Our Ink On Cities On The Plain

It's been a long time since a post, and I apologize about that. I've read some stinkers that I really didn't want to throw up on the blog, in more ways than one.

But I went back to McCarthy and was welcomed back to his violent, Texas border town, world with open arms.

John Grady and Billy Parham were each the focus in their respective narratives about them, 'The Crossing' and 'All The Pretty Horses', and here's where they story ends, or what comes to be of these two cowboys.


They're together on a ranch, working as hands, and John Grady falls in love with a young Mexican prostitute, and this sets the back drop of what happens in the novel.

It's rare to laugh out loud at a book, but I did this several times while reading the exchanges between the two main characters and the other ranch hands. There' s a love between them, for what they do and what they are, and you can see in the wording.

As much as I laughed at the dialogue, it is never an easy pill to swallow with Cormac, as he takes you to places you don't want to go, and people die who you don't want to die. But isn't that a way to show how powerful his writing is?

In other stories, in most pop fiction, I'm not going to lose sleep over who is killed and who is let to live, but McCarthy connects you with his characters, with their flesh, weaknesses and flaws, and also with their more honorable sides. He makes you give a damn.

John Grady Cole wanted to take a girl who was in trouble, and give her a good life because he loved her, and that is such a good sentiment and a powerful gesture. Everyone was against it but her and him, and he goes for it anyway.

This wasn't my favorite out of the Border trilogy. Most would pick 'All The Pretty Horses', but my heart places 'The Crossing' above the rest.

That being said, this is a great read, and I highly recommend picking it up if you are a fan of modern day Westerns (set in the 40's or around this time), or if you are a fan of McCarthy.

Until Next Read--

J.T.

Our Ink on No Country for Old Men

Wow.

I think you can sum up the entire review with the word above. This book is a lean juicy steak with zero fat. That is the most important thing about this story, that there is zero fat, because if there was, it wouldn't work at all.

I love that McCarthy isn't some literary aficionado somewhere at some university but he is somewhere living in a truck out in West Texas or East New Mexico, writing and being with his family.

Seeing the movie before the book did not hamper my joy in reading this one bit. What is great about the book is that you get much more of Sheriff Tom Bell, and you get to see his view of things in panorama.

Moss's demise is explained in greater detail in the book, and although it is still not satisfactory for most, it is the way McCarthy intended the book to be, without a tidy ending and without any sense of justice.

There is quite a bit more of Anton Chigurh as well, and he gives out some of his philosophy and world views, especially right before he kills someone. I'm not sure why he is obsessed with the people knowing why he is killing them before he does it, but this is part of his M.O.--showing the victims that their life is hopeless if it led to this point.

This book is a fast read, and that is mostly because a good portion of it is dialogue. As I've said before I'm a sucker for good southern dialogue, and McCarthy's use of the language and dialect is unmatched in this generation.

This is a highly recommended read, despite if you have seen the movie or not, and go into knowing that this is more than a story, but McCarthy's view on civilization and the culture of violence. If you missed his point in the movie, the book won't leave you guessing as to what this all means. We're all in a basket, and we're all heading down south.

I'm going out of my way here to say that I can't remember enjoying a book this much, despite the depression that lingers after reading it. It has jumped up to my top five books of all time list, and may be close to the first. I know that means something to you.

Until next read, JT.