Here are my final thoughts on All the Pretty Horses. At times, I thought it was spectacular, at times I found it absolutely maddening, and overall, I thought reading it was worth my time. I loved the protagonist, John Grady Cole. I liked his demeanor, his passion for horses, and the fact that he seems to have a yearning for times gone by even though he is sixteen. You do not often hear about a man in his youth longing for the "olden days" but it is feeling I can relate to, and something I think that those of us who love the natural world sometimes feel. As somebody who just learned what a "blog" was a couple weeks ago, yet often fantasizes about thriving fish populations and unspoiled fishing spots, at times, I can not help but feel that I missed out on some things by virtue of my late birthday. It is sixteen year-old John Grady's search for a way of life that he fears may have passed him by that most endears him to me.
As I mentioned earlier, at times I could not put the book down, and that is almost entirely due to the fact that I was fully invested in John Grady. I found the other characters interesting, but I wanted to know more about them. Rawlins was good, but what do we know about him? Alejandra was mostly a mystery and Don Hector had potential but was left unexamined. I liked John Grady's father, what we saw of him, and thought Jake's criticism of him was largely undeserved, but we never get to find out what he is really made of.
My thoughts on McCarthy's style and writing are largely unchanged since my first entry. I think the run-on sentences and general lack of punctuation are tough to take. His lack of quotation marks is confusing and I see no stylistic reason for their omission. At best, his writing is beautiful, and at worst, its complexity renders it confusing and totally meaningless. There is plenty of both in All the Pretty Horses.
McCarthy's tendency to leave the reader confused through his writing (and frequent use of Spanish) is at times tough to take, but when he leaves out chunks of pertinent information, the ones mentioned in prior posts and other, I find that inexcusable.
I would have read the entire "Border Trilogy" if it where in fact a real trilogy and I could expect to see John Grady Cole again, but I do not think I will pick up another one of them (unless of course one is made an official selection of Guys Who Read). It is not worth it to get invested in a character such as John Grady, only have most of the big questions unanswered, the big issues not addressed. It is also a very tall order to put up with the difficult and annoying aspects of McCarthy's writing.
I am looking forward to hearing your final thoughts.
Until Next Time,
Matt
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