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Summary: Cormac's Arcane Vocabulary & Multi-lingualism
Review: "The Crossing" was difficult to read because of the spanish dialogue
To have a spanish dictionary on my lap was impossible to use to decode
this beautiful and sad story. Why, I ask, is the authors world view
so depressing, when I know that the world is not as bad as this? I've read almost all
his novels, and his view of man is very down and dirty. Mr. McCarthy is a powerful
author who uses the language like no one else. His losers never win. And there
is no winner who ever can lose. Keep your OED handy, and please Mr. McCarthy, write
in either one languge or another, but not mixed mosaic that only the very few
bi-lingual can appreciate.
Rating:
Summary: The violent South
Review: A stunning novel illuminating the violent South with startling prose. CMAC's gift is to paint his land for us with mystery, menace, colour and deep arden-hearted feeling, without ever violating the laws of nature. Thus he shows us the magic in the world, without having to resort to cheap stunts of magical realism. Here you will find magic in your own world. The images have a mythic quality that reaches into the heart of all men, the language is hard and beautiful, the world is real yet haunting and mysterious. If you liked Cold Mountain, here you will find its original influence. The master, in command of his medium, pioneering a new brand of writing. Read all his novels, and you may begin to see the world as he sees it - there is the treasure.
Rating: 
Summary: Like the magnificient power of an iceberg
Review: Cormac McCarthy presents three tales about his young protagonists, John Grady Cole and Billy Parham, in this trilogy of coming-of-age novels. By the time the third novel ends, with a somewhat unsatisfactory fast forward jump across nearly five decades, one's nerves and emotions are practically wrung out. These two young men, each traveling through the Southwest on quests that conjure up perils matching those Odysseus faced, are forced into choices with graver consequences than either can foresee. Their independent quests, which form the basis of All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing, intertwine in Cities of the Plain. Death is no stranger in any of the three books, but by the end of Cities on the Plain, it is irrelevant. Though much has been written about the two central characters and their fates, in my view, McCarthy tends to amplify his characters more than he develops them for there is a sameness to each from start to end more in keeping with archetypes than real people. McCarthy will build the tension to an almost maddening level at times, relying on vivid, detailed depictions of the now lost Southwest to slow the momentum. At times I felt like I was waiting for an iceberg to scuttle my ship: I could see its slow approach but could not forestall the inevitable. The layers and layers of description finely permeate your consciousness so that the clouds of dust, the smell of sweaty horses, the ache from a knife puncture, cold rain sliding under the collar down the spine take on the vividness usually imparted more powerfully by poetry than prose. Sometimes, I must confess, the clipped style of the conversations and stacks of similes bothered me a bit because of what was not being said or shown but what lurked unstated like those half-formed thoughts we all harbor. Yet writing with this level of detail about the land, the weather, the loneliness of souls on a quest, can take its toll and for all the pleasure these books bring, I must confess that I was not sorry to close the cover and shelve this book. Maybe I'll revisit it in 20 years; regardless, these characters are forever seared in my consciousness.
Rating:
Summary: The best way to read these masterpieces.
Review: Cormac McCarthy's language is probably richer than that of any living author, and his vision of the world is nearly as complex as his style. Taken individually, the books of the Border Trilogy are wonderfully satisfying novels, but read together, they stand with the best work of our time. Anyone who read "Cities of the Plain" and found it thinner than expected should try again, this time as the the fitting coda to an epic.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Phenomenal.
Review: First: I read the Border Trilogy this week. I haven't read any other McCarthy literature. I was told that if I liked Larry McMurtry, Steinbeck, and Salinger then I would love McCarthy. The first thing I bought was The Crossing. Upon realizing it was part of a trilogy with All The Pretty Horses as the first installment, I was very disappointed. I had no intrest in a Hollywood western novel. But, I grudgingly purchased All The Pretty Horses and read it. (Have not watched movie). That said... Cormac McCarthy far surpasses any living writer with which I have come in contact. If I had the masterful ability with language that he does, I could express that in a much more emphatic manner. Any reviewer who complains about things such as puncuation, grammer, or spanish-I feel compelled to respond with this:
1. Would you prefer that all painters created exact duplicates of their subject matter? Are we not better, as a society and as a species, for taking our interpretations further and showing those things we are already intimate with in a fresh or different way? Would you say 'cubism', for instance, is too complicated for you?
2. Are you 25 years old or less? Do you have any true ability to surive in a harsh world without parental aide? The struggles depicted in this novel would, of course, be difficult to fathom in that scenario, especially when teamed with non-traditional grammar and punctuation and a lack of a personal translator.
3. If neither of the two applies to a negative reviewer, perhaps a solution would be ritalin. It is supposed to assist in 'focus'. On to the review: All the Pretty Horses is the 'prettiest' of the three. The least bleak, possesses the least darkness. John Grady Cole, loses what he allows himself to lose. He is afforded by McCarthy some level of self determination. He rarely states a prediction that does not become so. He never throws a rope without catching what he intends. Even in the darkest scenes, if John Grady fights for something, he seems to get it. The Crossing's main character was just the opposite. Billy Parnham will never get anything he for which he fights. He will always align himself most closely with a losing cause. It seems that he is completely asexual, and the closest bonds he forms almost always precede the demise of said character/animal. There is something striking in the fact that the moral stance, character, sense of justice are nearly identical for John and Billy. Yet John wins, and Billy loses. Repeatedly. Yet it is Billy who survives all contests, all tragedies, all of his closest bonds. Billy's 'heart' is never joined with any group or idea or convention larger than land and animals. At some points his 'heart' is rejected; but is his survival possibly attributed to his lack of truly 'giving' his 'heart' to any passionate cause? The passion Billy gives us in the final scene of The Crossing, the self-realization and anger and utter despairing are so exceedingly rare that your tears are nearly required after finishing this book.
As you might be able to tell, it would take far more than the 1000 word limit to fully explore the metaphors, symbolism, or intentions of McCarthy's characters. The Cities on the Plain brings the two that abadonded their families in favor of the dust of the road together in this final installment. While personally jostled by Billy's transition from complete and total sorrow (in the conclusion of The Crossing) to the casual, easy going buddy (in the opening of The Cities), that is the only fault worth mentioning. The theme may or may not be this: We don't know anything and neither does anyone else. The nuggets of wisdom that our heroes encounter from the journeying, extrapolating, strangers they meet are proof of this, and, an indication that these books could be re-read hundreds of times. The Crossing, in my view, is the strongest of the three, with The Cities of the Plain second and All the Pretty Horses, obviously, third. The Cities of the Plain would be wasted as read without the other two.
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Summary: Gorgeous language and bleak landscapes
Review: Friendship and solitude are heavily explored in this trilogy. Bleak and pretty landscapes are artfully painted and rich characters engage in realistic dialogue and relationships. Two friends set out to find themselves in the bleak Western USA landscape. Along the way they have near brushes with death, from clashes with the law to the forces of nature. They travel to Mexico where they find work on a horse farm and observe the rich farm owner's struggle for status and power. Both men grow up quickly as circumstances force them to face the facts that they may not ever realize their own dreams and that life is unfair to all.
Rating: 
Summary: I had to read it
Review: I guess there is something wrong with me but I finished All the Pretty Horses because my Book club chose it to read. I never would have gone beyond the first chapter otherwise. The descriptions of the land are nicely done but I really didn't feel anything for the characters. I liked the book better than others in my book club and I give it only three stars. The comparisons to Faulkner et al just don't hold up for me.
Rating:
Summary: I had to read it
Review: I guess there is something wrong with me but I finished All the Pretty Horses because my Book club chose it to read. I never would have gone beyond the first chapter otherwise. The descriptions of the land are nicely done but I really didn't feel anything for the characters. I liked the book better than others in my book club and I give it only three stars. The comparisons to Faulkner et al just don't hold up for me.
Rating:
Summary: Faulkner, Zora Neale Hurston, and Now Cormac McCarthy..
Review: I read "The Sound and the Fury" and "Absalom, Absalom!" and "Their Eyes Were Watching God." Then I read "The Crossing" (my first McCarthy novel and favorite) and "All the Pretty Horses" and "Cities of the Plain." Like the three other works, the Borders Trilogy is sensational to me. The style the prose was executed with naturalness--the long sentences are like thoughts and seems to meander somewhere but unknown, some lost place or location or dream. The text makes you feel there is sense of lost with hard sigh and wish to return the thing that was lost. The text is beautiful because it sometimes complex and long and sometimes short, like human thoughts. I read "The Old Man and the Sea;" compared to the trilogy, the text of "Old Man" is baby talk, so simple as if humans are simple creatures incapable thinking deeply.
Rating:
Summary: Doesn't get much better
Review: I read the third book of the trilogy (Cities of the Plain) first and it captivated me. Few books have left such a lasting impression- I recommend The Border Trilogy to anyone I know who reads. McCarthy's prose is word-perfect. It affected me as only certain images or pieces of music have been able to do in the past. I feel as though I have somehow experienced Cormack McCarthy's world, not just read about it.
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