I found myself lost in the first ten pages or so of the novel All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy. The author chose to develop a scene with a mysterious character who we know little about, as he is only referred to with pronouns after his name, John Grady Cole, is briefly mentioned. A funeral and a meeting at a restaurant are described, although we are not told who has died. Before turning to sparknotes to get a better understanding of these events, I decided to read on, intrigued by the author's arrangement of the story. The next twenty paged indirectly filled me in on the key parts of the story I was missing. I grew closer to John Grady Cole as I learned more about his life. Please correct me if I am wrong, but this is how I have interpreted the first thirty pages of the novel:
His mother has divorced his father, although netiher parent informed him of their legal seperation. Cole's grandfather was the man buried at the somber funeral. His mother has gone off to San Antonio to fulfill her dreams of acting in a play in the big city, and is with another man. The ranch John lives in is owned by his mother since his grandfather, the previous owner, has passed away. Although he loves the ranch, his mother is selling the old place so she can move on with her life. John feels the need to escape this miserable setting, seeing as San Angelo cannot offer him much, so he takes off to an unknown destination with his friend, Rawlins.
Although McCarthy's writing style is rough, eliminating quotation marks for dialogue, the author includes beautiful imagery to set the scene for a touching story. Any reader, cowboy or not, can understand and relate to Cole's desire to escape his troubesome situation and start over somewhere new, where he can be free.
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