Loved the knife fight.

Hated the epilogue. ( )

Dos héroes, antihéroes, que arrastran un pasado de desarraigo y verdadero exilio interior en un mundo en que su forma de vida, individualista e independiente, se ve marginada por la aparición del mundo moderno: autovías, moteles, automóviles.

This is the third book in McCarthy’s Border Trilogy. While the first two, All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing, can be read in either order, this one should come last. It brings together the protagonists of the first two novels, John Grady Cole and Billy Parham.

It is set in the early 1950’s in the plains around El Paso, Texas and across the border in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. The plot revolves around John Grady’s romantic interest in Magdalena, a sixteen-year-old Mexican prostitute. Nineteen-year-old John Grady is devoted to Magdalena to the point of obsession. He exhibits a strong-willed personality and the brashness of youth. Billy and ranch owner Mac serve as his mentors.

It is written in McCarthy’s signature style with short, direct dialogue. He realistically portrays the Southwestern desert, and the setting becomes, essentially, another character. I particularly like the indelible connection McCarthy establishes between the land and the people who traverse it. Themes include the inevitability of fate and good vs. evil. I doubt anyone that has read McCarthy would expect anything cheery, and this one is no exception. I am glad I read the trilogy. All three books are solid.
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I am glad I waited until I had read the third book in the trilogy before I reviewed these books. I really think they need to be taken as a whole rather than looking at each individual book. That said, of the three, I would say All the Pretty Horses was the best but it really doesn't matter because the three books together told such a riveting and moving story.

I am not qualified to do a critical deep dive into the inner meaning of what I read or what Cormac McCarthy meant to say in these novels. On the surface though, I thought they were beautifully written. The descriptions of the Mexican countryside range from the magnificent and epic to desert austere. These were some of my favorite parts of all of the novels.

The welcoming nature of the villages and people of Mexico is related so well in both All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing. One could stumble into the lowliest home in the smallest village and be taken in and fed by the family even if it was just humble beans and tortillas. At other times cruelty, lawlessness and death are part of the background narrative that comes to the fore in both the first and second books and ultimately what brings the trilogy to a tragic end.

I liked the characters of Billy Parham and John Grady Cole and how each came out of Mexico changed in some way and, in Cities of the Plain, we see how this ultimately plays out as the two characters have matured but each still carries something of their experience with them that, in the end, has life changing repercussions.

I purchased used copies of all of the books and look forward to reading them again. ( )