Read the February 2011 Book of the Month with us! All the pretty Horses.

[neilgee]

The February 2011 Book of the Month is All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy.

I chose to nominate this book because I liked the minimalist style of his later novels The Road and No country for old men. Infact I was surprised how much I enjoyed Mccarthy's pared down style, although it took a chapter or two to adjust to the sparseness of the prose.

This of course is an earlier work (sorry don't have the year to hand and I'm still waiting for the library to notify me that this novel is in), the first part of a trilogy, so no idea how this one will compare with the later, more famous works (the two I mentioned both became blockbuster films). I'll be interested to see.

Okay, guess that's all I can think of to say for now. happy reading everybody.

[neilgee]

I feel like I should bump this back to th top incase members have forgot we have a February book of the month! I'm afraid I'm still waiting for an e-mail from the library so I can't start the discussion proper but I would like to add that I know my praise of McCarthy's terse style would probably have put me off if I had read that before I'd read him! What I would like to add is that brevity breeds tension. Short sentences can be incredibly dramatic if written well and I've been converted to McCarthy's style. I think he does that style of writing better than any other author I've encountered and he does draw you in to the drama.

[Winifred]

I have not read anything else by McCarthy, and would like to say that, when I bought The Crossing for a buck, and casually opened it to see how he wrote, he knocked my socks off with his prose. I am thoroughly enjoying All the Pretty Horses, so far, although I really have to concentrate to follow the dialogues and scenes. Willing to work, the writing is worth it :)

Love the 107 (not counting a, and, the) word run-on sentence about the Indians crossing the prairie with their travois, etc. Love the image of the 2 boys riding after dark, with the stars swarming around them.

[Frith]

I checked out my copy today at the library and should start it Monday. =]

[Frith]

Okay, I started earlier than Monday and I'm past page twenty. So far, I like it but the inner grammar and syntax Nazi is freaking out a bit; however, the imagery is making up for it.

[Frith]

I finished the book and my first remarks are that I loved it and I can’t wait to read the next two books in the series, in fact, I’m picking them up later today at the library.

McCarthy has a style similar, in my mind, to Jack London because of the way that I feel like I’m present when I read their stories. I take back any bad remarks about the syntax and grammar because I ended up loving the colloquial language because it added to the Western theme. Oh, and the Spanish conversations, although they brought back many repressed memories from high school and early semesters in college, added more to the story because usually I take for granted that characters only speak English or are believed to be speaking another language because it seriously added to the story.


Possible Spoilers Below:





I also have to remark about McCarthy’s foreshadowing abilities; for example, Rawlins stating on page 77 that “Somethin bad is goin to happen.” Because many bad things did happen, but I took this particular statement to be about the character Blevins.

My only dislike about the book was the death of Blevins because I felt like the build up wasn’t very strong due to the disappearance of the character up until the arrest sequence when shortly after he dies; usually a stronger emotional build up makes the death seem more real to me.

[Winifred]

I've finished, too, and I really enjoyed the book. I thought McCarthy's juxtaposition of laconic cowboy dialogue with lush descriptions of landscape and sensitive portrayal of the relationships with horses worked well to capture a closeness to the natural world now almost unattainable to most of us. I love the outdoors, more in theory than in fact, these days, so McCarthy's rich description of storms wandering across the prairies, or sun-shot mountains, or even small birds impaled on cacti, resonated with me. Certain images were poetic and memorable - I love the image of Alejandra riding in before the storm, the ultimate Hispanic Kali.

I did think the macho male thing was almost over the top. Hard to believe the cauterization scene wouldn't make someone pass out, and so forth.

Overall, though, I detect McCarthy's sorrow in the modern loosening of this close weave of human, animal and landscape. I'm going to be reading the next installment, for sure.

[neilgee]

Thanx Winifred and Frith, your analyses have really whetted my appetite for this book. I checked at the library yesterday and my copy still isn't in. I think I'll have to go to town this weekend and invest in a copy.

And, blow me down, it's already time to put forward some suggestions for the March Book of the Month!

Damn libraries, I just can't keep up!

[Frith]

http://www.cormacmccarthy.com/PDFs/ATPHTrans.pdf

Found this full translation of all the Spanish in this and four other books McCarthy has written on his website. I wish I had found it while reading All the Pretty Horses but I'm content to use it for the next two in this series and Blood Meridian.

[Frith]

Has anyone else attempted to watch the movie based on the book? I did and was blown away at how well Thorton brought the book to life on screen....hands down the best book to movie adaptation.

It also made me realize that I forgot to mention the contrasting of the Mexican legal system during the execution of Blevins to the American legal system when John Grady Cole at the end petitions to get back the three horses he brought over the border.

I was even pleased when loads of key lines and conversations from the book where said on-screen. =]

[neilgee]

I read about the first 50 pages today (sorry,no, Frith, I wasn't aware there was a film but it doesn't surprise me as the last two novels obviously translated well to film so when this happens with an author film-makers do tend to start looking further back in that author's catalogue) and was immediately struck by three things

1. The prevalence of cigarettes and alcohol, although the characters seem to be in the middle of nowhere, surviving on their wits, and you can't imagine them having shops nearby, the casual references to lighting a cigarette and drinking could be straight out of a modern novel. Knowing what a careful author McCarthy is I can't imagine that this is a mistake.

2. How difficult his novels are to follow at the begining. As before he makes me work to get into the plot, but once I'm in there it's absolutely enthralling.

3. McCarthy's language is sparse, not flowery at all, but when he does use a simile or metaphor it is sharp and brilliant. He doesn't waste a word.

[neilgee]

Cross-referencing with the March thread where I said that you don't get much emotion from the characters (theirs is a brutal world) when the love interest enters the story you do get lots of emotion, it's just that it comes in the language McCormac uses rather than directly from the characters, and the descriptions of the landscape are loaded with emotion because it's this way we see what the character notices as their encounters become more intense, for example on p134 of my copy:

Skeins of light off the water played upon the black hide of the horse. He sat the sweating stallion like a highwayman under her gaze. She was waiting for him to speak and afterwards he would try to remember what it was he'd said. He only knew it made her smile and that had not been his intent. She turned and looked off across the lake where the late sun glinted and she looked back at him and at the horse

I'm over half way through now but already it looks like time for suggestions for the April Book of the Month.

[neilgee]

Well finished now and rereading the comments I realise I have repeated to some extent what Winifred says about the laconic cowboy language and the scenery in my emotional analysis but hopefully I added something to what Winifred said :rolleyes:

Now I can finally read Frith's spoilers - alert, aleeert - I both agree and disagree about the death of Blevins.

To some extent the intensity of the death is lessened by his absence from the story but it also works the other way in that it becomes more shocking for that.

Also as regards the writer's foreshadowing ability I found these abilities could be misleading too. In the scene where Blevins shoots a hole in a bank note it seems so absurd - almost like a superpower in a comic - that I expected this to be used later in the novel in some tight situation for sure. However, McCarthy made a fool of my conventional expectations, Blevin's amazing shooting skill is of no use to him whatsoever as he meets his pathetic end amongst the trees.

I'm more impressed with Mccarthy after reading this novel, but I was already impressed beforehand, this writer seems to go up in my estimation with every novel I read. :good:

[Frith]

Now I can finally read Frith's spoilers - alert, aleeert - I both agree and disagree about the death of Blevins.

To some extent the intensity of the death is lessened by his absence from the story but it also works the other way in that it becomes more shocking for that.

Also as regards the writer's foreshadowing ability I found these abilities could be misleading too. In the scene where Blevins shoots a hole in a bank note it seems so absurd - almost like a superpower in a comic - that I expected this to be used later in the novel in some tight situation for sure. However, McCarthy made a fool of my conventional expectations, Blevin's amazing shooting skill is of no use to him whatsoever as he meets his pathetic end amongst the trees.

I have a bad habit of spolers online and in-person conversations; I can talk for a long time about the plot of a movie or a book by basically telling the whole plot outloud....usually my mom gets the brunt of these conversations.

I see what you are saying, the death was shocking but I still felt like I was unemotionall involved compared to the movie; during the book I was shocked but during the movie I jumped and got chills.

The hole through the wallet was a foreshadowing, in my opinion, to him shooting a man that landed him in trouble with the "Mexican law" and his subsequent murder.

[neilgee]

You could be right about Blevins readiness with a gun being a clue to his fate, yet I'm still a little bewildered by the extraordinary level of skill that McCarthy gives the character. We know that the level of gunslinging skill portrayed in Hollywood Westerns is a movie myth as the guns they had in those days just wern't that accurate, and I'm wondering why Mccarthy has gone along with the Hollywood thing. Is there a reason for it? You know I'd really like to ask him that...wonder if he's got a website? :)

[Winifred]

You could be right about Blevins readiness with a gun being a clue to his fate, yet I'm still a little bewildered by the extraordinary level of skill that McCarthy gives the character. We know that the level of gunslinging skill portrayed in Hollywood Westerns is a movie myth as the guns they had in those days just wern't that accurate, and I'm wondering why Mccarthy has gone along with the Hollywood thing. Is there a reason for it? You know I'd really like to ask him that...wonder if he's got a website? :)

Why not? A treat to read a writer who's still alive :)

[Frith]

He does have a website. I posted it earlier on..well the link to the translations of his books from his website.

Maybe his super-human ability with a gun is a contrast to his helplessness before and during the execution.

[neilgee]

He's not only alive but he's improving as a writer with every book if The Road is anything to go by!

I've looked at your thread, Firth, and whilst there's nowhere to leave inquiries it does lead to a forum dedicated to the writer on which - i'm guessing - fans of the writer exchange views so there might be somebody on there who knows alot more than I do. :good:

[Star_Anise]

It's a little late but I thought I'd chime in, having just finished reading :-)

I bought All the Pretty Horses with some birthday gift vouchers on one hand as I had enjoyed The Road so much, and as this, and the other McCarthy book club reading had caught my attention. Not only was I not disappointed by All the Pretty Horses, I was enthralled. I agree that the writing style is challenging at first, but once you get into it, I find it so enjoyable (even those run-on sentences).

The scenery really competes for status as the main character in the book, with the tendency to switch between foreshadowing events and acting as an external reflection of the characters' inner states. Or, mostly just Grady’s – it seemed to me, that as Grady experiences more hardship, greater loss, there is less of the latter. By the end, I am left in doubt as to whether he has any of the same connection to country left at all, and whether the burden of experience, of humanity, has caused a separation.

I thought it was a different angle on a coming of age/loss of innocence story – the character of Grady never seems exactly innocent or naive to me, but pragmatic and just a touch idealistic to begin with. I can’t say he is ever disillusioned, given that the story begins with loss, and ever-growing awareness of the shortcomings of others in his life. To me, his connection to the landscape, and specifically to the horses, acted as a foil to his disconnection from his previous life, his own home, his parents. In his decision to see through Blevins’ horse rescue, despite the knowledge that it could lead to terrible consequences, I see two influences at play: firstly, a perhaps moral sense of obligation to do what he can to protect the kid; and secondly, a manifestation of his own desire to right the balance, when the circumstances and the law are stacked against him. I think his own sense of helplessness in the face of his losses plays a part in his decision at this point.

I could probably keep writing an essay on my thoughts at this point...but it’s been a while since everyone read it for the book club. Thought I’d add some of my thoughts while I had them anyway!

[neilgee]

Some excellent points there, you are a very incisive reader Anise and it is illuminating to read your additions to this thread, I particularly like the way you've noticed the (dis)connections between country and home and that the country reflects Grady's mood less as his fortunes suffer so many reversals (I didn't pick that up) and you are right to say that he isn't naive exactly: he seems to know how tough the world is from the beginning and he meets it head on.

All the Pretty Horses is probably the best of the books in this trilogy but that's not to say that the second and third parts are not worth reading because they certainly are and will give you much food for thought when you get around to them.

[Star_Anise]

Some excellent points there, you are a very incisive reader Anise and it is illuminating to read your additions to this thread, I particularly like the way you've noticed the (dis)connections between country and home and that the country reflects Grady's mood less as his fortunes suffer so many reversals (I didn't pick that up) and you are right to say that he isn't naive exactly: he seems to know how tough the world is from the beginning and he meets it head on.

Aw, thanks neil. I think this 'meeting the world head on' facet of Grady's makes his story that much more touching, when certainly through parts of the book, I found it very difficult to identify with the characters and to get a sense of what they were experiencing. When things start going wrong, it's not because of some kind of youthful idealism, but a more pragmtaic, and a more revealing, sense of moral right.


All the Pretty Horses is probably the best of the books in this trilogy but that's not to say that the second and third parts are not worth reading because they certainly are and will give you much food for thought when you get around to them.

I've already ordered them, so hopefully it won't be too long. Although, deliveries from overseas are taking a bit longer at the moment due to customs strikes!