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Original Title:	The Border Trilogy: All the Pretty Horses / The Crossing / Cities of the Plain
ISBN:	0375407936 (ISBN13: 9780375407932)
Edition Language:	English
Series:	The Border Trilogy #1-3

The Border Trilogy: All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, Cities of the Plain (The Border Trilogy #1-3)

Cormac McCarthy

Hardcover | Pages: 1040 pages

Rating: 4.44 | 5449 Users | 309 Reviews

Relation During Books The Border Trilogy: All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, Cities of the Plain (The Border Trilogy #1-3)

I have this vague idea of going back and writing reviews of some of my favorite books, read long before I heard of Goodreads. And yet strangely, it’s somehow harder to write reviews of the books I love the best. I’m not sure why that is- maybe it’s because I feel SO MUCH for the books that are like old, beloved friends, that combing through all my weighty feelings and associations with them to find the right words is almost impossible. So there is my disclaimer that this will probably be a rambling, besotted jumble of thoughts, more than a true review.

I have a great deal of respect for Cormac McCarthy’s talent, and have been impressed by everything I have ever read by him. That said, these three books are the only ones that I truly love. I love almost everything about them, the unique, gorgeous poetry of McCarthy’s syntax and the depth of his philosophy, the complexity of his primary characters, who I love dearly. I also love how deeply he draws on numerous archetypes and myths that span almost every era of World Literature. You can delve deep with McCarthy, folks- as deep as any literary-analysis loving English major/book nerd dares to go. Personally, I wrote a 30 page paper on the role of myth and legend in the trilogy for a graduate level literature class, and it was my favorite paper that I wrote in college. There was just SO MUCH to sink my teeth into, and I never enjoyed analyzing literature so much before or since.

The first book in the trilogy is the most famous, winner of the National Book Award, frequently on AP Literature exams, etc. (And also, sadly, the inspiration for an absolutely horrid film version starring Matt Damon.) All the Pretty Horses is the boyhood story of John Grady Cole, a post World War version of a questing knight. His journey into the wild open land of Mexico, in search of a world that no longer exists (if it ever did, outside of stories) is at the simplest level a brilliantly drawn coming of age story. But instead of the clichéd resolution (adolescent loses his innocence and idealism after facing harsh realities/darkness of life) John Grady, the true Quixotic hero, manages to find a path where the idealism and belief in beauty outlives the innocence, and I think that’s a gorgeous thing.

The second book in the trilogy, The Crossing, is my favorite of the three. I love the two young brothers, Billy and Boyd, so very much, and McCarthy’s writing is so raw and beautiful it sometimes physically hurts. I also love his brilliant incorporation of the Corrido (Spanish ballads about oppression, history and tragedy, and often Quixotic reform) and the social bandit/outlaw myth. But it’s Billy’s story most of all, how his deeply sensitive nature is both shaped by and shapes fate, and how he is destined to love and try desperately to save wild, doomed creatures- both human and animal. I really can’t say much more about this one, because I’ll end up either giving copious spoilers or crying, or both.

The third and final book, Cities of the Plain, covers much more time, and completes the stories of the two protagonists from the other books, Billy and John Grady. While in my opinion this is the weakest in the trilogy, McCarthy’s weakest is still better than most contemporary novels I have read. And I love the relationship that develops between Billy and John Grady, and how seamless and authentic their characterization is throughout the trilogy.

While any of the three books can be read alone, in my opinion they shouldn’t be. The full effect of McCarthy’s poignant story about these two young men, and all they loved and lost , only comes from reading all three together.

Present About Books The Border Trilogy: All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, Cities of the Plain (The Border Trilogy #1-3)

Title	:	The Border Trilogy: All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, Cities of the Plain (The Border Trilogy #1-3)
Author	:	Cormac McCarthy
Book Format	:	Hardcover
Book Edition	:	First Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 1040 pages
Published	:	September 28th 1999 by Everyman's Library (first published 1994)
Categories	:	Fiction. Westerns. Literature. Novels. Historical. Historical Fiction. American. Classics

Rating About Books The Border Trilogy: All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, Cities of the Plain (The Border Trilogy #1-3)

Ratings: 4.44 From 5449 Users | 309 Reviews

Write Up About Books The Border Trilogy: All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, Cities of the Plain (The Border Trilogy #1-3)

It took me a while to get through this trilogy, since I took a break between the second and third book, but I'm so glad I finally finished it.All the Pretty Horses was definitely the strongest and most even, in my opinion. McCarthy introduces his epic hero, John Grady Cole, and it's hard not to fall in love with him from the beginning.The Crossing, which introduces the trilogy's second protagonist was my least favorite of the three. The narrative kept wandering into philosophical discussions for

All the Pretty HorsesMy first impression was that this book just wasnt quite as immediately striking as The Road (one of my two favourite books of all time). That is to say, there were significant pros, but also some cons, which leads me to a good, rather than great, rating. The undeniable and significant pro is that the world McCarthy recreates is captivating and leaves you with a lasting impression and an understanding of its reality. It is a world of men and horses, of grave injustice that is

I first read All The Pretty Horses camping on the beach in Sonora, Mexico. I had never read McCarthy before and it blew me away. The rhythm of the prose mimics the gait of a horse on an open range, the lyrical descriptions of the Southwestern landscape dead-on. Well-crafted (and often humorous) dialogue with a careful ear for cadence and dialect.However upon subsequent readings, and further exploring the Trilogy, I became less enthralled and more conflicted. In The Crossing, the prose becomes

When I finished Blood Meridian a couple of months ago I felt convinced that I had read Cormac McCarthy's most important book: the key to his oeuvre, the lynchpin of his thought, the vehicle for his profoundest reflections on life, death and what it means to be human. Now, I'm not so sure. Among McCarthy's many talents is his ability to give the reader the impression that each of his novels is just as deep as the last, if not deeper, no matter what order you read them in. In The Border Trilogy,

When it comes to a series, this might be the best I've ever dealt with. I love how the first two books have nothing to do with each other, but the last slowly brings them together. When Billy Parham has his last chapter in the final book it brings me to tears how he is basically a washed up nobody who at the same time is a link to the past, how he loves his deceased siblings so much a half century after he saw them. I pity Cormac McCarthy. I see a fraction into his mind when he writes and see he

totally killer. McCarthy delves into a totally sad time period. You're still riding a horse, but everyone else is driving cars. You become an old man, a migrant worker your whole life, with a dwindling skill-set of dwindling importance in a world being modernized. In your youth you dragged a pregnant wolf all the way to Mexico because you didn't want to kill her, only to have her taken from you and die in a dogfight. "The Crossing" is the saddest book I have ever read. Rape and murder and

A very special thank you to Josh, for getting me a beautifully bound edition of this trilogy. Happy Birthday to me indeed. It even has one of those nice golden tassle bookmarks? Love it.ALL THE PRETTY HORSES Just an excellent book. Read like it might be an earlier work of McCarthy's, come to find out it's from 1992 (Blood Meridian is 1986). Victoria made the valid justification that McCarthy's frantic burgeoning prose complements its protagonist, 16 (then 17) year-old John Grady. I wrote Dane