Anatomy of a Paragraph: Cormac McCarthy

All the Pretty Horses

This is one of my favorite passages from All the Pretty Horses. Here’s what I see Cormac doing, technically:

1. Starts with a short, physically-grounded sentence: “They rode out along the fenceline and across the open pastureland.” Note the use of compound words: “fenceline,” “pastureland.” This is a move Cormac borrowed from one of his literary heroes, James Joyce: “The heaventree of stars hung with humid, nightblue fruit.”