Set in west Texas and northern central Mexico in l949, All the Pretty Horses is subtitled "Volume One, The Border Trilogy," indicating that it is the first of three books in a series. The tale is about two young men, John Grady Cole and Lacey Rawlins, who run away from their hometown on their horses and ride across Texas and northeastern Mexico. They start near San Angelo, Texas, and travel approximately 130 miles to near Langtry, Texas, where they cross the Rio Grande River into Mexico. From there, they ride approximately 180 miles farther, to a well-situated hacienda, where they land jobs as cowboys. John Grady is identified by his mother as "only sixteen," and we can assume that his good friend, Rawlins, is a similar age. Both boys are mature for their age and successfully negotiate their adventure south.
Structurally, All the Pretty Horses is quite simple. The story begins with the wake of John Grady Cole's grandfather and takes us through the two friends' adventures, from beginning to end, when they return to the San Angelo area from Mexico. In addition to telling the story of the boys' adventure, McCarthy introduces a love story between John Grady and Alejandra, reminiscent of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
All the Pretty Horses is perhaps the most readable of McCarthy's work. But the book's accessibility should not lull the reader into thinking that this is a simple novel. To the contrary, the first 30 pages may require two readings in order for the reader to get into the story. McCarthy's technique of introducing characters only as "he" or "she" and not naming them for several pages, if ever, can make the story difficult to follow and warns us not to assume that the characters are easy to understand. In the first mention of a character, we see the surface skin and perhaps a description or action; later, we learn the character's name; and finally, the story unfolds. For example, we don't learn John Grady's name until the fifth page of the book. But it is the events of the entire book that fill in his character, and, even then, we must wait for the third book of the trilogy to get the complete picture of who John Grady is.
