Cormac McCarthy

[fredtoast]

Just finished "Blood Meridian". McCarthy is an amazing writer, but that was the darkest, most depressing book I have ever read.

Anyone read anything else by him? I have read up most of the books by my favorite authors. I really like McCarthy's style, but I am not plowing through another book like that if it is just more mindless, soulless, violence in grotesque sub-human living conditions.

[Westwood Bengal]

I've read The Road. It is a well written novel for sure. The experience I remember most vividly about that text was how for nearly all of the book, the dialogue was sparse at best, and painfully repetitive at times.

And then near the end of the road (couldn't resist), there is this conversation between the main character and some random vagrant they meet, and it is profoundly existential and deeply humanizing. It really made the read worth it, as up to that point it was damn near impossible to enjoy due to the content.

It was like McCarthy went from a novels worth of Hemingway, juxtaposed with a chapter of Faulkner.

I think I will read No Country for Old Men next.

[fredtoast]

(11-13-2018, 11:09 PM)Westwood Bengal Wrote: I've read The Road. It is a well written novel for sure. The experience I remember most vividly about that text was how for nearly all of the book, the dialogue was sparse at best, and painfully repetitive at times.

And then near the end of the road (couldn't resist), there is this conversation between the main character and some random vagrant they meet, and it is profoundly existential and deeply humanizing. It really made the read worth it, as up to that point it was damn near impossible to enjoy due to the content.

It was like McCarthy went from a novels worth of Hemingway, juxtaposed with a chapter of Faulkner.

I think I will read No Country for Old Men next.

"The Road" was going to be my next choice because it is the one I have heard the most about.  But the subject matter sounds just as depressing as "Blood Meridian".

I like his style so much that I will read something else by him, but I am going to research and see what he has done that is not so "heavy".

[*michaelsean*]

Ive never heard of him, I read a lot of historical fiction, but now I’m intrigued but a hesitant. I do read modern books but they are usually ongoing characters. Ben Hope, Alex Delaware, Jack Reacher. Pretty easy reads. The hero always wins. Don’t know if I want to get depressed.

[fredtoast]

(11-15-2018, 08:29 AM)michaelsean Wrote: Ive never heard of him, I read a lot of historical fiction, but now I’m intrigued but a hesitant.  I do read modern books but they are usually ongoing characters. Ben Hope, Alex Delaware, Jack Reacher. Pretty easy reads. The hero always wins. Don’t know if I want to get depressed.

"Blood Meridian" is historical fiction about a gang of scalp hunters in 1850's Mexico/Texas.  Some of the main characters really existed.  But the book is mostly mindless violence and terrible suffering with some philosophical ramblings about war and the nature of man.

[*michaelsean*]

(11-15-2018, 10:56 AM)fredtoast Wrote: "Blood Meridian" is historical fiction about a gang of scalp hunters in 1850's Mexico/Texas.  Some of the main characters really existed.  But the book is mostly mindless violence and terrible suffering with some philosophical ramblings about war and the nature of man.

So did you like it but it was depressing or you just didn’t like it?

[fredtoast]

(11-15-2018, 11:04 AM)michaelsean Wrote: So did you like it but it was depressing or you just didn’t like it?

I liked his style.  He is an excellent writer.  It was just a very dark book.

[fredtoast]

Just ordered "Suttree" from Amazon.

Set in Knoxville, so I figured I had to give it a chance.

[*michaelsean*]

(11-16-2018, 06:58 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Just ordered "Suttree" from Amazon.

Set in Knoxville, so I figured I had to give it a chance.

Do they still have Gay St? I remember before the bypass we had to go through part of Knoxville to get from 75 to 40 and as kids we thought that was the funniest thing ever.

[fredtoast]

(11-16-2018, 07:02 PM)michaelsean Wrote: Do they still have Gay St?  I remember before the bypass we had to go through part of Knoxville to get from 75 to 40 and as kids we thought that was the funniest thing ever.

Yep.  That is the main street through downtown.  The bridge over the Tennessee River that you see in photos of Knoxville is the Gay Street Brideg.

[Truck_1_0_1_]

My father has been a fan of his since the 80s (or early 90s, whenever he started getting published) and has read each and every one his books, some multiple times.

I believe, "All the Pretty Horses," is his favourite book, but he likes all of them.

[samhain]

I remember watching The Sunset Limited years ago. It was depressing as hell.

[grampahol]

I'm a fan of Stienbeck, pretty depressing stuff, but usually has some uplifting stuff mingled in.
I got into reading Charles Dickens which took me awhile to get used to a lot of archain language. Nice thing about Kindle for such old writing is the ability to look up the wording on the fly to keep it in context.  

[fredtoast]

(11-18-2018, 04:51 PM)grampahol Wrote: I'm a fan of Stienbeck, pretty depressing stuff, but usually has some uplifting stuff mingled in.

Steinbeck wrote some more lighthearted stuff like "Cannery Row", and "Tortilla Flat".  They were a lot about poor people, but they were not really depressing.

I can even handle stories about extreme hardship if they have some note of personal triumph or honorable sacrifice, but "Blood Meridian" was just soulless murder and mayhem followed by more soulless murder and mayhem finally wrapped up with a violent pointless ending.

[fredtoast]

(11-16-2018, 06:58 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Just ordered "Suttree" from Amazon.

Set in Knoxville, so I figured I had to give it a chance.

So I finished this book and it was excellent.  McCarthy has a very complex style but I really enjoy it.  "Suttree" dealt with a lot of hardships and pathos, but it also had some very funny characters and situations.

It was also interesting to read a book set in a town I know so well.  I recognized all the landmarks he mentioned in Knoxville and all the surrounding towns.  One thing that fascinated me was that Suttree hung with a group from a poor part of Knoxville called "McAnally"and I had never heard of that neighborhood.  I thought McCarthy had made it up, but the book was set in the early 1950's and at the end that neighborhood was razed in order to build the new highways (I-75, I-40) that cut through the city.

I have already ordered "All the Pretty Horses". I doubt I will read "The Road" because it sound more relentlessly depressing like "Blood Meridian".