Cormac McCarthy (1933-2023)

J

Johnny

Well-known member
Liam said:
[quietly dying inside] ?
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This is terrible news. It seems that there has been some huge losses over the last while, Marias, Amis and now McCarthy and I’m sure many more. He is a huge loss, a giant of literature and a fascinating man.
 
nagisa

nagisa

Spiky member
Who has read his late duology, Stella Maris & The Passenger? I've read most of his masterful output, and I'm glad we got a late work.

Will go and (re)read his sole (afaik) essay, The Kekulé Problem, here. The origin of language — he imprinted it like no other.

I wonder if this has reshuffled the SA's reading list...
 
hayden

hayden

Well-known member
Knew this day would come, but for some reason I still wasn't expecting it to be now. While I've read his most popular works (four of them), I've yet to pick up Suttree (which, based on the description, should already be on my shelf somewhere) —

And as much as I loved all four of those works, all Cormac really needed was Blood Meridian. It's a perfect American epic.
(And while the Coen's get due credit for that haircut, No Country For Old Men is also a flawless work)— two of my all time favourites.
Loved his use of minimalism— dousing stories with this nonchalantness without skimping on overall grit. Painted the blank canvas as to how the neo-western should be shaped.
Beauty amid bloodstains.
One of the best.
 
Mise Eire

Mise Eire

Reader
The nytimes article from OP is behind a paywall (for me) but the 3 listed books in the headline are a far cry from his Magnum Opus Blood Meridian. That book is in the top 3 of All N. American novels ever written. I was somewhat heartened to learn that my reading experience of this novel mirrored that of critic Harold Bloom. Like him, I abandoned the text on first reading. He eschewed the frequent violent content. Me, I was not in the right frame of mind at the time for reading such a complex dense work. You really have to give yourself over to an immersion in an extended concentrated reading experience for this novel, to do it justice. As many others have pointed out, the Judge character is just on another level from what is normally encountered on the printed page. At the end, you know with certainty you have just finished a fantastically weird novel, the likes of which you very rarely encounter.
 
Leseratte

Leseratte

Well-known member
nagisa said:
Who has read his late duology, Stella Maris & The Passenger? I've read most of his masterful output, and I'm glad we got a late work.

Will go and (re)read his sole (afaik) essay, The Kekulé Problem, here. The origin of language — he imprinted it like no other.

I wonder if this has reshuffled the SA's reading list...
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Thanks, but it's behind paywall.
 
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Leseratte

Leseratte

Well-known member
Daniel del Real said:
I haven't read much about him, but Blood Meridian is a tremendous novel and Judge Holden is one of the most terrifying and better constructed incarnations of evil I've ever read.
He deserved the Nobel and not fucking Bob Dylan.
nagisa said:
Who has read his late duology, Stella Maris & The Passenger? I've read most of his masterful output, and I'm glad we got a late work.

Will go and (re)read his sole (afaik) essay, The Kekulé Problem, here. The origin of language — he imprinted it like no other.

I wonder if this has reshuffled the SA's reading list...
Click to expand...
But it's behind paywall..
Click to expand...
 
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