I really had to sit with this book after I finished it before I knew what I wanted to say—or even what I thought about it. As many readers know, Cormac McCarthy doesn’t use quotation marks (and sometimes even neglects apostrophes), which can make following dialogue a challenge. At times, I found myself expending more energy just reading the text than fully understanding what was happening on the page.
On the surface, All the Pretty Horses is about a young man who is deeply rooted in the past and sets out on a journey in search of a way of life that no longer truly exists. Set in the mid-1940s, the novel follows John Grady Cole after he loses his family’s ranch—not because of any personal failure, but because “progress” has moved on without him. Along with his best friend, Lacey Rawlins, he heads to Mexico hoping to find a place where the old cowboy life still survives: open land, horses, hard work, and a world where time might stand still.
But that hope turns out to be an illusion. John Grady and Rawlins don’t go to Mexico to discover something new; they go there trying to preserve a romantic ideal that is already slipping away. John Grady believes that skill, honor, and integrity should matter—that if you live rightly, the world will respond in kind. The novel slowly and painfully dismantles that belief.
The characters are what truly make this book shine. Readers who prioritize character over plot will find a lot to admire here. Not that there’s no plot—rather, John Grady himself is the plot. Rawlins serves as both companion and contrast: loyal, willing to follow, but less consumed by the ideals that drive John Grady forward. He takes more than his share of punishment along the way, yet their friendship endures, which ends up being one of the novel’s quiet emotional anchors.
Alejandra is also a crucial figure, despite her relatively limited page time. She represents something John Grady desperately wants to believe in: love as a refuge. But it’s her great-aunt who provides the clearest lens into the novel’s themes. She understands the cost of romantic ideals and explains—without cruelty—why the love between John Grady and Alejandra cannot last. Alejandra’s choice isn’t about rejecting John Grady; it’s about survival, structure, and accepting a future shaped by realities he cannot—or will not—fully acknowledge.
McCarthy’s prose is often stunning. I repeatedly forgot that this novel takes place in the 1940s, so immersive is John Grady’s horseback journey. Electricity, cars, and modern systems feel like intrusions—almost anachronisms—because the reader, like John Grady, is trying to cling to an older vision of the world. McCarthy’s scene-setting is vivid and precise, and at times his writing reminded me of Lonesome Dove, though without quite the same sweeping scope.
What I struggled with most was understanding why things were happening as I read. Why Mexico? Why was Alejandra truly forbidden to him? Why did prison become inevitable? I’ll admit that much of this didn’t fully click for me until after I finished the book and had time to step back and reflect. While this isn’t necessarily a flaw, it did pull me out of the reading experience at times and left me feeling frustrated in the moment. Other readers may grasp these themes more intuitively as they go, but I had to do some work after the fact to make sense of it all.
Because this is the first book in a trilogy, the ending also feels intentionally unresolved. While John Grady’s immediate story reaches a stopping point, it’s clear that his larger journey is unfinished. At this point, I’m not entirely sure whether I’m compelled enough to continue with The Crossing and Cities of the Plain, though I appreciate what McCarthy is attempting to build.
Overall, I gave All the Pretty Horses 4 out of 5 stars. It’s a beautiful, often haunting novel, and I deeply understood John Grady’s desire to hold on to the world he loves—even as that world continues to slip through his fingers. If you’re a reader who values rich character work and are willing to sit with ambiguity, this book is well worth your time.
