Rating: 
Summary: Third-best book in the trilogy
Review: CITIES OF THE PLAIN has the feeling of a third book, an add-on in many ways dissimilar from the first two books in the Border Trilogy. ALL THE PRETTY HORSES and THE CROSSING feature John Grady Cole and Billy Parham, respectively, two young bucks full of wisdom, the last cowboys on the frontier of the latter half of the twentieth century. The two meet in CITIES OF THE PLAIN, with Parham twenty years Cole's senior. They appear as the same character, really, at different stages of a cowboy's life. Cole gets mixed up with a Mexican prostitute, again giving his all for the love of a young woman. Parham, who never seemed to have much time for women, watches Cole self-destruct, much as his brother, Boyd, had in THE CROSSING. McCarthy obviously loves John Grady Cole, this wise-before-his-years teen who can beat anyone at chess and can tell a horse's worth from his gait. I love Cole, and all of McCarthy's creations, too. THE CITIES OF THE PLAIN doesn't quite work, however. In many ways, it's predictable. The book is driven by dialogue, whereas in the previous two books in the Border Trilogy dialogue was sparse, the few words all McCarthy needed to help us understand. If you're paying attention, you should be able to figure out the direction of Cole's affair long before it reaches its crescendo.I would have given this book five full stars, except that it isn't as good as the previous two, which I've given five stars, and for the strange epilogue, which I tried to read three times, then gave up and slammed the book shut. A weak, weak ending to a glorious trilogy.
Rating: 
Summary: Another classic
Review: Cities of the Plain is the last of a The Border Trilogy by Cormac McCarthy. Everyone is probably familiar with All the Pretty Horses, so if you want to know what became of John Grady Cole, read this one. It picks up a few years after he left Mexico and his first love (if you don't count horses) behind and came back to the USA, where he works as a cowboy on a big ranch in a town across the border from Juarez. This time, he has the misfortune to fall in love with a beautiful young whore, and he determines to marry her.
John Grady's friend and mentor, Billy Parham (read The Crossing to learn his equally powerful story) tries to help him out - but to tell much more of this tale would be to tell too much.
Like in the other two books, McCarthy has a loooooooong passage of philosophy spoken as almost a monologue by some wise old dude. It's good stuff, but it's okay to skim through it if you're not in the mood for about 80 pages of a pretty good speech. It really has no bearing on the story; it's just McCarthy doing his thing.
I'd advise reading these books in the proper order; there's a pathos and continuity that can't be appreciated otherwise. However, they do read as complete within themselves, so, whatever. I flat out loved each one.
Rating:
Summary: Gut wrenching story of love and fate
Review: Cormac McCarthy cleaned up his larger than life prose without compromising his trademark beauty of language. The final volume of his award winning Border Trilogy is a clean, gritty tale of love and fate. The only book close to it in recent literature is Del Amor y Otros Demiones by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The love story isn't a study of love as much it is of a man's dreams, his views of life and his obsessions. All this leads to the violent climax and philosophical reckoning of its two major characters, John Grady Cole and Billy Parham who appeared respectively in the previus novels of the trilogy. Many reviews beginning to come in on Cities of the Plain have reviewed this novel as a novel unto itself. It isn't. It is the final novel of the trilogy but should be viewed as the final chapter of a masterwork. Regardless Cormac McCarthy has concluded with the best part. All the Pretty Horses was dreamy and beautiful. The Crossing was violent and existential. Now The Cities of the Plain has combined the best of his pre-Suttree novels and the best of the novels since then. McCarthy is a craftsman of prose, an artisan, and here, he is at top of his craft and art. This is a great novel. Read it. Savor it. Love it.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the worst books ever...
Review: Did I read a different book than the other reviewers? 'Cities of the Plain' was absolutely terrible. I can't believe I managed to make it through the whole thing. I listened to it on cassette so I guess it must have been Brad Pitt's voice that kept me going...because it sure wasn't the writing. It was overly descriptive of background stuff that wasn't essential to the plot and that I didn't care about. The plot was flat and predictable. Don't waste your time or money!
Rating:
Summary: the sad ending of the trilogy
Review: Enjoyed this book very much. Always feel sad when I think about this book. I think that the 'knife fight' scene is great. Would seem impossible to me to have read the first two books and not 'the ending'. I look at the 'boys' as metaphors of myself in the ways that they would rather 'pay the price' than 'obey the rules'.
Rating:
Summary: Why Billy? Why?
Review: First: I read the Border Trilogy this week. I haven't read any other McCarthy literature. I was told that if I liked Larry McMurtry, Steinbeck, and Salinger then I would love McCarthy. The first thing I bought was The Crossing. Upon realizing it was part of a trilogy with All The Pretty Horses as the first installment, I was very disappointed. I had no intrest in a Hollywood western novel. But, I grudgingly purchased All The Pretty Horses and read it. (Have not watched movie). That said... Cormac McCarthy far surpasses any living writer with which I have come in contact. If I had the masterful ability with language that he does, I could express that in a much more emphatic manner. Any reviewer who complains about things such as puncuation, grammer, or spanish-I feel compelled to respond with this:
1. Would you prefer that all painters created exact duplicates of their subject matter? Are we not better, as a society and as a species, for taking our interpretations further and showing those things we are already intimate with in a fresh or different way? Would you say 'cubism', for instance, is too complicated for you?
2. Are you 25 years old or less? Do you have any true ability to surive in a harsh world without parental aide? The struggles depicted in this novel would, of course, be difficult to fathom in that scenario, especially when teamed with non-traditional grammar and punctuation and a lack of a personal translator.
3. If neither of the two applies to a negative reviewer, perhaps your solution would be ritalin. It is supposed to assist in 'focus'. On to the review: All the Pretty Horses is the 'prettiest' of the three. The least bleak, possesses the least darkness. John Grady Cole, loses what he allows himself to lose. He is afforded by McCarthy some level of self determination. He rarely states a prediction that does not become so. He never throws a rope without catching what he intends. Even in the darkest scenes, if John Grady fights for something, he seems to get it. The Crossing's main character was just the opposite. Billy Parnham will never get anything he for which he fights. He will always align himself most closely with a losing cause. It seems that he is completely asexual, and the closest bonds he forms almost always precede the demise of said character/animal. There is something striking in the fact that the moral stance, character, sense of justice are nearly identical for John and Billy. Yet John wins, and Billy loses. Repeatedly. Yet it is Billy who survives all contests, all tragedies, all of his closest bonds. Billy's 'heart' is never joined with any group or idea or convention larger than land and animals. At some points his 'heart' is rejected; but is his survival possibly attributed to his lack of truly 'giving' his 'heart' to any passionate cause? The passion Billy gives us in the final scene of The Crossing, the self-realization and anger and utter despairing are so exceedingly rare that your tears are nearly required after finishing this book.
As you might be able to tell, it would take far more than the 1000 word limit to fully explore the metaphors, symbolism, or intentions of McCarthy's characters. The Cities on the Plain brings the two that abadonded their families in favor of the dust of the road together in this final installment. While personally jostled by Billy's transition from complete and total sorrow (in the conclusion of The Crossing) to the casual, easy going buddy (in the opening of The Cities), that is the only fault worth mentioning. The theme may or may not be this: We don't know anything and neither does anyone else. The nuggets of wisdom that our heroes encounter from the journeying, extrapolating, strangers they meet are proof of this, and, an indication that these books could be re-read hundreds of times. The Crossing, in my view, is the strongest of the three, with The Cities of the Plain second and All the Pretty Horses, obviously, third. The Cities of the Plain would be wasted as read without the other two.
Rating:
Summary: this book is awe-SOME
Review: I just finished the Border Trilogy. The books get better and better. Cities of the Plain was my favorite. It has the most action. I generally don't read the works of living writers. I find most modern subject matter socially and spiritually unredeeming. But McCarthy's stuff is all about society and spirit! Remember that part in The Crossing where he says that you have to live with men instead of merely passing among them? That was pretty cool.
Rating:
Summary: Another classic
Review: McCarthy brings together the protagonists from ATPH and The Crossing in a story that concludes the Border Trilogy. Among the book's themes: the passing of an era in the West. The book is everything CM fans have come to expect: a great story, amazing characters, wonderful use of the English language, and heartbreaking events.
Rating: 
Summary: Start Elsewhere
Review: sadly, "Cities of the Plain" disappoints in comparison with the first two volumes of the Border Trilogy. It is possible that I expected too much, but I think it is merely a less successful book. The story itself places Billy Parham and John Grady Cole, the protagonists in the previous books, together on a ranch in New Mexico in the 1940s. The setting has the same romantic feel of the other novels and there is good action throughout, but the story does not flow as well and it is less believable then the previous books. This edition relies on too many flashbacks, wasn't as well written and didn't add much to the series. I think it is important to read "Cities of the Plain" if you've read and enjoyed the rest of the trilogy, because the story really comes full circle here, but it is not a good starting point to become familiar with McCarthy. He has written much better material then this book and I hate to think of people thinking this is a good representation of his talent.
Rating:
Summary: Cities of the Plain
Review: This is by far the most emotionally engaging and thrilling book out of the border trilogy. The way that Cormac McCarthy can incorporate comedy, love, hate, and suspense all together in this book always left me wanting to read more. The friendship between Billy and John always warmed my heart with their jokes and the way that they will always be there for one another. This book jumps from emotion to emotion and has a unforgettable ending that will forever stay in my heart. The life lessons in this story have changed some of my perspectives on life and have touched me in ways I can not describe. This was an excellent end to the trilogy that no one should go without experiencing.
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