This was my latest attempt at a Cormac McCarthy book. All The Pretty Horses is the first volume in McCarthy’s Border Trilogy. It focuses on a group of young boys from Texas who decide to leave the country to find a way on their own in Mexico.

A lot of criticism is aimed at McCarthy for his writing style. For example, he does not use quotation marks to assign parts of dialogue to specific characters. At times, this style makes the book slightly confusing, but I find that it also helps me slow down and pay more attention. Another thing that critics find annoying is McCarthy’s use of run-on sentences. In my opinion, compared to the works of Robert Anton Wilson, McCarthy uses these sentences sparingly and in good taste. At times, I can almost hear a narrator taking a huge breath at the end of one of these sentences. So the main criticisms that I find McCarthy targeted for do not bother me.

The plot of this book is great. The characters work very well together, and the entire story is believable. Even some of the more extreme scenes seem completely plausible when described by McCarthy. There is a good use of the Spanish language throughout the book. Having taken Italian for two years, I understood a good portion of this dialogue, but did not catch everything. Even if someone has no experience with Spanish, the parts that are written in English take precedence, and nothing is lost.

If you’re looking for a book that will grab you fairly quickly and keep you on the edge of your seat, look no further. All The Pretty Horses is one of the best books I have read all year. I will definitely be checking out the rest of the Border Trilogy. Has anyone else read this book, or anything by McCarthy? He is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.

5/5 Stars. 302 pages. Published 1992.