unattainable Mexican woman of Spanish descent, the crimes of whose ancestors have also been called into question, a relationship and a passion which so astutely personifies the relationship of violence and fascination that still exists between Mexico and the United States even today. The entire work attests to the genius of McCarthy, both the subtlety of his implications as well as the sheer sensous beauty of the worlds his words create.
Rating:
Summary: Risky writing and great storytelling.
Review: This masculine view of the American cowboy in the southwest, circa 1935, All the Pretty Horses would probably be boring if penned by any other writer. McCarthy breathes life into this simple story through his masterful, though somewhat risky, writing.McCarthy's use of cattleman lingo and apparent distain for using quotes in his dialog take some time to get use to, but his artistry in breaking the high school rules of literature are invigorating. McCarthy has no qualms about sentences that take entire paragraphs, or pages, strung together with 'ands'. There is a unique rhythm to his writing as he blends brief sentences of prose with long. Intertwined with prose are some stunning glimpses of poetry. This is a story as the cowboy poets might tell it. The main characters are not the one-dimensional cattlemen often portrayed as macho men, though they are unashamedly masculine. The central character unselfconsciously accepts his tenderness, especially toward horses, and his insecurity with women and life at large. Taken as models for modern living the men in this book necessarily fall short. They are not literal role models but icons and symbols of true masculinity. This is man at his best: loyal, independent yet social, self-sacrificing, and willing to see the beauty within nature, horses and his fellow man. "All The Pretty Horses", like so much of the 'great' literature of the twentieth century, is simple in its delivery yet vastly complex. It is the kind of book college professors could force students to agonize over as they dissemble the grammar and symbolism. It is also a book that anyone, especially horse lovers, can enjoy. Take the time, make the investment, and take the risk. You will be rewarded.
Rating: 
Summary: Hohum.
Review: I've been told that other McCarthy novels are better, but having started with this one, I have not been inspired to explore his oeuvre any further. My annoyance with this book probably has something to do with its being vastly overrated. I picked it up expecting, based on what I'd heard, to be astonished on every page, only to come away from it bored and puzzled. What is everyone so excited about? The plot is thoroughly conventional, the prose is some kind of dried-up, left-over concoction made up of one part Faulkner and two parts Hemingway, and McCarthy has a bad habit of constantly singing the praises (in his chiseled, understated way) of his insipid hero, John Grady Cole -- what a horseman! -- all based on an antiquated and irrelevant code of manhood, or something. Who cares?
Rating:
Summary: Precise control of sweeping power
Review: McCarthy describes a world painted in sepia tones. He has iron-fisted control over his prose, with the effect that his moments of unhindered expression light up the novel's landscape like a sunset. Much has been made recently about minimalist vs. maximalist American novels: this stark and beautiful book stands equal to the thickest of Wolfe's efforts.
Rating:
Summary: A Stunning Masterpiece
Review: Cormac McCarthy brings a new, refreshing voice to the world of prose, richly deserving the National Book Award for his efforts. I was totally absorbed by this book from beginning to end, relishing the style, making the journey, feeling the sorrow, and ultimately, rejoicing. This book should be on required reading lists!
Rating:
Summary: Well done
Review: I'll admit that the lack of quotations was annoying until about the second part. Then I just learned to live with it, realizing that the book was a lot like train of thought. The spanish wasn't a problem for me, since I've taken two years of it. This was just a reminder that I kinda know spanish. The story is excellent and very enjoyable once the shock of no quotations faded. I even found the repetitive ands actually soothing. This is a fantastic book about the ways of the world and growing up. I enjoyed it.
Rating: 
Summary: Atmospheric & brooding or just a clicheed machismo?
Review: You've got to admire McCarthy for his total refusal to conform to any 'writers' edicts. His characters are supremely one-dimensional (in "Horses" anyway), and he lets the action bring any little character development there is. But the strong elemental prose gets to you - if you believe in the power of fate, and the beauty of ancient landscapes. It's a good thing though that he doesnt include too much dialogue - most of it is abysmal, and at least the Spanish phrases distract a little from that. Overall though a story that will take you places no other writer can - its worth the effort.
Rating:
Summary: A WORK OF ART
Review: Beautifully written prose
Rating:
Summary: Didn't do it for me
Review: I read this book when it first came out, so it's been awhile. However, I remember that I did not enjoy it. It actually didn't do anything for me. The writing was irritating - the incredibly long sentences and the intermittent Spanish. Half the time I didn't know which character was talking. I kept putting it down... it definitely did not hold my interest. I couldn't get into the characters at all, nor did I care much about them. When I finished the book, for me it was just over. Absolutely no effect. I bought it because it won the National Book Award and, needless to say, was disappointed. However, I also bought Snow Falling On Cedars because it won the award, and I absolutely loved it. It's been interesting to me to read how many people loved All The Pretty Horses. I guess that's what makes life interesting. Things get drawn to people differently. By the way, I love westerns and own a horse, so it definitely wasn't the content that turned me off. Maybe one day I'll re-read it and see if it affects me differently.
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