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The Border Trilogy: All the Pretty Horses, the Crossing, Cities of the Plain (Everyman's Library) By Cormac McCarthy ( Everyman's Library )
Release Date: 1999-09-28
Average Customer Rating:
List Price: $36.00
Price: $23.76
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Product Description
Available together in one volume for the first time, the three novels of Cormac
McCarthy's award-winning and bestselling Border Trilogy constitute a genuine
American epic.
Beginning with All the Pretty Horses and continuing through The
Crossing and Cities of the Plain, McCarthy chronicles the lives of two
young men coming of age in the Southwest and Mexico, poised on the edge of a
world about to change forever. Hauntingly beautiful, filled with sorrow and
humor, The Border Trilogy is a masterful elegy for the American frontier.
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 cormac mccarthy trilogy
very good and sparse storytelling; practical like the life on horseback must have been. two real tragic moments stand out: the she-wolf's death and the misshapen and life-battered dog at the end of the last novella.i agree with a previous reviewer that the wolf's death was an act of love and the only one in this trilogy; the dog's running off into the night is frightening as i believe the dog represented the future end for the solo cowhand. Gripping, thought-provoking,takes a mature and aware reader; don't look for a happy ending--look for insight into character, values and life itself.
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You will get hooked on this author
Let's start off with an admission. I rarely devote free time to novels - just can't sit still that long. On a lark, I picked up McCarthy's "No Country for Old Men" for a quick read on weekend escape to the beach. Perfect. Four novels later, I am now officially hooked. "The Border Trilogy" is a must read and my latest purchase. As always, the action is continuous, the descriptions unique, the characters interesting and believable. More than occasionally McCarthy taunts you with the unusual phrase or jumps to Spanish conversation. Do take the time to look these up as it adds unique and complete meaning to the novel. It also soon becomes a game between you and the author, a quest if you will, to unabashedly claim mastery of the piece.
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I am sure it will be great!
His books are always great though horribly depressing. I haven't read yet but will in the fall. I usually have to read 2 or 3 other books with happier endings and surroundings then I pick McCarthy's books back up again. I am sure it will be as thought provoking as all his books are.
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Cormac Mccarthy
I first was introduced to Cormac Mccarthy by way of "No Country for Old Men ", and loved his writing style, which led me to the border trilogy, which I also like a lot. Next I will read Blood Meridian. His style is unlike any other I have read.
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the single most influential series i've read in my life
Cormac McCarthy has the amazing abilitly to envoke emotion using description of action and place. One never gets inside of his characters heads directly (at least not in this particular series) and yet it is the most emotionaly powerful series i have ever encountered. McCarthy taps into the very core of the human life force, our relationships with nature and change.
I first read All the Pretty Horses when i was thirteen, having heard my father talk about the effect the book had on him, specifically the way McCarthy contrasted the rappidly changing United States and the little changed Mexico. i enjoyed the story, although i found the narrative a bit dense. Jimmy Blevins, the runnaway who ends up traveling with John Grady Cole and Lacey Rowlins, made quite an impression as a fully fleshed out character and a very confused and truly destructive adolesent. He is the source of much of the trouble Grady Cole and Rawlins are presented with. Also there is a scene in which John Grady Cole and The Mexican girl who he falls in love with go swimming in a lake a night which has stuck with me. Her hair, blacker than the night, floating about her.
I read the Crossing about year later, and found it much more difficult to get through. Billy Parhams relationship with the wolf is so strong that when she dies it is difficult to continue sheerly becuase the main meat of the story seems to have vanished. the rest of the book is sparse and seemingly aimless. Billy is has lost most everything that is dear to him and cant land anywhere. the reader gets to be with him through his uncertainty and the search for his younger brother who has run off with a Mexican girl and dissapeared deep into Mexico. The novel does have conclusion however, and definately packs an interesting punch.
i didnt read Cities of the Plain until I was eighteen, ironically enough working on ranch in the middle of nowhere. It is the single most influential and moving book that i've read in my life. Watching the demise of John Grady Cole, and his friendship with Billy Parham (who is ten years older) is incredible. The contrast between Billy Parham who is very observant but also very uncertain and John Grady Cole, who is completely whole, and gifted and certain in everything he does, is staggering. The difference in the way they approach the rappidly changing world is both depressing and enlightening. I suppose the verdict is that people as whole as John Grady Cole cant survive in our culture today. There's no place for people who wont compramise their ideals, purhaps merely becuase they arent concious of the fact that ideals can be compramised. Either way the book wripped along for me, and it was a terribly painful experiance. Never have i fallen in love with a fictional character the way i fell in the with John Grady Cole in Cities of the Plain.
The love story is also quite nice, despite it's tragic qualities. The Whore that John Grady Cole falls in love with is perfectly suited for him and the scenes between them are beautiful. They're both trying to survive in a world that will never hold them. For me it is the book that best describes the compramise of the late teenaged years and young love, in a real way. The story exposes the world the way it actually is, Billy Parhams reaction to John Grady Coles death being another side of things. The conversation at the end of the book between an old Billy Parham (now a bum), and another bum under a bridge raised some interesting questions for me.
On the whole the Border Trilogy is very dense, very raw, has very strong characters and is not easy to get through but is very worth reading.
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