Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses: A Reader's Guide

Continuum Contemporaries

by Stephen Tatum

This is part of a new series of guides to contemporary novels. The aim of the series is to give readers accessible and informative introductions to some of the most popular, most acclaimed and most influential novels of recent years – from ‘The Remains of the Day’ to ‘White Teeth’. A team of contemporary fiction scholars from both sides of the Atlantic has been assembled to provide a thorough and readable analysis of each of the novels in question.

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 21, 2002

About the author

Robert Stephen Tatum is a literary scholar specializing in Western American literature, visual culture, and cultural theory. His work explores themes such as regional identity, frontier mythology, and masculinity in both literature and visual art. He is the author of In the Remington Moment and Inventing Billy the Kid, and wrote Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses: A Reader’s Guide. He co-edited Reading The Virginian in the New West, and his award-winning essays have appeared in journals like Western American Literature and Arizona Quarterly. Tatum has also lectured widely and is currently working on Morta Las Vegas: CSI and the Problem of the West, a study of Las Vegas in Western cultural discourse.

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I judged this one harshly and hastily. Before Tatum settled into his rhythm, I decided that the approach, which focuses on reflected scenes in what becomes almost a mirror of a novel, would yield little. And while there's still plenty here I'd quibble with, Tatum's explication of the novel as John Grady Cole's struggle to come to see the world "as it is" takes shape as he examines the third and fourth sections. Solid and occasionally revelatory stuff.

[Dr. Jon Pirtle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tatum's 95-page reader's guide is nearly as well written as the McCarthy book it explores. Especially helpful are the discussion questions Tatum includes. Tatum also references other readers' and critics' insights and contributions. Throughout his guide, however, I came to appreciate McCarthy's book even more. A wonderful addition to McCarthy studies. Highly recommended.