April '13 / Cormac McCarthy Reading: All the Pretty Horses

[scottw]

I haven't read the novel again for this month's book club but I did read it as recently as last summer. This was my third McCarthy novel after The Road and Child of God. McCarthy's writing somehow manages to be so simple on the page yet so rich and colourful and full of texture.

I will always remember reading the first few pages in the bookshop to see if the novel was what I was looking for that day. I could almost feel the floorboards creaking beneath my own feet as he described that sombre scene at the coffin. Outside, McCarthy does something for the first time in this book I consider him a master at. All is still and quiet in the night, and the prose on the page is made of short sentences, choppy, quiet. Then, as the distant quiet rumble of a train begins to build, so does the length of the prose - until the train is hammering through and the fence is shaking and everything is torn apart by the noise and it goes on and on and slowly starts to descend again. The rush of longer prose on the page leaves you slightly breathless and the effect is jut like a train crashing through and leaving you slightly shocked in its passing. Brilliant. To manipulate the reader's feelings not only with the words he is using but with sentence length and arrangement!

[chrisvia]

Rawlins doesn't want Blevins with them at all, he thinks it's an association that will lead to trouble.

I am with Rawlins on this one! But McCarthy's use of this third wheel is really helping to sharpen the characters of Rawlins and John Grady.

[Snowqueen]

I have read more than 100 pages, and the story is smoothly moving forward so far. In fact it has become more exciting with the introduction of new characters specially “hecendado” and his daughter.
Don Hector Rocha seems to be a clever man with dominating personality. The way McCarthy portrayed him conveys a sense of danger. I think working on his ranch will lead the hero and his friend to some kind of trouble. I could be wrong.

[WyattGwyon]

A few remarks relevant to the discussion so far:

Blevins is about 13 years old, right?

Re the accuracy of period weapons: Don't the events of the novel take place in the mid-20th century? I would think there were precision firearms at that time. The basic observation is right though—that is some implausibly good shooting. Not as implausible as Natty Bumpo's though (see Twain's hilarious critique of James Fenimore Cooper.)

Cowboy values and dark tone: About half of McCarthy's novels uphold the old cowboy ideals and moral code, the other half (including Blood Meridian) undercut them. Same with the tone of his novels: About half are dark and grim, the other half are optimistic and uplifting.

[WyattGwyon]

I have read more than 100 pages, and the story is smoothly moving forward so far. In fact it has become more exciting with the introduction of new characters specially “hecendado” and his daughter.
Don Hector Rocha seems to be a clever man with dominating personality. The way McCarthy portrayed him conveys a sense of danger. I think working on his ranch will lead the hero and his friend to some kind of trouble. I could be wrong.

I won't comment so as not to spoil anything, but: McCarthy is quite unpredictable in his plotting and often eschews the obvious and expected.

[neilgee]

I haven't read the novel again for this month's book club but I did read it as recently as last summer. This was my third McCarthy novel after The Road and Child of God. McCarthy's writing somehow manages to be so simple on the page yet so rich and colourful and full of texture.

I will always remember reading the first few pages in the bookshop to see if the novel was what I was looking for that day. I could almost feel the floorboards creaking beneath my own feet as he described that sombre scene at the coffin. Outside, McCarthy does something for the first time in this book I consider him a master at. All is still and quiet in the night, and the prose on the page is made of short sentences, choppy, quiet. Then, as the distant quiet rumble of a train begins to build, so does the length of the prose - until the train is hammering through and the fence is shaking and everything is torn apart by the noise and it goes on and on and slowly starts to descend again. The rush of longer prose on the page leaves you slightly breathless and the effect is jut like a train crashing through and leaving you slightly shocked in its passing. Brilliant. To manipulate the reader's feelings not only with the words he is using but with sentence length and arrangement!

You just reminded me of the gale that is blowing at the burial at the start of the novel and how that sets the tone, this is novel where you are at Nature's mercy from the beginning to the end of life.

[neilgee]

I have read more than 100 pages, and the story is smoothly moving forward so far. In fact it has become more exciting with the introduction of new characters specially “hecendado” and his daughter.
Don Hector Rocha seems to be a clever man with dominating personality. The way McCarthy portrayed him conveys a sense of danger. I think working on his ranch will lead the hero and his friend to some kind of trouble. I could be wrong.

Yes, the love interest is a welcome break from all that cowboy stuff.

I can't remember too exactly what happens at the ranch despite my previous reading so we'll be discovering that together. I'm going to crack on with reading it again now

[neilgee]

A few remarks relevant to the discussion so far:

Blevins is about 13 years old, right?

Re the accuracy of period weapons: Don't the events of the novel take place in the mid-20th century? I would think there were precision firearms at that time. The basic observation is right though—that is some implausibly good shooting. Not as implausible as Natty Bumpo's though (see Twain's hilarious critique of James Fenimore Cooper.)

Cowboy values and dark tone: About half of McCarthy's novels uphold the old cowboy ideals and moral code, the other half (including Blood Meridian) undercut them. Same with the tone of his novels: About half are dark and grim, the other half are optimistic and uplifting.

Yes, Blevins is 13, and extraordinarily hardened in the art of survival for that age. Seems he just had to grow up fast in that world.

I was thinking that even with a rifle with modern sights would have trouble hitting a small flying target like that so maybe the accuracy of the weapon isn't really an issue, maybe it is so exaggerated as a warning to the reader not to realistically expect this to make any difference to Blevin's fate.

[Snowqueen]

I won't comment so as not to spoil anything, but: McCarthy is quite unpredictable in his plotting and often eschews the obvious and expected.

The way events are unfolding in this novel, I’ve realized that it’s not going to be an ordinary plot.

Yes, the love interest is a welcome break from all that cowboy stuff.

I can't remember too exactly what happens at the ranch despite my previous reading so we'll be discovering that together. I'm going to crack on with reading it again now

Excellent! 

Yes, Blevins is 13, and extraordinarily hardened in the art of survival for that age. Seems he just had to grow up fast in that world.

.

Oh, Blevins is thirteen! He tells Grady that he was 16 years old. He must be lying then and Rawlins saw through him.

A few lines from the novel.


“The boy looked up at the hatbrim over his eyes. He looked at Rawlins.
How old are you? said John Grady.
Sixteen.
Rawlins spat. You're a lyin sack of green ****.”

[neilgee]

Oh, Blevins is thirteen! He tells Grady that he was 16 years old. He must be lying then and Rawlins saw through him.



A few lines from the novel.


“The boy looked up at the hatbrim over his eyes. He looked at Rawlins.
How old are you? said John Grady.
Sixteen.
Rawlins spat. You're a lyin sack of green ****.”

You must be close to the part where Blevins reappears in the novel now, and all I'll say is it made me reevaluate Blevins' survival skills, thinking he can just take back what he used to own but has passed out of his hands is never going to work for him in that society.

There is a website dedicated to Cormac McCarthy. It used to have a translation of all the lines in Spanish but they have taken it down unfortunately.

[Paulclem]

Finished it last night - excellent book. I always manage to read Mcarthy's books quickly.

I was thinking about the parallel between Blevins and John Grady. They both escaped with horses, but Blevins valued the pistol too much. Mcarthy seems to value the relationship to horses, and the Mexicans seem to revere them in an almost mystical way.

[chrisvia]

Finished the book Saturday night, and let it simmer in meditation all day yesterday. As usual with McCarthy, I zoomed through the first couple hundred pages, and then slowly worked my way through the final hundred or so, about ten pages at a time.

As I mentioned earlier, I used Post-it notes throughout my reading, so I'll make a larger post with the contents of those notes.

But the main thing I took away was the novel as an elegy. There are many, many tropes that capture that longing for the past, for simpler times, the watching as something slips away, and the clash between the old and the new (several times a horse is disturbed by an automobile, and must be calmed again by the rider).

Anyway, I voted the highest rating on this one because, yes, I would and will highly recommend it!

[Paulclem]

Me too.

There is an interesting theme in this and No Country for Old Men - fate. There seems to be a kind of tension between predestination and chance. Anton Chigurh presents when he asks people to call it - do you remember the great scene in the film at the gas station where Chigurh asks the proprietor to call it ? (Doesn't Xavier Bardem make it a really creepy scene?). There's a passage in this book where a similar philosophy is expounded by the Aunt.

[chrisvia]

Me too.

There is an interesting theme in this and No Country for Old Men - fate. There seems to be a kind of tension between predestination and chance. Anton Chigurh presents when he asks people to call it - do you remember the great scene in the film at the gas station where Chigurh asks the proprietor to call it ? (Doesn't Xavier Bardem make it a really creepy scene?). There's a passage in this book where a similar philosophy is expounded by the Aunt.

Well put. I, too, noticed the preoccupation with fate. The aunt's philosophical treatise/family history/recap of Mexican revolution is the longest dialogue in the book. I was completely drawn in by her speech and intensity.

[Snowqueen]

I finished it last night and it’s an enjoyable read from the beginning till end.

McCarthy has a wonderful narrative style. There is a flow in the story and it never stops or gets boring. Exclusion of commas was something unique and new to me, but it suited his style.

I also kept on thinking about the title of this novel. It definitely has some symbolic significance, because horses play an important role in it. John Grady puts his life in jeopardy to free them and they seem to be the only living beings that remain faithful to him till the end.

There is a website dedicated to Cormac McCarthy. It used to have a translation of all the lines in Spanish but they have taken it down unfortunately.

Thanks for sharing the link. I’ve been visiting this website and it has the translation.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q...rDTu-gKl2hSglQ