Cormac McCarthy

The conclusion of the Border trilogy describes the friendship of John Grady Cole and Billy Parham, two cowboys working on a New Mexico ranch in the 1950s

Cities of the Plain

Cities of the plain

Patrick Book

Tobias V. Langhoff

In the final book in the Border trilogy, we find that the two protagonists of the two previous books, All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing (which were not related in plot and featured two different main characters), have crossed paths and are working together as cowboys. Like the adventures of their past, the rancher life is not glamorous, and McCarthy does little to romanticize it.

These books never really engaged me much. They’re all slow burns driven forward more by despair than plot, that culminate in mostly depressing climaxes, although the final showdown here is fairly satisfying and the aftermath brings closure to the tales of the two cowboys.

After the second book was narrated by Richard Poe, for this final book we’re back to Frank Muller from the first book. He’s still a great narrator, but for some reason McCarthy’s use of polysyndeton (grouping together actions and clauses with “and” and no other punctuation) was more apparent to me in this audiobook.

Not a bad story, but pales in comparison to the rest of the Border Trilogy and McCarthy's other works. The writing is notably inferior to his other works, and the story lacks the depth it deserves. The final section more closely illustrates McCarthy's skill. Although comparatively weak, the story is a quick read and worth tackling after reading the other books in the trilogy. 

Brandon

Michael Springer

This book brought together the theme of the whole series, and brought the events of the previous books into focus. Although I'd enjoyed the previous two books, this conclusion gave me a new appreciation for the whole series. The Border trilogy is a meditation on the border between the United States and Mexico back in the final days of 'cowboys', and shows Americans struggling with survival in Mexico, and struggling with the idea of Mexico, and the idea of the U.S. 

It's naturalistic in the sense that the characters are often in situations they don't quite comprehend, and their lack of comprehension (or sometimes bullheadedness) puts their lives at risk. 

This is one of the larger themes that runs through the series. Cormac McCarthy has a very unique writing style, and it helps to at least know a little Spanish when you're reading this series. But, I would recommend this series to anyone who isn't put off by either McCarthy's voice or the fluctuations between languages.

Joey Baker

I'm depressed now. Thanks Cormac! :)


Also I just want to say the scene of killing wild dogs by taking them for a fag-drag from horseback was pretty crazy. So unnecessarily brutal. Why wouldn't they just use guns?
Definitely makes for a cooler and more memorable scene though.

Ryan LaFerney

Cities of the Plain concludes McCarthy’s The Border Trilogy. It brings together the protagonists from each of the previous two volumes. John Grady Cole from All the Pretty Horses is now nineteen years old and nine years the junior of Billy Parham from The Crossing. John and Billy share an loving bond and a deep passion for riding horses and living off the land. They work as ranch hands for a respected landowner on his farm not far from the Mexican border. Yet, when John Grady tumbles helplessly in love with a sixteen-year-old Mexican prostitute, Magdalena, from across the border, he provokes the ire of the girl’s pimp. John’s relentless desire to marry the girl leads him down a dangerous and fateful path. Billy’s attempts to protect his friend draw him into the violent turmoil where there is no turning back. The violence quickly boils to an all out blood bath as Billy confronts the pimp in a battle that reminds one of the ill-fated meeting of Macbeth and Macduff in its poetic grandeur. The anguish that Billy Parham feels for his lost friend is heartbreaking.

The end of book focuses on Billy and his wanderings. On his journey, he meets a mysterious man who tells him about a convoluted dream. Though the man denies it, Billy suspects he is Death. However, Billy survives the meeting with the man and finds shelter and a new life with a family who takes him in. The book ends with Billy, it seems, putting his restless and sometimes violent past behind him, with a new lease on life. It would seem that the "romance" of the cowboy way of life has faded for Billy, and the reality and harshness of the world has taken root. And that he has achieved some sort of wisdom from it.

Cities of the Plain is a melancholy story, deftly told in poetic grandeur, about American violence, idealistic romance, and a fading way of life

Christopher Wheeler

Jackson Weaver

elizabeth

Colton Ray

Erika

Andrew John Kinney

Roel Vandenhoeck

Kevin. j Mercil 

Cities of the Plain (Border Trilogy)

Nuno Figueiredo

Phil James

Pate Hubbard

Geoffrey Landward

Donald

Jan Jackson

Ashley Dotterweich

Volume Three of the Border Trilogy In Cormac McCarthy's Cities of the Plain, two men marked by the boyhood adventures of All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing now stand together, between their vivid pasts and uncertain futures, to confront a country changing beyond recognition. In the fall of 1952, John Grady Cole and Billy Parham are cowboys on a New Mexico ranch encroached upon from the north by the military. On the southern horizon are the mountains of Mexico, where one of the men is drawn again and again, in this story of friendships and passion, to a love as dangerous as it is inevitable.

Cities of the Plain

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