{"product_id":"cities-of-the-plain-isbn-9780679747192","title":"Cities of the Plain","description":"\u003cb\u003eNATIONAL BESTSELLER • The third volume of the award-winning \u003ci\u003eBorder Trilogy,\u003c\/i\u003e from the bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Passenger \u003c\/i\u003eand the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel \u003ci\u003eThe Road \u003cb\u003e•\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e A darkly beautiful elegy for the American frontier\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe setting is New Mexico in 1952, where John Grady Cole and Billy Parham are working as ranch hands. To the North lie the proving grounds of Alamogordo; to the South, the twin cities of El Paso and Juarez, Mexico. Their life is made up of trail drives and horse auctions and stories told by campfire light. It is a life that is about to change forever, and John Grady and Billy both know it. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe catalyst for that change appears in the form of a beautiful, ill-starred Mexican prostitute. When John Grady falls in love, Billy agrees—against his better judgment—to help him rescue the girl from her suavely brutal pimp. The ensuing events resonate with the violence and inevitability of classic tragedy. Hauntingly beautiful, filled with sorrow, humor and awe, \u003ci\u003eCities of the Plain \u003c\/i\u003eis a genuine American epic.\"An American classic to stand with the finest literary achievements of the century.\" \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eSan Francisco Chronicle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"[McCarthy] is nothing less than our greatest American writer.\" \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eHouston Chronicle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Grave and majestic.... McCarthy has created an imaginative oeuvre greater and deeper than any single book. Such writers wrestle with the gods themselves.\" \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eWashington Post Book World\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Showcases Mr. McCarthy's gifts as an old-fashioned storyteller.... His most readable, emotionally engaging novel yet.\" \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Soars as few novels have in recent years...a work of which any writer would be proud.\" \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Philadelphia Inquirer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"If you love classic narrative, quest stories, adventure stories of high order transformed by one of the lapidary masters of contemporary American fiction, now is your hour of triumph.\" \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eChicago Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Captures a way of life so unspoken and deep that most people never knew it existed--. [McCarthy] can go places in prose as remote as a mountain pass in a high wind.\" \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eThe novels of the American writer, Cormac McCarthy, have received a number of literary awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. His works adapted to film include \u003ci\u003eAll the Pretty Horses, The Road,\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eNo Country for Old Men—\u003c\/i\u003ethe latter film receiving four Academy Awards, including the award for Best Picture\u003ci\u003e. \u003c\/i\u003eHe died in 2023.Late that night lying in his bunk in the dark he heard the kitchen door close and heard the screendoor close after it. He lay there. Then he sat and swung his feet to the floor and got his boots and his jeans and pulled them on and put on his hat and walked out. The moon was almost full and it was cold and late and no smoke rose from the kitchen chimney. Mr Johnson was sitting on the back stoop in his duckingcoat smoking a cigarette. He looked up at John Grady and nodded. John Grady sat on the stoop beside him. What are you doin out here without your hat? he said.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI dont know. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYou all right?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYeah. I'm all right. Sometimes you miss bein outside at night. You want a cigarette?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNo thanks.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCould you not sleep either?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNo sir. I guess not.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHow's them new horses?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI think he done all right.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThem was some boogerish colts I seen penned up in the corral.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI think he's goin to sell off some of them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHorsetradin, the old man said. He shook his head. He smoked.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eDid you used to break horses, Mr Johnson?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSome. Mostly just what was required. I was never a twister in any sense of the word. I got hurt once pretty bad. You can get spooked and not know it. Just little things. You dont hardly even know it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut you like to ride.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI do. Margaret could outride me two to one though. As good a woman with a horse as I ever saw. Way bettern me. Hard thing for a man to admit but it's the truth.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYou worked for the Matadors didnt you?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYep. I did.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHow was that?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHard work. That's how it was.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI guess that aint changed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOh it probably has. Some. I was never in love with the cattle business. It's just the only one I ever knew.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe smoked.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCan I ask you somethin? said John Grady.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAsk it.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eHow old were you when you got married?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI was never married. Never found anybody that'd have me.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe looked at John Grady.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMargaret was my brother's girl. Him and his wife both was carried off in the influenza epidemic in nineteen and eighteen.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eI didnt know that.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe never really knowed her parents. She was just a baby. Well, five. Where's your coat at?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI'm all right.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI was in Fort Collins Colorado at the time. They sent for me. I shipped my horses and come back on the train with em. Dont catch cold out here now.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNo sir. I wont. I aint cold.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI had ever motivation in the world but I never could find one I thought would suit Margaret.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOne what?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWife. One wife. We finally just give it up. Probably a mistake. I dont know. Socorro pretty much raised her. She spoke better spanish than Socorro did. It's just awful hard. It liked to of killed Socorro. She still aint right. I dont expect she ever will be.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYessir.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe tried ever way in the world to spoil her rotten but it didnt take. I dont know why she turned out the way she did. It's just a miracle I guess you could say. I dont take no credit for it, I'll tell you that.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYessir.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLook yonder. The old man nodded toward the moon.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYou cant see em now. Wait a minute. No. They're gone.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat was it?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBirds flyin across the moon. Geese maybe. I dont know.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI didnt see em. Which way were they headed?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUpcountry. Probably headed for that marsh country on the river up around Belen.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYessir.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI used to love to ride of a night.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI did too.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eYou'll see things on the desert at night that you cant understand. Your horse will see things. He'll see things that will spook him of course but then he'll see things that dont spook him but still you know he seen somethin.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat sort of things?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI dont know.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYou mean like ghosts or somethin?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNo. I dont know what. You just knows he sees em. They're out there.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eNot just some class of varmint?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNo.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNot somethin that will booger him?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNo. It's more like somethin he knows about.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut you dont. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut you dont. Yes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe old man smoked. He watched the moon. No further birds flew. After a while he said: I aint talkin about spooks. It's more like just the way things are. If you only knew it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYessir.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe was up on the Platte River out of Ogallala one night and I was bedded down in my soogan out away from the camp. It was a moonlit night just about like tonight. Cold. Spring of the year. I woke up and I guess I'd heard em in my sleep and it was just this big whisperin sound all over and it was geese just by the thousands headed up the river. They passed for the better part of a hour. They blacked out the moon. I thought the herd would get up off the grounds but they didnt. I got up and walked out and stood watchin em and some of the other young waddies in the outfit they had got up too and we was all standin out there in our longjohns watchin. It was just this whisperin sound. They was up high and it wasnt loud or nothin and I wouldnt of thought about somethin like that a wakin us wore out as we was. I had a nighthorse in my string named Boozer and old Boozer he come to me. I reckon he thought the herd'd get up too but they didnt. And they was a snuffy bunch, too.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDid you ever have a stampede?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYes. We was drivin to Abilene in eighteen and eighty-five. I wasnt much more than a button. And we had got into it with a rep from one of the outfits and he followed us to where we crossed the Red River at Doane's store into Indian Territory. He knew we'd have a harder time gettin our stock back there and we did but we caught the old boy and it was him for you could still smell the coaloil on him. He come by in the night and set a cat on fire and thowed it onto the herd. I mean slung it. Walter Devereaux was comin in off the middle watch and he heard it and looked back. Said it looked like a comet goin out through there and just a squallin. Lord didnt they come up from there. It took us three days to shape that herd back and whenever we left out of there we was still missin forty some odd head lost or crippled or stole and two horses.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat happened to the boy?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe boy?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat threw the cat. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOh. Best I remember he didnt make out too well.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI guess not.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePeople will do anything.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYessir. They will.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eYou live long enough you'll see it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYessir. I have.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMr Johnson didnt answer. He flipped the butt of his cigarette out across the yard in a slow red arc.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAint nothin to burn out there. I remember when you could have grassfires in this country.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI didnt mean I'd seen everthing, John Grady said.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI know you didnt.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI just meant I'd seen things I'd as soon not of.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI know it. There's hard lessons in this world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat's the hardest?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI dont know. Maybe it's just that when things are gone they're gone. They aint comin back.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYessir.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThey sat. After a while the old man said: The day after my fiftieth birthday in March of nineteen and seventeen I rode into the old headquarters at the Wilde well and there was six dead wolves hangin on the fence. I rode along the fence and ran my hand along em. I looked at their eyes. A government trapper had brought em in the night before. They'd been killed with poison baits. Strychnine. Whatever. Up in the Sacramentos. A week later he brought in four more. I aint heard a wolf in this country since. I suppose that's a good thing. They can be hell on stock. But I guess I was always what you might call superstitious. I know I damn sure wasnt religious. And it had always seemed to me that somethin can live and die but that the kind of thing that they were was always there. I didnt know you could poison that. I aint heard a wolf howl in thirty odd years. I dont know where you'd go to hear one. There may not be any such a place.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen he walked back through the barn Billy was standing in the doorway.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHas he gone back to bed?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYeah.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat was he doin up?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eHe said he couldnt sleep. What were you?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eSame thing. You?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSame thing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSomethin in the air I reckon.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eI dont know.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat was he talkin about?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eJust stuff.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eWhat did he say?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI guess he said cattle could tell the difference between a flight of geese and a cat on fire.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMaybe you dont need to be hangin around him so much.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYou might be right.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYou all seem to have a lot in common.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eHe aint crazy, Billy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMaybe. But I dont know as you'd be the first one I'd come to for an opinion about it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI'm goin to bed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNight.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNight.National Bestseller Author of the National Book Award-winning All the Pretty Horses","brand":"Vintage","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303953060069,"sku":"NP9780679747192","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780679747192.jpg?v=1767723752","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/cities-of-the-plain-isbn-9780679747192","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}