The Cowboy

 All The Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy is a cowboy novel. It's fairly modern in its setting though because radios, cars, and trains are referenced. The hero, however, John Grady Cole is an anachronism. He would have been more at ease a hundred years earlier. He also would have fit in a more chivalrous era. He's a cowboy's cowboy, always doing the correct thing and damn the consequences.

John Grady and a friend leave home and travel south to Mexico. The two teenagers meet another teen, Blevins, and they become a threesome. Although, the last kid causes a tragedy. He is afraid of lightning and leaves his horse and runs off and hides. The horse runs off, too. Someone picks up the horse and when Blevins finds it, he is accused of horse stealing and shot for it.
Grady and his friend, Rawlins work as rancheros. On the ranch, Grady falls in love. But it doesn't work out. His heart is broken. The girl's father has them arrested because they were involved with the horse thief. They end up in a Mexican prison. They barely survive.

Life goes on. Doesn't it always and anyways?