***Hey everyone: Thank you so much for reading and commenting on this post! Many people enjoyed this one. I’ll try to do more book reviews. Please do consider *sharing* and *recommending* Sincere American Writing. I’d really appreciate it. It really helps. And if you like my work, please consider a paid subscription ❤️🤘
Excellent post, Michael. You back into the craft of writing so nicely, and give us your usual gems. Finding your narrative voice is no doubt the biggest challenge in writing. And what you say about how McCarthy, like Hem and countless other good writers, make it look easy. When I hear Joe Blow say he’s going to write a book, that it doesn’t look that hard, and he’ll self publish --not that there’s anything wrong with that--it’s a clear sign that Mr. Blow doesn’t understand the craft, how difficult it is to make writing seamless so that it flows, as if the author just sat down and the words poured out.
Yes, do more book reviews...your unique take on the writing brings together an entertaining read with workshop value.
The Green Apple! I no longer live in the Bay Area but know and remember every inch of that bookstore. It was in my neighborhood in the 1970s. My shelves still hold books from the Green Apple, some of my very favorites.
And Dostoevsky - an author I read kicking and screaming in college and ended up loving. This post made me stop for a moment and remember my time with him.
Your review makes me want to read the book now. I have read none of his work, nor have I seen the movie. I may now have to do both. Thanks for your perspective. I find it fascinating how readers respond differently to the written word.
Hmm, might have to check this one out. I honestly hated The Road and when I saw the film of Child of God I wanted to scream after the ending, so I'm not sure how well I'll get on with more of his books, but I'm always up for a challenge ;-)
Try it! Like I said I was skeptical going in. It took me multiple tries. I still don’t think I’d choose to spend a lot of uninterrupted time in McCarthy’s dark, grim world. That said: He does something special. Is it for everyone? No.
For me, without the final 50 pages of NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, the book would be a failure. It is only in traveling with Bell that we realize Moss was never the main character, and that the baldness of that unsuspecting, off-page death is an inditement on our culture. I best love a book that grapples with philosophy, and still wears like a long-owned jacket. It felt so personal.
I hear you. I don’t disagree completely. I understood it was Bell’s story long before the final 50 pages. (The italics sections give that away early on.) I agree with you about philosophy. I love authors like Dostoevsky and Don DeLillo who do much philosophizing amidst the fiction/plot. But personally—for me—with N.C.F.O.M., it didn’t seem necessary at the end. To me it felt like he piled all his deep philosophical thoughts at the terminus of the novel; I felt it would have been more effective to give us spits and spurts of it throughout instead of one thick jungle at the end. All that said: I still really enjoyed the novel. And of course this is only my humble opinion :) Thanks for reading! I truly appreciate your comment.
The way you felt about those pages in No Country is the way I felt about almost all of THE PASSENGER. I was so excited for that book, and it really fell flat for me. Some funny moments, and a great question at its heart, but nothing like his previous works.
"deep moral theorizing and thinking" is what we do after an event. There's just no answers to some situations. I read the book through nonstop when it was published, thinking of my 80 year old father standing next to his car that had a flat tire, as the freeway traffic whizzed by, waiting for someone would stop and help him...to no avail. It gave me an insight into what my father's perspective might be like. If I had been a older male reader, I might not have been able to face such a bald fact of life in modern American society.
Absolutely. I agree. The novel definitely tackles the degradation of kindness and community and values in general. And it was published in 2005. Eighteen years ago. Imagine now! How much worse has it become? Ya know? Anyway: Thank you for reading. I appreciate your astute comment :)
One of my all-time favorite authors. I saw the movie No Country for Old Men when it first came out (2007). During the movie I thought, "this writing has to be from a novel," so I watched the credits to see what book it was based on. I immediately bought the book and read, so back when I was a young man in my 40s (ha). I'd heard of McCarthy but hadn't read any of his stuff -- I thought he wrote Westerns and that wasn't my thing. I loved it. The book even better than the movie (as usual). Then I read All the Pretty Horses, Blood Meridian, and a couple of others I can't recall at the moment. Read The Road when it first came out. But No Country for Old Men is to this day one of my favorite novels of all time. I'm from Texas, and he nails the voice so well. As you said, suspenseful plot that you can't put down combined with the depth of powerful literary art. It's what I aspire to but will never come close to what McCarthy has done. The Passenger is on my to be read list, but haven't gotten there yet.
Awesome response! Yes: the voice feels extremely authentic to me. Glad you enjoyed it. I need to read more of his books now. Btw: I remember one two week period when I was 21, traveling throughout Texas as a roadie with my friend’s punk band. Lord we were drunk. Lord it was fun. Kindest people I can think of. Thanks for reading!
THE PASSENGER has its moments, but I was sad that it didn't have McCarthy's typical violence and sparseness. It feels like the Santa Fe Institute changed him a bit. I'm a rabid fan of the rest of his work with SUTTREE at the top.
Yes. Denis Johnson is among my favorites. JESUS' SON, TRAIN DREAMS, NOBODY MOVE, NAME OF THE WORLD. So dang good, and yes, I think SUTTREE inspired a lot of that work.
(My friend JP and I bought him a Sausage egg McMuffin and delivered it to him at his house in Northern Idaho. We were in the MFA program at EWU in Spokane and Cindy told us he'd think it was funny. He said thanks and literally shut the door in our faces.)
This is excellent and a good example in itself of the kind of fortitude required to write well at all.
I believe No Country for Old Men is prophetic in a screen writerly way. The fact of the kind of apocalypse he speaks of is made eminently clear by current events. We are in one - not knowing the final outcome. Highly uncertain.
McCarthy's novel places the gun over the fireplace knowing it will be fired before the end of the movie - but like us hoping as the gun is fired that it will not mean the worst possible outcome.
Thanks for writing. Yes it is. Everything I do is to try to figure a way out of this civilizational collapse. I so identify with McCarthy and his characters.
A fabulous author, but like all authors not all that glitters is gold. I'd list No Country For Old Men as silver: a novel that is part of the essential Cormac McCarthy experience, but just that. I heard somewhere McCarthy did write it with a movie adaptation in mind: not sure if it was the acclaimed movie that won Academy Awards, or something else. It explains some of the creative choices he took with the novel, like the relative sterility in his prose that contrasts with, say, the rich, Western vocabulary of Blood Meridian. His early novels are sadly underrated - Outer Dark and Child of God both belong on the essential Cormac shelf. Looking forward to reading The Passenger real soon! The first chapter, which I perused, hearkens back to that "sterile" prose he first used in No Country.
Very true about McCarthy and Franzen's abilities to blend plot and literary, which was rarely something questioned in the 19th century. Hope to accomplish a similar synergy with my novels.
No problem! Just subscribed but you've got some awesome posts. A bit of a classicist myself, so referring back to authors like Hemingway is always cool.
As for my works, I aim to be versatile. This year I plan on self-publishing three novels: a California coming-of-age tragedy, a phantasmagoric novella with an AI theme and a dystopia set in the Slavic world, as well as several short story chapbooks. All depends on if I work out the cover art, but so far so good!
Cormac McCarthy! His novels have been sitting on my shelf for a long time. I know one day I’ll want to pick them up. But the time must be right. I have to be in a mentally good place, at least, I feel.
I’m curious if you’ve read Emily St. John Mandel? Her prose style is so simple yet elegant. Her books are so special. I highly suggest Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility. They’re all non linear novels following an ensemble rather than a main character. She says the plot is made in the end, after rearranging the different passages in a specific order. I find this so interesting. A la Hemingway, she keeps the language simple, easy to digest. But it’s breathtaking. And yes, to achieve that is far from easy...
Maybe I’ll start with The Road though, I dig post apocalyptic.
The Road is great. I’ll try Mandel. Never heard of her. Lord I have too many books to read though. You too? Thanks for the read and the comment. Plot is great but many of us cherish the anecdotal literary approach of so much classic work :)
Same! I just found some internet wisdom the other day that went something like “Don’t see the books you buy as evermore TBR piles... Like wine, you collect them to read at the right place in the right time” - by which I mean: you won’t regret having Mandel in that collection. A contemporary gem. I love Zadie Smith and have read almost all of hers! Brilliant in her interviews as well...
Haven't read it yet since it's McCarthy's darker side that appeals to me. But Suttree is known as the lighter, more comedic McCarthy novel. It's a bigger book than his other stuff, but by all accounts I've only heard good things said about it.
Well said my friend: I agree. It makes me think of Dostoevsky, who in the 1860s-1880s wrote stunning work that somehow managed to be both literary and plot-driven. You’re right: Good writing has to do both. Some of the newer work out there seems a little too ‘MFA-y.’ That said: Ottessa Moshfegh and Zadie Smith always do me good :)
Hi Jane. I saw your previous comments from a few posts ago. You had been paying and then stopped. I understand your perspective. You’re correct about superlative versus superfluous. It’s not a lack of vocabulary knowledge; honestly it’s that I’m writing a tad too fast and I have a lot going on. I noted it. That said: Repeatedly pointing out minor typos or misused words is a tactless thing to do. Please unsubscribe and stop doing so.
***Hey everyone: Thank you so much for reading and commenting on this post! Many people enjoyed this one. I’ll try to do more book reviews. Please do consider *sharing* and *recommending* Sincere American Writing. I’d really appreciate it. It really helps. And if you like my work, please consider a paid subscription ❤️🤘
Excellent post, Michael. You back into the craft of writing so nicely, and give us your usual gems. Finding your narrative voice is no doubt the biggest challenge in writing. And what you say about how McCarthy, like Hem and countless other good writers, make it look easy. When I hear Joe Blow say he’s going to write a book, that it doesn’t look that hard, and he’ll self publish --not that there’s anything wrong with that--it’s a clear sign that Mr. Blow doesn’t understand the craft, how difficult it is to make writing seamless so that it flows, as if the author just sat down and the words poured out.
Yes, do more book reviews...your unique take on the writing brings together an entertaining read with workshop value.
Agree with your assessment of Mr. Blow!
Have you read 'Blood Meridian'? It's one of my top ten American novels.
I need to!!
I love McCarthy and have been a deep reader for reasons you give voice to--but don't think Franzen earned the comparison. Have you read Freedom?
Yeah, Franzen is a bit of a divisive author I think, interestingly. My mom tried Freedom and couldn’t get past 50 pages. I loved it.
The Green Apple! I no longer live in the Bay Area but know and remember every inch of that bookstore. It was in my neighborhood in the 1970s. My shelves still hold books from the Green Apple, some of my very favorites.
Love me some Green Apple!
And Dostoevsky - an author I read kicking and screaming in college and ended up loving. This post made me stop for a moment and remember my time with him.
Yes!!! Ole Dost was a madman genius.
Your review makes me want to read the book now. I have read none of his work, nor have I seen the movie. I may now have to do both. Thanks for your perspective. I find it fascinating how readers respond differently to the written word.
Yes! Ditto. Me too. Give it a read. Report back. I’d be curious as to your take.
Hmm, might have to check this one out. I honestly hated The Road and when I saw the film of Child of God I wanted to scream after the ending, so I'm not sure how well I'll get on with more of his books, but I'm always up for a challenge ;-)
Try it! Like I said I was skeptical going in. It took me multiple tries. I still don’t think I’d choose to spend a lot of uninterrupted time in McCarthy’s dark, grim world. That said: He does something special. Is it for everyone? No.
For me, without the final 50 pages of NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, the book would be a failure. It is only in traveling with Bell that we realize Moss was never the main character, and that the baldness of that unsuspecting, off-page death is an inditement on our culture. I best love a book that grapples with philosophy, and still wears like a long-owned jacket. It felt so personal.
I hear you. I don’t disagree completely. I understood it was Bell’s story long before the final 50 pages. (The italics sections give that away early on.) I agree with you about philosophy. I love authors like Dostoevsky and Don DeLillo who do much philosophizing amidst the fiction/plot. But personally—for me—with N.C.F.O.M., it didn’t seem necessary at the end. To me it felt like he piled all his deep philosophical thoughts at the terminus of the novel; I felt it would have been more effective to give us spits and spurts of it throughout instead of one thick jungle at the end. All that said: I still really enjoyed the novel. And of course this is only my humble opinion :) Thanks for reading! I truly appreciate your comment.
The way you felt about those pages in No Country is the way I felt about almost all of THE PASSENGER. I was so excited for that book, and it really fell flat for me. Some funny moments, and a great question at its heart, but nothing like his previous works.
"deep moral theorizing and thinking" is what we do after an event. There's just no answers to some situations. I read the book through nonstop when it was published, thinking of my 80 year old father standing next to his car that had a flat tire, as the freeway traffic whizzed by, waiting for someone would stop and help him...to no avail. It gave me an insight into what my father's perspective might be like. If I had been a older male reader, I might not have been able to face such a bald fact of life in modern American society.
Absolutely. I agree. The novel definitely tackles the degradation of kindness and community and values in general. And it was published in 2005. Eighteen years ago. Imagine now! How much worse has it become? Ya know? Anyway: Thank you for reading. I appreciate your astute comment :)
One of my all-time favorite authors. I saw the movie No Country for Old Men when it first came out (2007). During the movie I thought, "this writing has to be from a novel," so I watched the credits to see what book it was based on. I immediately bought the book and read, so back when I was a young man in my 40s (ha). I'd heard of McCarthy but hadn't read any of his stuff -- I thought he wrote Westerns and that wasn't my thing. I loved it. The book even better than the movie (as usual). Then I read All the Pretty Horses, Blood Meridian, and a couple of others I can't recall at the moment. Read The Road when it first came out. But No Country for Old Men is to this day one of my favorite novels of all time. I'm from Texas, and he nails the voice so well. As you said, suspenseful plot that you can't put down combined with the depth of powerful literary art. It's what I aspire to but will never come close to what McCarthy has done. The Passenger is on my to be read list, but haven't gotten there yet.
Awesome response! Yes: the voice feels extremely authentic to me. Glad you enjoyed it. I need to read more of his books now. Btw: I remember one two week period when I was 21, traveling throughout Texas as a roadie with my friend’s punk band. Lord we were drunk. Lord it was fun. Kindest people I can think of. Thanks for reading!
THE PASSENGER has its moments, but I was sad that it didn't have McCarthy's typical violence and sparseness. It feels like the Santa Fe Institute changed him a bit. I'm a rabid fan of the rest of his work with SUTTREE at the top.
I’ll try Suttree next :)
You will not regret it. I suspect, though there's no proof to back this up, that SUTTREE was the inspiration for some of Denis Johnson's best work.
Really?! I love Johnson. Dig that gritty, raw voice.
Yes. Denis Johnson is among my favorites. JESUS' SON, TRAIN DREAMS, NOBODY MOVE, NAME OF THE WORLD. So dang good, and yes, I think SUTTREE inspired a lot of that work.
(My friend JP and I bought him a Sausage egg McMuffin and delivered it to him at his house in Northern Idaho. We were in the MFA program at EWU in Spokane and Cindy told us he'd think it was funny. He said thanks and literally shut the door in our faces.)
This is excellent and a good example in itself of the kind of fortitude required to write well at all.
I believe No Country for Old Men is prophetic in a screen writerly way. The fact of the kind of apocalypse he speaks of is made eminently clear by current events. We are in one - not knowing the final outcome. Highly uncertain.
McCarthy's novel places the gun over the fireplace knowing it will be fired before the end of the movie - but like us hoping as the gun is fired that it will not mean the worst possible outcome.
I think you’re dead right about us being ‘there’ now. Scary. Tragic. Absurd. Thanks for reading and commenting!
Thanks for writing. Yes it is. Everything I do is to try to figure a way out of this civilizational collapse. I so identify with McCarthy and his characters.
I do too in many ways.
A fabulous author, but like all authors not all that glitters is gold. I'd list No Country For Old Men as silver: a novel that is part of the essential Cormac McCarthy experience, but just that. I heard somewhere McCarthy did write it with a movie adaptation in mind: not sure if it was the acclaimed movie that won Academy Awards, or something else. It explains some of the creative choices he took with the novel, like the relative sterility in his prose that contrasts with, say, the rich, Western vocabulary of Blood Meridian. His early novels are sadly underrated - Outer Dark and Child of God both belong on the essential Cormac shelf. Looking forward to reading The Passenger real soon! The first chapter, which I perused, hearkens back to that "sterile" prose he first used in No Country.
Very true about McCarthy and Franzen's abilities to blend plot and literary, which was rarely something questioned in the 19th century. Hope to accomplish a similar synergy with my novels.
Yes! It has a very cinematic feel to it, for sure. Valid observation. Thanks for reading. What kind of novels do you write?
No problem! Just subscribed but you've got some awesome posts. A bit of a classicist myself, so referring back to authors like Hemingway is always cool.
As for my works, I aim to be versatile. This year I plan on self-publishing three novels: a California coming-of-age tragedy, a phantasmagoric novella with an AI theme and a dystopia set in the Slavic world, as well as several short story chapbooks. All depends on if I work out the cover art, but so far so good!
Fantastic! Thank you! Sounds like you’ve got a lot of creative juice. I love that. Keep writing!
Cormac McCarthy! His novels have been sitting on my shelf for a long time. I know one day I’ll want to pick them up. But the time must be right. I have to be in a mentally good place, at least, I feel.
I’m curious if you’ve read Emily St. John Mandel? Her prose style is so simple yet elegant. Her books are so special. I highly suggest Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility. They’re all non linear novels following an ensemble rather than a main character. She says the plot is made in the end, after rearranging the different passages in a specific order. I find this so interesting. A la Hemingway, she keeps the language simple, easy to digest. But it’s breathtaking. And yes, to achieve that is far from easy...
Maybe I’ll start with The Road though, I dig post apocalyptic.
Two contemporary authors who have less plot and more literary heft are: Zadie Smith and Ottessa Moshfegh.
The Road is great. I’ll try Mandel. Never heard of her. Lord I have too many books to read though. You too? Thanks for the read and the comment. Plot is great but many of us cherish the anecdotal literary approach of so much classic work :)
Same! I just found some internet wisdom the other day that went something like “Don’t see the books you buy as evermore TBR piles... Like wine, you collect them to read at the right place in the right time” - by which I mean: you won’t regret having Mandel in that collection. A contemporary gem. I love Zadie Smith and have read almost all of hers! Brilliant in her interviews as well...
Yes! Agree on all counts. I saw Smith talk at 92nd Street Y in NYC 2019. Brilliant.
Haven't read it yet since it's McCarthy's darker side that appeals to me. But Suttree is known as the lighter, more comedic McCarthy novel. It's a bigger book than his other stuff, but by all accounts I've only heard good things said about it.
Awesome. I’ll check it out!
Well said my friend: I agree. It makes me think of Dostoevsky, who in the 1860s-1880s wrote stunning work that somehow managed to be both literary and plot-driven. You’re right: Good writing has to do both. Some of the newer work out there seems a little too ‘MFA-y.’ That said: Ottessa Moshfegh and Zadie Smith always do me good :)
Hi Jane. I saw your previous comments from a few posts ago. You had been paying and then stopped. I understand your perspective. You’re correct about superlative versus superfluous. It’s not a lack of vocabulary knowledge; honestly it’s that I’m writing a tad too fast and I have a lot going on. I noted it. That said: Repeatedly pointing out minor typos or misused words is a tactless thing to do. Please unsubscribe and stop doing so.