All the Pretty Keiths

Read from Tuesday, March 8th to Monday, March 14th. 

All the Pretty Horses, by Cormac McCarthy.  This is the first book in McCarthy's critically acclaimed Border Trilogy.  I recently bought books 2 and 3 as well.  This trilogy I first heard about in A Novel Bookstore, so I was eager to check it out.  McCarthy is an amazing writer (I've only previously read The Road).  What I liked the most is the simple storytelling, and the compact, neat plot.  It is just a flat-out great story.  The style is amazing as well, and it is just beautiful imagery. 

John Grady Cole runs away from his family's Texas ranch sometime after the end of WWII.  It is about to be sold by his estranged mother after his grandfather passed away.  So Cole, along with his best friend Lacey, take two horses and ride to Mexico, looking for work on a ranch somewhere.  They are both two teenage Texas cowboys, rugged, tough, and skilled riders.  Before crossing the border, they meet another lone rider, younger than them, Jimmy Blevins.  Blevins is a hothead, who ostensibly stole a horse and is running from someone.  Reluctantly, the three ride together into Mexico.  A few days later however, there is a thunderstorm, and Blevins, who is afraid of lightning, loses his horse and gun.  The next day, they see the horse in a small town.  Blevins recklessly steals the horse and in the chase is separated from Cole and Lacey. 

Cole and Lacey, believing their troubles behind them, come to a huge Mexican ranch, where they are hired as ranch-hands.  Cole impresses the owner by taming 16 wild horses in four days.  He is hired to help the stud racehorse breed.  However, Cole quickly falls in love with the owner's daughter, Alejandra.  They have a secret affair, but the girl's godmother does not approve, saying she is trying to protect her reputation. Their love is forbidden, and when Alejandra confesses to her father, he gives up the two Americans to the police, who have been searching for them for involvement in Blevins' horse-stealing.  Sent to jail back in the small town, they reunite with Blevins, and find out that he eventually returned to the town and shot three people while trying to get his gun back.  Cole and Lacey are considered to be accomplices.

 The three boys are taken by truck to an abandoned farm, and the police captain leads Blevins away, and shoots him.  Cole and Lacey are horrified, and they are both placed in a tough prison.  All the prisoners beat them up constantly.  Lacey is stabbed and hospitalized, and then Cole is attacked in the mess-hall.  Cole had bought a knife and kills his attacker, and then passes out from being stabbed himself.  Waking up, he finds that both Lacey and him have been released from prison.  Alejandra's godmother paid to get them released, with the only condition being that Cole never see Alejandra again.  Lacey goes back to America, but Cole goes back to the ranch and tries to find her.  They have a secret rendezvous, but it is just one last night.  Alejandra made a promise, and chooses her family and honor over Cole. 

 Heartbroken and desperate, Cole rides back to the small town and takes the police captain hostage.  He demands his original three horses be returned to him.  They go to a farm and Cole rides away with the three horses he crossed over into Mexico with.  However, there is a gunfight, and he is shot in the leg.  There is a long chase, and he holds the Captain hostage for a long time, but eventually Cole makes it back to America.  He is awarded the original stolen horse by a judge, and he reunites with Lacey.

 Cole is deeply troubled by his conscience for having killed the man in prison.  It is a neat compact story, but it is by no means a complete happy ending.  I finished the book a few weeks ago, but the story still sticks with me.  There was a movie made with Matt Damon and Penelope Cruz, and it stuck very close to the original story, and I though was very good.  But the language of the book is definitely something to be experienced.  McCarthy has an interesting technique where he doesn't use quotation marks, so sometimes that and the heavy dialect can be confusing.  It took me a few days just getting started, but then when the action picked up I flew through it.  I'm looking forward to the other books in the trilogy.  Four and a half out of five stars.