I would have given this book five full stars, except that it isn't as good as the previous two, which I've given five stars, and for the strange epilogue, which I tried to read three times, then gave up and slammed the book shut. A weak, weak ending to a glorious trilogy.
As one might expect Billy Parnham and John Grady become friends who rely and care for each other in a friendship that is both simple and complicated as the tale of the American West. Two seemingly simple men who long only to ride the range are inevitably tied together. John Grady is the charismatic young leader who loves horses and has an eye for strength and beauty masters chess and plays at life. Billy Parnham is the caregiver and caretaker a simple observer who enters the life dreams of those around him.
McCarthy's stories are like multi-faceted gems. Every perspective provides a different view and a different version of truth and beauty. Which perspective is the truth and which are illusion? Somehow they all form a bond and co-join to make something of ultimate honesty and pain. Within Cities of the Plain there are stories within stories. Relationships are complex and unsettling. Love is a thing of beauty shrouded in gloom and foreboding.
Every page of McCarthy book mesmerizes the reader with words and poetry. McCarthy is one of the geniuses at the use of lyricism in writing. His dialogues devoid of quotation marks read like poems both in Spanish and English.
"He stared past her dark and shining hair toward the deepening dusk in the streets of the city. he thought about what he believed and what he did not believe. After a while he said that he believed in God even if he was doubtful of men's claims to know God's mind. But that a God unable to forgive was no God at all.Any sin?Any sin. Yes.Without exceptions? She pushed her hand against his lips a second time. He kissed her fingers and took her hand away. With the exception of despair, he said. There's no remedy for that."
In Cities of the Plain John Grady Cole finds a love of great depth and stark devotion to a Mexican prostitute. This is a love story to match the best through the ages. It is deeply moving and stays with the reader long after the close of the book.
Cities of the Plain is the fitting conclusion of McCarthy's border trilogy. It capitalizes and punctuates the lessons learned in the two prior books in a way that is both precise and painful.