fiction – Bill's Blog

On the flight back from the USA and battling jet lag, I used the time to finish Cormac McCarthy’s
“All the Pretty Horses”. He is one of my favorite authors, and his other novels, “Blood Meridian,” “The Road,” and “No Country for Old Men,” rank high on my all-time book list. My son Oliver loved Blood Meridian, and I noticed that his storytelling resonates with young men. It might be that his stories usually focus on male characters moving through an adventurous landscape (American West/Post-Apocalypse) mixed with violence and captivating writing.

This book is set in South Texas in 1949 and follows John Grady Cole, a 16-year-old cowboy who is dealing with the end of agriculture and ranching in America. The book starts with his grandfather’s funeral and the news that his divorced mother is selling the ranch he grew up on. Cole rides away with a friend to Mexico to seek his fortune and keep his ranch hand lifestyle. Cole eventually finds work at a Mexican ranch and falls in love with the patron’s daughter. I could certainly relate as I made a similar move early in my teaching career, living in small-town USA and finding work at an international school in Colombia. It was my first exposure to upper-class Latino families and differed greatly from the life I lived in the USA. I don’t want to spoil the book, but unlike Cole, I ended up marrying a beautiful Latina.

McCarthy focuses on the details of the landscape and how the boys make their way, sleeping outside and taking care of their horses on their way south. The deserts of northern Mexico are similar to Uzbekistan. I liked how modernity, the sound of cars on the freeway, is in the background as the boys find wild pathways through Texas and Mexico. This symbolizes the dying days of horses as the main form of transport. They have a series of challenges, ranging from finding water, being trapped in storms, getting put in jail, etc.

I am not sure if I am going to read the other two books of McCarthy’s Border Trilogy, “The Crossing” and “Cities of the Plain”. I might watch the 2000 movie based on All the Pretty Horses starring Matt Damon and Penelope Cruz.

The setting of the novel is the Hundred Years War, which was fought between England and France and various allies between 1337 and 1453. I didn’t know much about the war except that Joan of Arc played a role in rallying the French. This novel and inquiries to Chat GPT helped me learn a lot about this conflict. England’s King Edward III started the war by laying claim to the French throne because of his mom’s lineage.

The Essex Dogs are a military unit of 10 soldiers in Edward’s army. Essex is a region in England where the main character, FitzTalbot Loveday is from. The novel follows them as the English army is invading Normandy in the summer of 1346. It is like a Band of Brothers but set in medieval times, ala Game of Thrones with longbows, knights, sword fighting, cavalry, etc. The English marauded through Norman towns which reflects early English victories in the real 100 Years War. I won’t spoil the ending for you, but by the end of the book, you are hoping the guys can survive the many battles against the French and their German allies. It is not a deep, life-changing novel, but it is entertaining and I like learning history through historical fiction.

What changed for me with this book was using Chat GPT to provide background on the historical figures and events mentioned in the book. In the actual 100 Years War, the French eventually won. The use of the long bow was a game-changer in warfare and the conflicts ushered in the first ideas of nationalism and the nation-state. Joan of Arc was a real person, a French military hero, and a Catholic Saint. There is a mysterious woman character in the book, but the story takes place before she was born.

The story reminded me that if I had an opportunity to time travel, I would prefer to travel to the future. Life was difficult back then for the vast majority of people. In the novel, the descriptions of the lives of peasants in the fortified towns and villages and the English soldiers on a campaign are miserable. The novel helped me fall back to sleep this week and I enjoyed going into their medieval world. I also would love to visit Normandy someday. It seems like an interesting part of the world with D-Day, the sea, and the countryside.

I always pick up new vocabulary words when I read and below is a list.

flitches – slabs of bacon (old English) or a piece of timber
chevauchée – Medieval military technique of burning and pillaging enemy territory to reduce productivity (ex. burn fields, kill horses)
squire – attendant to a knight before becoming a knight
feckless – good for nothing; weak