I was going to say the same thing. McCarthy, in my opinion sets the benchmark for storytelling. Not only All The Pretty Horses, but the entire Border Trilogy (All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, and Cities of the Plain) really changed my perception of the depth of storytelling and emotional involvement achievable with the written word. Perhaps because in Billy and John (characters) I felt he had created kindred spirits to myself. But also in the way he describes the landscapes that his characters move through. I’ve always loved the arid west and McCarthy writes about it in a way that can only come from personal experience. I hunt Coues deer in parts of AZ that Billy and Boyd passed through in The Crossing and he certainly did a great job of conveying the loneliness, the wild of that country. These things can be very personal though.
I highly recommend those books. They changed the way I assess a story, an author. I always felt Steinbeck created a similar portal into his stories. Tortilla Flat, Grapes of Wrath, The Pearl, Cannery Row.
Legends of the Fall is a compilation of a few Jim Harrison stories. Excellent as well.
