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Had a professor of rhetoric who always enthused about Hemingway's prose. I didn't get it. Then a friend lent me 'All the Pretty Horses' and I understood what that professor had been on about. CMcCarthy had IMHO out-Hemingwayed Hemingway, and written the most superior prose I've ever read. Have read several of his works but the Border Trilogy are the only ones that have and continue to interest me. People quote exquisite passages in their fascination with the prose but my favourite is more mundane. The following is to me a prime example of CMcCarthy's beautiful prose and his subject matter: 'They bought baloney and cheese and a loaf of bread and a jar of mayonnaise. 'They bought a box of crackers and a dozen tins of vienna sausage. They bought a dozen packets of koolaid and a slab end of bacon and some tins of beans and they bought a five pound bag of cornmeal and a bottle of hotsauce. The woman wrapped the meat and cheese separate and she wet a pencil with her tongue and totted up the purchases and then put everything together in a number four grocery bag.' Poetry in prose without equal in the entire canon in English, IMHO.

I'm a Texan and I can tell you that his work is very realistic fiction, as life here is so often stranger and more incredible than fiction, and my closeness to it makes it all much more powerful for me. The Crossing is one of my all time favorite books. Thanks for reviewing.

@TheBookchemist

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you for sharing this!

@shethewriter

3 жыл бұрын

The Crossing is my favorite of his books as well

@coconuciferanuts339

2 жыл бұрын

I liked all of the trilogy books.McCarthy down to earth stuff.Er,great to hear a Texan apraise his works.Was it the fences that changed the cowboy freedom.

I finished this trilogy a while back, and it honestly might be my favorite piece of literature ever. I think all three books are brilliant. The Crossing is my favorite.

@nxn_art

9 ай бұрын

100% with you here.

All The Pretty Horses is brilliant. I never understood the hate from some McCarthy fans. Blevins remains one of my favorite characters from literature. I've only read the first part of The Crossing, but I'm loving it so far. The ending of part one is heartbreaking.

I love all three. Cities of the Plain is my favorite of them, I wish someone would do a video of its epilogue though, it’s very mysterious to me.

These are the books by McCarthy that have stayed with me the longest. So very beautyfully written and heartbreaking that i had to take long breaks between each book, for me these three novels is the best work by McCarthy because they made me cry...

@nikkivenable3700

3 жыл бұрын

I am not a book crier, but The Crossing made me cry.

@goldenageofdinosaurs7192

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah, I feel that The Border Trilogy is truly his masterpiece, even though the scholars tend to look at his other works.

The greatest living american writer. I'm looking forward to his 2 books that come out on October & December this year (2022).

Como mexicano me sorprende lo bien que Mcarty conoce el norte de México. Vivo en Camargo, Chihuahua muy cerca de "Boquilla" me emocionó como relato un lugar tan cerca de mi.

@TheBookchemist

3 жыл бұрын

Very interesting and very good to hear - thank you for sharing this!

All the Pretty Horses is still my favorite book of all time. True mastery of language and storytelling

@goldenageofdinosaurs7192

2 жыл бұрын

Same here. I’ve probably bought 5 or 6 copies, cause I’m always giving them out to people & I don’t feel right without a copy in my house at all times.

I'd really love to hear you do a review specifically on The Crossing. Honestly, it may be a minority position, but it's probably my favourite McCarthy novel.

@alphonseelric5722

3 жыл бұрын

I don't think that's a minority position. I have heard that The Crossing is very highly regarded in McCarthy scholarship.

@CasperLCat

2 жыл бұрын

I’m reading it a second time via audiobook, and I don’t know if I can continue now that the wolf has been stolen from Billy and put to fighting dogs. It’s so heartbreaking for both Billy and the wolf’s sake. McCarthy makes you care deeply about these characters without you knowing how. That’s pretty great writing.

@coconuciferanuts339

2 жыл бұрын

I saw the Crossing as the way the US has changed the freedom of the land.The plain cities compared to the Pretty horses or naturalness.

Great Review. I have only read All The Pretty Horses and the first section of The Crossing with the she-wolf (which I thought was a wonderful novella in itself). Will read the rest of it one day, hopefully soon

I've only read All The Pretty Horses yet, and loved it to bits. Great literature!

Completely agree with you and various commenters on "The Crossing" being the (personal) standout. It's very moving and compelling from the very beginning.

I'm so glad that I saw your review on DW

great video, thanks! i haven’t read any of these yet but i intend to soon.

Great review! Thanks 😁👍 it's interesting what you were saying about people dismissing the earlier work, perhaps I'm lucky I started with Mccarthy's later work (The Road, No Country...), and then went back to read All the Pretty Horses. I quite enjoyed it, but it did feel a little unfinished (perhaps I imagined that because I knew it was the first of a trilogy), will definitely read The Crossing after this review 👍

Fair play man. I’ve listened to a couple of commentaries on the Border Trilogy now but yours is the first where I’ve been unconsciously nodding my head in agreement 👌🏼

Very keen to read these, especially after seeing this review! I can't say I was as blown away by The Road and No Country for Old Men as I had expected to be. They were good for sure, but didn't quite match up with the amount of praise I'd heard for them. Still, they left me keen to read more Cormac McCarthy. I'm mainly dropping in here though, to say, rock on! Hope we get to see a video of you playing guitar some time later in the year ;). Yes, I'm commenting on the "ad" portion of your video rather than the actual video 0_o.

@TheBookchemist

3 жыл бұрын

Haha, never!! I'm a terrible guitar player :D at best I may jam on the stylophone halfway through a review sometime ;)

@nikkivenable3700

3 жыл бұрын

The Road, for me, was the most disappointing of all of his books. I really enjoyed The Border Trilogy, Suttree, Child of God, Blood Meridian...a couple of these are very very dark, but I enjoy that kind of literature.

@j.d.thompson3505

Жыл бұрын

All The Pretty Horses is better than The Road or No Country For Old Men

Thumbs up on a great review, couldn't agree more with your thoughts that all McCarthys' books are great and worth reading. Just finished Cities of the Plains over the New Years holiday period, loved it, like yourself I'd say for me The Crossing was my favourite of the three, the ending is just so gut wrenching and sorrowful.

@daveysaturn7232

2 жыл бұрын

"he called and called. standing in that inexplicable darkness." im always at a loss for words.

Thanks Bookchemist! I loved the trilogy. 'The Crossing' I liked best i think.

There are websites that provide translations of the Spanish passages.

Really insightful review! You've got a new sub

I am a big fan of McCarthy, but have not read the Border Trilogy- though the books have been sitting on the shelf behind me for the last four years. Your review makes me bump these up in my priority list. Great review and observations. Your insights are fantastic and your comments on McCarthy's themes seem spot on. I am looking forward to reading these books.

Thanks for the video. I've just started the border trilogy. I thought All the Pretty Horses was excellent. I've read Blood Meridian, The Road and No Country. I understand that ATPH's has a more conventional story line but I certainly didn't think that the book was any less because of that. A lot of the insights about fate and where our lives go really went quite deep and his prose is just an absolute treat to read. It just flows off the page.

A great review. I think that the Border Trilogy will be recognised in time as a quintessential masterpiece of American literature. I agree with you about The Crossing. This volume moved me and engaged me in so many ways, but the whole trilogy must be read. I also agree with you about literature and enjoyment not being mutually exclusive : I adored Eliot's Middlemarch and Manzoni's The Betrothed and in both the pages just flew by. As an interesting counterpoint to McCarthy, I thoroughly recommend the works of Willa Cather. Her books are also steeped in the American landscape. The three books known as the prairie trilogy (O, Pioneers, My Antonia and The Song of the Lark) are really not a trilogy in the strict sense because they have only the setting in common. My favourite of hers might well be The Professor's House, because it has not only a wonderful Stoner-like central character but a middle section set in New Mexico is vividly evocative of its landscape. Death Comes to the Archbishop is another that I would heartily recommend.

@ericgrabowski3896

3 жыл бұрын

I really enjoyed Cather too. Nice thoughts thanks man and I agree about The border trilogy.

Lovely analysis thank you

The Crossing is amazing. Certainly the best of the three, and I think I liked it more than Blood Meridian and The Road, which I also loved. As for the part where the dog exploded, I *think* it's because John Grady had already lassoed the head of the dog, and then Billy Parham lassoed its back legs, and then it exploded because it was being pulled from two sides very suddenly and violently.

Fantastic review. I agree, this trilogy maybe is dismissed a little exactly because if it's popularity, especially the popularity of All the Pretty Horses. I also agree that this trilogy stands with the best of McCarthy's work, all three of the books. For some reason (see comment below) a lot of people do not like Cities of the Plains, but as you said I think it puts the whole trilogy in such perspective that it's really not to be missed. One book of McCarthy's that doesn't get mentioned so much is Suttree, that book I think also stands with the border trilogy and Blood Meridian and Child of God as among his best work, but it's a little more subtle in plot, much less dramatic, but I think no less moving. Would love to see a review of that one.

@TheBookchemist

3 жыл бұрын

When I first read McCarthy a decade or so ago Suttree was my favorite among his novels! I'll definitely re-read it one day - for a long time I've been worried I would find it cryptic and dry, but enjoying the Border Trilogy so much reassured me a lot on that front ;) Cities is fundamental to the trilogy, I agree - and rich in the very simple, very nourishing pleasure of seeing these cool characters interact with one another! It's very "theatrical," in a way, and I'm sure that to some (misguided) readers this will feel pedestrian.

@alphonseelric5722

3 жыл бұрын

@@TheBookchemist Somebody once told me that Cities feels like a modern greek tragedy.

Really need to get into McCarthy... read a few chapters of Blood Meridian and loved it but I just can't read in a computer... Interesting review, it's kinda ignored by McCarthy fans indeed, good to have new insight about it. Btw, have you read Michel Houellebecq?

@suf3799

3 жыл бұрын

Read Suttree too. It's his another masterpiece that can stand equally with Blood Meridian

@liquidpebbles7475

3 жыл бұрын

@@suf3799 ive heard that, its om my tbr list, alongside the road

@TheBookchemist

3 жыл бұрын

Not yet - Houellebecq's been on my radar for a long time, mostly by virtue of his Lovecraft criticism (with which I disagree). I'm not sure I'll like his fiction but I'm curious to approach it!

Please, Stoner by John Williams. Also can't wait for McCarthy's The Passenger! And great review as always. also check out Queer and Junkie and The Wild Boys by Burroughs to get another American's perspective on Mexico in the 20th century!

@NCbassfishing24

3 жыл бұрын

How many times has The Passenger's release been delayed now? I'm not sure it will ever see the light of day. Maybe posthumously, sadly.

@k.e.1760

3 жыл бұрын

@@NCbassfishing24 hopefully it gets published this year. The plot is notoriously difficult because of the hard science time travel element and McCarthy wants to get that right and is definitely consulting professionals in quantum physics and such. Another book about his thoughts on the various books he has read is also gonna get published.

@GeorgeMillerUSA

3 жыл бұрын

@@k.e.1760 There's time travel?!

I loved the Border Trilogy. Not as much as Blood Meridian or Suttree. Probably more than The Road, though I'd have to revisit it to be sure. As for Inherent Vice, I found it on par with Vineland. Not nearly as enjoyable as Gravity's Rainbow, V, or Mason & Dixon. Thank you for another great review!

If you haven't already, you should try Mario Vargas Llosa's The Feast of the Goat next. It's about the same period in Dominican history as your favourite novel, Oscar Wao. It also has the extremely dark themes of McCarthy and other Latin American writers.

@TheBookchemist

3 жыл бұрын

I've always been curious to read it because Junot Diaz, interestingly, hates it!

@leventetakacs1641

3 жыл бұрын

I agree, I think it's a fascinating book, but very very disturbing.

Will you be doing a top 10/20 books of 2020?

@TheBookchemist

3 жыл бұрын

Sure! :D

But are you now going to tell us about your Mexican adventure that ended up in an operating table?

@TheBookchemist

3 жыл бұрын

:D

Great review. I have the trilogy on my shelf to read. Read ATPH years ago but will reread and finish the trilogy this year. Also got Elmore Leonard 'The Complete Western Stories' today. I love Westerns. Lonesome Dove is probably my favourite. Blood Meridian is great too.

@nikkivenable3700

3 жыл бұрын

Lonesome Dove is in my Top 5 favorite books, and I've read hundreds and hundreds in my 40 years of life. It is just, well, everything. I'm always excited to see another person who has enjoyed it, too!

@irena7777777

3 жыл бұрын

@@nikkivenable3700 it's great. Has everything; humour, violence, brilliant characters and dialogue and a sense of being taken on a big adventure. The TV series of it is excellent too. Which other books do you feel are as good as LD?

@nikkivenable3700

3 жыл бұрын

@@irena7777777 Oh, yes, the TV show IS great; it does the book justice, that's for sure and that's not an easy feat. Your description of the book was spot-on. Yes, to all of that! Ok, well, my favorite book is IT by Stephen King. It has been my fav since I was a teenager and has remained so...I hated the ending, but that book holds such nostalgia for me that it's my number 1. Stephen King is my favorite author, too. 2) Lonesome Dove 3) I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb 4) Empire Falls(Richard Russo) 5) Anything by Wallace Stegner(2nd favorite author. Do you have a list for me?

@irena7777777

3 жыл бұрын

@@nikkivenable3700 That is a good list...Richard Russo is my favourite writer. I've loved all his books but Nobody's Fool is probably up there with LD for me. I love SK too, with Green Mile and 11/22/63 being my favourites of his. Another of my favourite books is The Things They Carried by Tim O'brien. One I've read recently that I loved is Snow by John Banville. Remains Of The Day by Kazuo Ishiguro is great too. And I love Tana French's crime books. Hope you find something out of them you enjoy!

@nikkivenable3700

3 жыл бұрын

@@irena7777777 Nobody's Fool just came in the mail a few days ago! I can't believe I haven't read it yet. Isn't he an amazing author? I need to read more of his books. I read Bridge of Sighs years ago, but it was pretty forgettable for me. Those two SK's books you mentioned are fantastic! I haven't read The Things They Carried although it's on my shelf and I MUST get to it. I've seen Snow all over the place, so I will look into that. Ishiguro is incredible...I've read most of his books and he has a new one coming soon(this Spring). And Tana French...oh yes! She's on my shelf and used to be in my Top 5 authors, but she's been bumped. You and I have very similar tastes...oh, I have to add Silence(Endo) to my favorite books. That book haunts me still....I can't believe I forgot to add that in my first comment.

I've just finished the trilogy. There's a lot of leaning and spitting.

@NoLefTurnUnStoned.

2 жыл бұрын

😂

Cormac McCarthy's fiction will live on as all great literature does, all his books are masterpieces, Suttree and Blood Meridian being apex moments in American Literature.

@coconuciferanuts339

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah,Blood Meridian was straight from the pulpit.The Judge(say no more.)

The Crossing, I thought, was so much more powerful than All the Pretty Horses, although the writing got a little unwieldy. I've never read Cities of the Plain, but I love the other two books. Evidence that McCarthy is America's greatest living writer.

@shmizzleshmazzle9830

3 жыл бұрын

I thought Cities of the Plain was really bad

@alphonseelric5722

2 жыл бұрын

@@shmizzleshmazzle9830 The Epilogue redeems it though.

I love all of McCarthy’s works. He, like Faulkner, is concerned with evolving as a writer and going beyond what is expected. He began his career as a southern gothic writer, then wrote westerns, a post-apocalyptic novel, and, with his forthcoming (possibly final) novel, he’s going to tackle science and mathematics. McCarthy thrives on learning. As did William Faulkner.

If you like McCarthy's Border Trilogy as much as I do, watch my youtube video photoshop production -- CORMAC MCCARTHY'S CITIES OF THE PLAIN, DR SCOTT SHEPARD. I recreate the whole story, starring Matt Damon in his role as John Grady Cole, Woody Harrelson as Billy, and Oscar Jaenada as the evil Eduardo. If you are an enthusiast of McCarthy's final two works, watch my most recent analysis in which I explore similarities between THE PASSENGER and STELLA MARIS and Robert Pirsig's ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE and LILA. The name of the video is CORMAC MCCARTHY & ROBERT PIRSIG, GENIUS, DEATH & INSANITY, by DR SCOTT SHEPARD

With the whole depiction of Mexico as problematic thing. I don’t strictly disagree that it’s not a complete or even accurate depiction of Mexico. I think that’s the point though. Often the setting of a book is a lot like a character, it’s not just some place where the characters do their thing, it is a living part of a novel meant to convey something deeper about the text. If authors wrote everything unproblematic and exactly as they are in reality, books would be really boring. Also, in the case of the border trilogy, we see Mexico a lot through the perspective of the American cowboys so we naturally see a view of Mexico that is warped by their perceptions and mindset. How the characters interact with Mexico is problematic, but a book written that has a depiction of Mexico that is not 100% conforming to factual reality is not problematic, it’s just purposeful creative liberty.

@cfc1523

2 жыл бұрын

I know that the creator of this video doesn’t believe that argument, he was just acknowledging it. Just my response to that argument.

I haven't read his work, but why would an author purposely make it difficult to determine who is speaking in an extended dialogue?

@TheBookchemist

3 жыл бұрын

Puzzles me, too! I guess in McCartney's case it's a bit of a personal idiosyncrasy; the stripped-down dialogue does make most of his scenes run "smoother" though, in a bare-bone way that goes well with much of his prose!

@jarrodanderson2124

Жыл бұрын

It's done to slow you down, make you pay attention. It's totally worth it.

❤❤excellent!!

All The Pretty Horses felt the most complete to me, and is one of my favorite of McCarthy’s. I really find it interesting to hear whether people favor ATPH or The Crossing (COTP gets the short stick). I enjoyed The Crossing a lot, but I found myself a bit agitated at times and not as engrossed as my experience with the former. Maybe part of that headache has to do from reading 3 McCarthy novels back to back to back. But one more note about the monologues, I’m not sure how much people have discussed this online but I get the sense that McCarthy is taking a Dostoyevsky approach-trying to understand the world through working it out in his fiction. That’s at least how I process these parts, and I truly treasure the deep intermittent philosophical salvos. That reminds me, I have a question about The Crossing. That strange scene with the golden plane-what was that about? Was it a reference to anything in particular? It feels like some hermetic or mythological reference. It made me immediately think about the Vimana spaceships found in Hindu Texts. It also made me think of Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo, not that I think it referenced it at all, but that it reminded me of that film.

@TheBookchemist

3 жыл бұрын

It might very well have some explicit/allegorical connection that I'm missing - I read it only as yet another "episode" of strangeness, like the chat with the blind man or the old earthquake survivor, and another chance for the text to figure out (through the dialectic you talk about!) those tricky enigmas of existence.

@alphonseelric5722

3 жыл бұрын

Nice take. I regard the monologues as "The Crossing" of interpretations of the world and its nature. None of the three philosophies explicitly agree with each other ( they "cross" each other) and it is also subtly revealed that Billy doesn't understand them or see any relation to his own crises. It presents the picture of the world as this grand entity that --- even though they live in it and among themselves --- is differently understood by every other individual. However, McCarthy is never that simple and the ex-priest's line "rightly heard all tales are one" is somewhat omnious that maybe...these 3 narratives (or 4 really) are different perspectives on the singular hard truth of the world. He did something similar in Blood Meridian, pitting Tobin against the Judge.

@choggerboom

3 жыл бұрын

@@alphonseelric5722 this was such a rich reply, thanks for finding my comment to share this. Reading the border trilogy my mind, by its own muses and volitions, tried to see where within blood meridian was evidenced. If that makes sense. Because I feel that blood meridian is sort of the extremes, or THAT singular extreme of all that philosophical gathering and collective spouted in TBT (what I believe you referred to as the 4th view). I really need to revisit these books with a pen ready at hand. McCarthy offers such a mound of ideas to be mined and plundered.

@alphonseelric5722

3 жыл бұрын

@@choggerboom Mattia said that these books were more traditionally fun which maybe turns away the academics, but The Crossing is legitimately one of McCarthy's deepest, most elusive works. Glad I could help.

Great review - Book 📚 Recommendation for personal development. "Just Eat the Worm 🐛 " #International bestseller #1New Release on Disaster Relief Second recommendation-Higher is calling by Maxwell Adekoje

❤

If anyone thinks early 20th century Mexico wasn’t an extremely dangerous and inscrutable place for a white American, you’re living in some politically correct 21st century Ivory Tower. Even the Texas of that time was a brutal place full of people with very peculiar ideas by today’s standards, as McCarthy gives us. I also want to note that the lack of punctuation and indication on the page of who’s speaking, totally vanishes if you listen to the professional audiobook versions of these books. And the rhythm of the narrative and dialogue are truly captivating when read aloud by a great narrative actor.

Since I don't know a single word of Spanish, this book is probably not for me.

@MilesWilliams88

2 жыл бұрын

There honestly isn't too much Spanish in them. There are plenty of translations online. Basically anytime there is Spanish is the book it's only in short sentences. It's never like a whole page of Spanish, or anything like that.

@ladonna2674

4 ай бұрын

I find it extremely unlikely that you don't know a single word of Spanish! 🤔

Academia shuns decency is behind the trilogy being unmentioned. The guys the trilogy follows maintain decency through out their journey. It's as well a spiritual story which repulses academia. All they see in such works are dumb criticism. Oooh, racist! This trilogy will leave one edified.

I love All the Pretty Horses. The Crossing is alright. Cities of the Plain is ass.

isn't Blood Meridian part of the trilogy

@shmizzleshmazzle9830

3 жыл бұрын

Nope

@uniquechannelnames

2 жыл бұрын

But I think they kind of take part in the same part of the country/world.

@architchaudhary1285

2 жыл бұрын

Some call his western period as his 'Western tetralogy'

All The Pretty Horses is my first (and last) C. McCarthy. It's "a story", mildly interesting, with totally mediocre writing. And, as chemist notes-the others r same. I "am one of those" who fails to get the hype.

Unprofessional presentation Unwatchable.