Details
Synopsis
The third and last volume of Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy, CITIES OF THE PLAIN continues the story of Billy Pawson, the cowboy with the heart of an outlaw. Billy becomes involved in the relationship between his friend and fellow ranch-hand John Grady--hero of ALL THE PRETTY HORSES--and a Mexican prostitute under the control of a brutal, violent pimp. Billy's obsession with being a kind of savior who rescues the down-and-out ultimately proves to be a destructive force. At the end of the novel (and the trilogy) Billy is an old man telling his story to a stranger he meets on the road--a story he has come no closer to understanding, and one in which good does not triumph. The title refers to the Biblical stories of Sodom and Gomorrah, places where nothing but evil is to be found. A New York Times Notable Book for 1998.
| Details | | Series: | Border Trilogy/Cormac McCarthy, Vol 3 |
| Size | | Length: | 291 pages | | Height: | 9.0 in | | Width: | 6.0 in | | Thickness: | 1.2 in | | Weight: | 18.4 oz |
Industry Reviews
"There is much good writing in Cormac McCarthy's new novel...but its twisted narrative and mystical bent may make it hard going for some readers....Mr. McCarthy has a painter's eye for detail, and when he describes moments where men and nature meet, the scenes are riveting....When it comes to explaining why his characters act as they do, Mr. McCarthy is less successful...."
Wall Street Journal - Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg (05/07/1998)
"'The Border Trilogy' gives us two McCarthys. The first one emerges as a direct descendant of Hemingway and gives us some powerful storytelling, delivered in laconic if oddly familiar prose....The second McCarthy emerges as a ham-handed Faulkner pretender and gives us lots of portentous meditations on time and nature and fate.... Happily for the reader, the Hemingway-inspired McCarthy controls the better part of 'Cities of the Plain.' Although the book occasionally lapses into the pretentious mumbo jumbo that made 'The Crossing' such a lugubrious read, 'Cities' showcases McCarthy's gifts as an old-fashioned storyteller; it is, arguably, his most readable, emotionally engaging novel yet."
New York Times - Michiko Kakutani (05/22/1998)
" In 'Cities of the Plain' McCarthy sustains the momentum, and once again provides a terrific read. But the romance takes up a greater portion of the plot, and one begins to miss the simple evocation of cowboy life that is so stirring in the earlier novels."
New York Times Book Review - Sara Mosle (05/17/1998)
"This is the least impressive book of the Trilogy, but it's still a sizable cut above most contemporary novels....Judged, as it must be, in the context of its brother novels, 'Cities of the Plain' is nonetheless, flaws and all, an essential component of a contemporary masterpiece."
Bernstein
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