Cormac McCarthy is now best known to the reading public for "No Country for Old Men" and "The Road" mainly because the former was made into a movie and the later was, incredibly, on Opra's book selection.

But he was first known for a trilogy, "All the Pretty Horses," "The Crossing" and "Cities of the Plain."

"All the Pretty Horses" was made into an unwatchable movie and has a catchy title, but of these three, Cities of the Plain is my favorite yet is probably the most overlooked.

I hope it is never made into a movie.

A plot summary will not do it justice. A poor ranch hand in hard scrabble southern New Mexico hand falls in love with an-illstarred young Mexican prostitute in Juarez. Sounds like a cliched plot, no?

But that's just the plot. It is the literary quality of McCormac's writing that keeps me coming back, and this is one of his finest. But to tell you the truth, all three of these books blend together in my mind. I suppose that is why they're referred to as a trilogy.