Books on Tap discussed All the Pretty Horses, the first book in Cormac McCarthy’s Border Trilogy on May 2nd.  For some of our members it was their first time reading a book by McCarthy, but we also had at least two well-read McCarthy fans who greatly enhanced our discussion.  McCarthy’s books are apparently known for their violence; this selection has much less violence than his other books, so it was a good introduction to McCarthy’s writing for our group. 

All the Pretty Horses is a road trip story of two young men traveling by horse from Texas to Mexico in 1949.  Untranslated Spanish is intermixed in the dialogue; some of our readers could translate by context, others just “rolled with it”.  Listening to the audiobook version, one of our readers said the “Spanish was a bonus!”  The choppy writing, run on sentences, and lack of punctuation McCarthy is known for left some readers frustrated.  But another reader said the “cadence either resonates with you or not”; one reader observed that the halted writing style simulated horseback riding.

Many readers were fascinated by the process of “breaking” the wild horses and the ability of the 16 year old protagonist, John Grady Cole to easily do so.  

There was a love interest/romance plot line in the story that most felt was plausible but because of the gentry vs. low life contrast, we predicted that it wouldn’t go anywhere.

With some of our readers disliking this selection entirely and others really enjoying it, it was a lively discussion, as usual.  Join us June 6th as we discuss “Solito: A Memoir “, a true story of a harrowing migration in the opposite direction, from El Salvador to the US.

Film version (2000)

Wild Horse, Wild Ride DVD about wild mustang taming