Select language, opens an overlay

Comments (31)

What did you think about this title?
1 to 25 of 31 items
Feb 12, 2024luketenhage rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
I first read this book as a teenager and many times since then. This was one of the first examples I encountered of a book that perfectly wed sound and sense. The style of the book is perfect for the story it tells. What better way to tell…
Mar 29, 2023JCLJenV rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
It's all about the horses and the journey of life.
Jun 14, 2022mikey69 rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
A story of loss; paradise and otherwise.
May 22, 2022alburke47 rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
This was a slow burn, but enjoyable regardless. It's very McCarthy-esque, with a general economy of language, especially in dialogue (and 100% appropriate) interspersed with descriptive flourishes for landscapes and so forth. There is much…
Mar 31, 2022Breakfastfordinner rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
A romantic (for McCarthy) tale of two boys crossing the American border into Mexico looking for a land and a way of life they thought had been forgotten. A story of goodbyes, the fragility of life and of the harshness fate.
Mar 08, 2022Luckybe rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Interesting story set in the early 20th century when automobiles were beginning to replace horses as the primary form of travel in the more rural sections of Texas and Mexico. Three young boys cross the border into Mexico from Texas on…
Feb 26, 2022IndyPL_RyanL rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
All the Pretty Horses is an odyssey set on the Texas-Mexico border that focuses on a sixteen year old boy becoming a man through the trials and tribulations of his adventures in Mexico. A glorious novel, All the Pretty Horses is a tragic…
Dec 10, 2021Bududo rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
I liked this novel more than I did some of Cormac McCarthy's other books (specifically, The Orchard Keeper, No Country for Old Men, Blood Meridian, The Road). The author has reinvigorated the western cowboy in this novel. John Grady Cole…
Apr 20, 2021PortTriple rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
I’ll be frank here; I did not enjoy All the Pretty Horses. After reading the splendor that was Blood Meridian, I guess I expected a bit too much from this book. This book overarching theme is depressing. McCarthy makes a point to say…
Mar 18, 2021audreyylui rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
If I look beyond the lack of quotation marks and the Google Translate I had in front of me (*sighs en francais*), All the Pretty Horses was a captivating read on a genre that I’ve not been immersed in. McCarthy’s first of his Border…
Oct 24, 2019maiki69 rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Set in Texas and Mexico, McCarthy's paradise is a mental one. The story follows a couple of misplaced cowboys on their quest for nirvana: great spreads of unfenced ranchland. Disgruntled with America's modernity and nursing a broken heart,…
May 02, 2018RogerDeBlanck rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
All the Pretty Horses is the first novel in McCarthy’s remarkable The Border Trilogy. It chronicles the plight of sixteen-year-old John Grady Cole. He is a young man with an extraordinary love for the land and an equally unique devotion…
Oct 23, 2017skiylourex rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
This is a good but sad book. A good beginning for those who like westerns.
Sep 25, 2017becker rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Every time I read Cormac McCarthy I am reminded of what I love about reading. The incredible impact that a few simple well crafted words can create.
Aug 05, 2017ro_cohen rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Spoilers Ahead ⚠️. All The Pretty Horses is an “American Western" turned up-side-down. The hero, teenager John Grady Cole, is a superb horseman and cowboy. He meets a girl, loses her, but never gets her back. The anti-western quality…
Jul 18, 2017Joeybiomaster rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
After the first few pages I thought I knew what I was getting into and would hate this book and lay it down halfway and return it to the library where it would wait for another individual to pick it up. I forced myself to continue reading;…
Apr 22, 2017LucasHill rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
A beautiful and violent story which is hampered at times by McCarthy's signature style. Despite the unusual syntax and punctuation, which at time sacrifices quality at the altar of art, this is a masterpiece.
Apr 17, 2015DoctorFuntimes rated this title 0.5 out of 5 stars
An insult to America, the western, land, Mexico, burritos, televangelists, cowboys, horses, and words. Can't believe this is assigned reading in some places.
Dec 27, 2014WVMLStaffPicks rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
A century from now, McCarthy will stand with the likes of Melville, Twain and Faulkner. Wake up to the best-kept secret of American fiction in the past thirty years! The gripping prose echoes early Hemingway, and the lean, swift (by his…
Sep 25, 2014stewstealth rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
Wonderful prose encapsulates an excellent story about maintaining a way of life in an age of rapid industrialization. Well worth reading.
kellnerm
Aug 04, 2014
from "A Novel Bookstore"
Feb 20, 2014TulsaTimeTraveler rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
This book is a strange beast in that I hated it for the first 150 pages and had to force myself to keep going. And then, like a light bulb, something switched on and I absolutely loved the remainder of the story and eventually considered…
Feb 01, 2014Leslie_Hurd rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
I read this as part of a challenge, expecting to dislike it because I don't much care for Westerns and expected McCormac to be too dark for my tastes. Instead I was entranced with the trek taken by John Grady Cole and Lacy Rawlins as they…
Dec 02, 2013
BORING!! The only reason I finished it was for book club. His other books are much better.
Jul 12, 2013silenceinwinter rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
And... I never thought I would read a western much less enjoy it. I cried at the end. Not a few tears, but the kind of holding your knees and rocking back and fourth crying. This book is powerful. I fell totally in love with John Grady…