Cormac McCarthy- American Author Challenge

Cormac McCarthy, was born July 20, 1933, in Providence Rhode Island. He is an American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. He has written ten novels, spanning the Southern Gothic, Western, and post-apocalyptic genres. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Road (2006).

**This is part of our American Author Challenge 2014. This author will be read in March. The general discussion thread can be found right here:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/162960

I have read six of McCarthy's novels, including The Border Trilogy and the nightmarish Blood Meridian. This time I will finally read Suttree which has been quietly sitting on a shelf for years.

I'll be reading All the Pretty Horses.

I've never read McCarthy before. I'll give All the Pretty Horses a try.

I seem to remember reading The Road and not liking it, but every author deserves a second try.

I'm going with All the Pretty Horses too! It's been on my shelf for awhile and gratefully taking this opportunity to read it.

Lois, Linda & Lynda- I think All the Pretty Horses is a very good place to start. Enjoy! I actually read that one twice. I think I did a reread before the film version came out.

I gave The Road 8 out of 10 stars. However, I saw the movie No Country for Old Men and hated it. So, I have no idea how I'll feel about my choice for March, All the Pretty Horses.

I will read All the Pretty Horses because it will fit in with my 2014 Challenge Category for westerns.

All the Pretty Horses for me, too.

It's Suttree for me; seems like the least intimidating/violent one. I hope.

I've read All the Pretty Horses, but not the rest of the Border Trilogy. So I think I'm going to start from the top and read all three...

Morphy- No Country is one of my all-time film adaptations. Just about as good as the book. Sorry, it didn't work for you.

Jim- That's a great plan! The other 2 books are excellent too!

I am glad to hear the All the Pretty Horses is a good choice--That's what I thought I would read.

I read most of McCarthy, the only one I didn't like was The Road as it didn't feel as original, I'd read it before somehow (though the film they made from it stood up).

I'll read No Country For Old Men next month, one of two I haven't read (though I saw the disturbing film). All the Pretty Horses is still my favourite.

>13 msf59: Well, you like dark and disturbing stuff, Mark. So I'm not surprised it was right up your alley!

I've read a lot of Cormac McCarthy, and loved All the Pretty Horses, the rest of the Border Trilogy, Blood Meridian, No Country, and The Road. He's one of my favorite authors.

I haven't read Suttree, so I'll look forward to hearing what Mark thinks of that one. I'm going to try The Orchard Keeper.

Joe- I think The Orchard Keeper was his first book, so it'll be interesting to hear how he sounded, in the early days.

Joining in this month of the American Author Challenge as I have a copy of The Road sitting on my TBR bookcase. The only McCarthy I have read is Suttree which I loved.... some beautiful descriptive writing in that one!

It will be The Road for me. I've ear-read All the Pretty Horses and enjoyed it, and saw the movie of No Country For Old Men and enjoyed it, and I love dystopias so I have high hopes for this one.

I think I will also be reading The Road. It has been on my shelf for a while now.

I'm on the same path as Morphy. I hated (and I don't use that word much) the movie of no Country for Old Men. Never read the book and don't intend to.

However, I really liked The Road and gave it 4 stars. I know it was a bleak setting, but I thought the story was good.

So - I will be trying All the Pretty Horses with cautious enthusiasm and hope no horses die. After the Faulkner disappointment (which I am happy for since I can now give up on him), I sure hope McCarthy trilogy is a good one. If the first book isn't, at least there are 2 more books I don't have to put on my burgeoning WL ;-)

Also planning to read All the Pretty Horses. Unprepared, unspoiled, let's see how it turns out! :-)

Well, I've had The Road on my shelf forever. Perhaps this is the month to give it a try.

ETA: It seems like I might like All the Pretty Horses....

I'll also be reading All the Pretty Horses - I've had this on the shelves forever, it seems. I know it moved with us from Indiana to Georgia.

All the Pretty Horses is the one that got me started with Cormac McCarthy, and I loved it. I hope it works for all of you.

I have read All the Pretty Horses before but I think, in my current unadventurous mood, I will do a re-read. I've got it on the Kindle, too, and can make the font work for me.

I plan on starting Suttree in about a week or so. I think Donna is joining me on this one. Anyone else?

>25 Crazymamie:: I love that, Mamie. If a book moves halfway across the country with you (and they do, of course) it probably means you should read it. :-)

Ha! I will be sure to get to it this month (well, March), Ellen!

I'll be reading Suttree too. I've read All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, No Country for Old Men, The Stonemason (a play), and Child of God.

I don't think I've chimed in, but I'm reading Suttree. It's set here in East Tennessee, so that's why I picked it!

I'm looking forward to reading Suttree with such an illustrious group! I hope to start sometime in the second week of March.

Yah, for Suttree! It looks like most will be reading that and All the Pretty Horses. Should be another great AAC month.

I'll be reading either The Road or Blood Meridian, possibly The Crossing. I still don't know which.

Just a heads up if anyone is still looking for a McCarthy book, Amazon's Kindle Daily Deal includes books that inspired award winning movies and they've got No Country for Old Men for $2.99.

Sweet. Gotta love those special prices.

Our RL book discussion group did No Country for Old Men several years ago. Powerful book!

Much against my better judgment, I'm going to read No Country for Old Men just to confirm my prejudice against this man. I mean, to see if I like him better now that I'm so old I have to eat baby food. I mean...

I just got No Country for Old Men today. It's going in my virtual KindleTBR pile.

I got No Country for Old Men on the Daily Deal yesterday too. It seems like fate, so I'll be reading it for McCarthy March.

I'm 25 pages into All the Pretty Horses and am BORED! Another 10 pages and I can Pearl Rule it.

Finished All the Pretty Horses. Well, you can't love all authors, can you? Maybe I wasn't in the right mood or it was too close to Faulkner in February and to a Hemingway in January (GR in 1001 group). I just couldn't connect. And then all that violence, and I read it's one off his less violent works.
I can see how the writing can be called great, I just prefer different styles. Not a bad read for me, but I am in no hurry to get to his other books.

I have a feeling McCarthy is an author who's going to get quite a divided response. I loved All the Pretty Horses (and lots of his others); my daughter had it taught in an English class and hated it. He's an author we joke about, as we share of lot of common book loves otherwise.

The Orchard Keeper is well done so far, although it sure has some unsavory characters.

ETA: I have re-read the ending of All the Pretty Horses several times, as it just knocked me out.

#44: loved the last part, it quite saved the book for me.

>44 jnwelch: >45 Deern: OK- I'll keep going.

I've checked All the Pretty Horses out from the library, but haven't started it yet. I've read McCarthy before -- I found No Country for Old Men profound, but disturbing. Given my already grim mood this winter, I'm not eager to give this a go.

.47 I'm about halfway through All the Pretty Horses. So far, it is rather mundane. The last half must be interesting!

Oh Lois don't tell me that! I've just started AtPH and so not in the mood for mundane :0(
Are the first 96 pages Chapter 1 or Part 1? I wonder if McCarthy wants the reader to swallow this section whole. Hmmmm

>49 Carmenere: I actually resorted to sparknotes to help me understand this book! Here is a link: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/allthepretty/section1.rhtml. They analyze Chapter 1 in 2 parts; Part 1 covers the time until John Brady leaves for Mexico; Part 2 covers the rest of the chapter. I highly recommend reading these notes as you complete each part.

ETA: Hang in there - it does get better. He is excellent at setting the scene - you really feel like you are in Mexico!

Thanks for the link, Lois. I will indeed use it and the break down of chapter 1 is very helpful.

ETA: Great! I really need to feel like I'm in Mexico about now. Sun! Warmth! Margaritas! OK will maybe not in this book but just the thought of warmth is thrilling.

I think you just have to get used to McCarthy's laid-back style. If you are able to lock in, I think he really soars.

Lois- Thanks for the tutorial link. That should be very useful.

"Sun! Warmth! Margaritas!" Now, you are talking!

I plan on starting Suttree today. Yah!

For me, ATPH really took off when they hit the Mexico border. But I liked the laid-back style Mark mentions before that, too.

I'm going to check out Lois's tutorial link - thanks!

The Orchard Keeper is good so far. Centers around two men, the orchard keeper and a bootlegger, and a boy who ends up helping them, in rural eastern Tennessee. They're all connected in ways they don't know about.

>52 msf59: I've started Suttree, and I think it's just stunning. Only made it through about 50 pages, because I've probably re-read most of each page at least once...that's not a detriment to my enjoyment, but others may balk at the density of this prose. It will be slow going, but I think I'm going to love every minute of it. He's already made me laugh out loud once.

I started The Road this morning, and I'm hooked!

All the Pretty Horses ***

The story started very slow, but midway through the very long first chapter, the story began to pick up pace. I stayed with it primarily for the American Authors challenge. Cormac McCarthy is a master of descriptive writing and that is what made the book enjoyable. And with the help of Sparknotes, it was understandable.

You know, I have been thinking I would actually skip another month of Mark's challenge, but I'm getting tempted by The Road. My March dance card is a bit full but I may try to shoehorn this one in.....

"...fellowship of the doomed."

^ I started Suttree. I did not expect it to be so dark and dense, more Blood Meridian than Pretty Horses. I also did not realize it was such a big book. Nearly 500 pages. This one will take awhile. It demands to be savored.

>54 laytonwoman3rd:- I am so glad you are enjoying it! Those first few pages were tough! LOL. There is no question he is a disciple of Faulkner.

>58 msf59: Yes, I'm finding it easier going now, Mark, nearing 100 pages.

The Orchard Keeper, his first, was very good. Wonderful descriptive passages of rural eastern Tennessee. The overall story, involving an elderly orchard keeper, a bootlegger, and a boy who helps them both, is more low key than others of his I've read. The writing is beautiful - the only way you might tell this is his first is the power of his later plotting.

I've started All the Pretty Horses. This is only the second McCarthy I've read, the first being No Country For Old Men a number of years ago for a book discussion group. I am enjoying it so far. I love how he paints images with words. This description of a passing train just before sunrise really caught my fancy starting on the first page:

As he turned to go he heard the train. He stopped and waited for it. He could feel it under his feet. It came boring out of the east like some ribald satellite of the coming sun howling and bellowing in the distance and the long light of the headlamp running through the tangled mesquite brakes and creating out of the night the endless fenceline down the dead straight right of way and sucking it back again wire and post mile on mile into the darkness after where the boilersmoke disbanded slowly along the faint new horizon and the sound came lagging and he stood still holding his hat in his hands in the passing ground-shudder watching it till it was gone. Then he turned and went back to the house.

He gives a few short sentences, then one long, run-on sentence, an unstoppable barrage of words themselves like a freight train running on and on. And then it's gone, with another short sentence to bracket the experience as he goes into the house.

It's lovely, expressive writing that epitomizes the writers' classic adage, "show, rather than tell."

>61 tymfos: Brilliant. Suttree is full of moments like that too.

"In the nights sometimes now he'd wake in the black and freezing waste out of softly colored worlds of human love, the songs of birds, the sun." (The Road, page 272)

Finished this one up this afternoon and rated it 4.5 stars. I'm still mulling over what I want to say about it...

Terri- I loved your thoughts and the quote from Pretty Horses. Perfect.

Katie- Great quote!

"Tottering to his feet he stood reeling in that apocalyptic waste like some biblical relic in a world no one would have."

-Suttree in the grip of a massive hangover.

>65 msf59: Didn't you really really need a bath and a hot cup of tea after reading that section, Mark? MAN, can he write.

Actually, I needed a hot shower and a cold beer! LOL!

I happened on a little travelogue about ancient Ireland this morning, and heard a tidbit about the "original" Cormac McCarthy, Cormac Mac Carthaigh a 12th century King. Not a lot of information about him, but I thought I'd share.

I just started All the Pretty Horses. Not far enough in to tell whether I'll like it. With the comments here, I think it's unclear as to whether I will like it but I'm willing to give it a try.

As I read All the Pretty Horses I am reminded of the writing style of Steinbeck especially in the descriptive sunsets, sunrises and the phases of the moon. I am finding a lot of humor in Part I and all set to begin Part II.

"That was in nineteen and thirty-one and if I live to be a hunnerd year old I don't think I'll ever see anything as pretty as that train on fire goin up that mountain and around that bend and then flames lightin up the snow and the trees and the night."

“Curious the small and lesser fates that join to lead a man to this. The thousand brawls and stoven jaws, the clubbings and the broken bottles and the little knives that come from nowhere. For him perhaps it all was done in silence, or how would it sound, the shot that fired the bullet that lay already in his brain? These small enigmas of time and space and death.”

-Suttree

I am entering the 2nd half of this wonderful book. Will this be 3 great AAC books in a row?

LoisB! Thanks again for those sparknotes! It took All the Pretty Horses to a new level, one which I would surely have missed without the cheat sheet. Beautiful read.

>72 Carmenere: You are welcome! I read the Sparknotes summary at the end of each chapter/half-chapter to see what I had missed. There were a lot of details that I had overlooked.

>61 tymfos: what a great quote!

I just finished The Road... It was exceptionally told, but pretty bleak for me. I had a tough time with the hopelessness of the situation throughout the story. But I've also been in a very stressful place work wise so maybe this wasn't the best time to read this one for me...

From The Orchard Keeper:

The dace skittered into the channel and a watersnake uncurled from a rock at the far bank and glided down the slight current, no more demonstrative of effort or motion than a flute note. The old man drank and then leaned back against the sledge. The glade hummed softly. A woodhen called from the timber on the mountain and to that sound of all summer days of seclusion and peace the old man slept.

>76 jnwelch: Mmmmmm...just delicious.

I finished All the Pretty Horses. Wow.

>76 jnwelch:- Great quote Joe!

Terri- Hooray! Now, you'll be ready for the Crossing.

I have started All the Pretty Horses and really like it. Gorgeous language.

I read The Road a number of years ago and it is one of my all-time favourite books ever!!

It was about tremendously dark circumstances and yet I found it full of love and hope. And McCarthy is a master of language!

I have heard it said that John Steinbeck is the best American author and that Cormac McCarthy is the best living American author. Seems to make sense to me!

I am now more than halfway through No Country for Old Men. I usually have a dozen or so books on the go at the same time but I have dropped them all to finish this one. Loving it, although once again, violent, dark, horrifying and yet beautiful!

Finished All the Pretty Horses. I loved it.

Me too, although it was a reread for me. So I already knew I like it very much!

Go Roberta! Go Jim! Aren't I great conversationalist?

>83 drneutron: & >84 msf59: The more I think about All the Pretty Horses the more I really love it.

We need a Western themed month next year!

My two favorite books this year have been about horses. ;-)

I hated every single minute of reading No Country for Old Men. I think he's been told he's wonderful way too much and now believes it. The story's a standard old 1930s Western plot, now with added gun violence and drug runners.

I've read the Road and found it, to put it mildly, wanting. Post-apocalyptic fiction from 1949 (Earth Abides) tells the same story only better, as in with well developed characters unlike the kid and his dad. I've read All the Pretty Horses. Yeah. Well, I grew up in South Texas and knew these folks. He did the same thing here: Add titanic amounts of violence and don't use quotation marks.

The noveau roman novelists of the 1950s weren't even the first ones to do that.

No more. Never again.

I may not get to No Country for Old Men til early April. This week I have to read Iain Banks' last novel The Quarry for my local book group on Friday.

RD- I admire the fact that you gave him another shot, especially after being disgusted by The Road. Hey, if he's not your cuppa...at least there are multitudes to fill that gap.

I try to give everyone a fair shot. But once I'm done, that's that. I've changed my mind about things often enough...I direct your attention to the Hounded review...that it's always worth it to try again.

But three tries is enough.

>86 richardderus: Yeah, OK, you're entitled to leave him alone now. But if you're insisting on stories that have never been told before, you're going to have to stop reading altogether...

Heh, believe me I'm not! I'm complaining about the unwarranted hype surrounding his originality and creativeness and the freshness of his blahblahblahblah.

NOTHING about it is new or fresh, and while there are some nicely observed descriptions and some well-crafted scenes, this is no more than I can say about Louise Penny or Mordecai Richler or Margaret Atwood.

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

Finished No Country for Old Men and I loved it.

For the most part, everyone seems to like their McCarthy reads. We knew, from the beginning, he wasn't going to be for everyone, much like several other AAC authors. I am happy that so many gave him a chance.

Count me among those who liked a lot the one I read, The Orchard Keeper. It's his first and not his best, but it was still filled with all the qualities I've loved in his other books, especially the beautiful descriptive passages.

I finished All the Pretty Horses and gave it 6 out of 10 stars.

My micro-review: Well written - interesting story and intriguing characters - but a little confusing at times, especially with the no quotation mark affectation. Thankfully not as violent as other McCarthy's from what I hear. Most of it was "off screen." Too bleak for me though. I prefer my books to have some hope or humor.

Morphy liked it! Morphy liked it! Yah!

Heh. Not with much enthusiasm, but, yes, it got above 5 stars, so technically, I liked it.

I finished Suttree last night. McCarthy has an amazing command of the English language, and he uses it to the max in every sentence in this book. This made it hard for me to read in large chunks; there was just too much of every sentence to sail through it. AND the subject matter is tough. Ultimately, I gave it 4 stars, with reservations. My full review is on my thread. I loved parts of Suttree, the breathtaking word craft, the brilliant descriptions, the dark humor and often grotesque characters reminiscent of Faulkner's best. I mean, a country boy shot and jailed for humping watermelons? The master surely gave McCarthy a commendatory nod for that one. But it went on too long, sank a little too deeply into the mire too often, and made me grateful for its ending at last. It's a masterpiece, there's no denying it. It would surely benefit from re-reading, but I won't do that, because it's too damned difficult to live with for that long.

I read The Road and while I thought the language and writing style were interesting, I found the bleakness of the story really depressing, with a slight glimmer of hope. I am willing to try another McCarthy book, but I think I may skip the movie version of The Road.

Any suggestions on what to try next time? I have been skimming through the reviews. Are all of his books depressing? (not sure if that is the word I really want to use, but can't think of another word to describe what I mean).

Linda- That was excellent review of Suttree. I think our opinions are pretty close on that one.

Jayde- I would go with Pretty Horses. It's definitely not as bleak.

I'm not too far into All the Pretty Horses and might yet finish it by month's end. The writing is beautiful but it seems like not a whole lot happens.

I finished All the Pretty Horses, and over-all, I loved it. I was struck by the Faulkner influence. Last year I read The Sound and The Fury which nearly did me in; and so I skipped the Faulkner read last month. However, I was aware that Faulkner has been a huge influence on writers that I admire. After reading this, I may give Faulkner another try.

I loved McCarthy's language, which is so evocative of time and place. I found the first part of the story very enthralling.

My one issue was the amount of violence and machismo in the second half of the book. This is definitely a western!

Rhonda- I enjoyed your thoughts on Pretty Horses and I hope you continue the trilogy. I definitely saw the Faulkner influences in Suttree. OMG!

I definitely plan to finish the trilogy--hopefully this year.

Linda (laytonwoman3rd> I should finish Suttree tonight (or in the morning if I fall asleep faster than intended). I agree with what you have said. I'm not sorry I've read it, but I'm not sure I want to re-read it any time soon.

I finished my read of The Road this afternoon. In a word, excellent and McCarthy now joins my short list of favorite authors.

Wow. I finally finished with Blood Meridian. I'm not exactly sure what I can say about it at the moment.

My Cormac McCarthy read:

All the Pretty Horses - 3.7 stars

I finally finished All the Pretty Horses and give it 4 stars.

I really liked it but did not love it.

I loved the beautiful writing and the somewhat melancholy Western elements. I loved picturing the landscapes John Grady encountered.

I did not love how, seemingly, at times, a quarter of the text was in Spanish. Highly distracting and very off-putting for me. The plot was only so-so for me. For long periods of the book, I was bored with it. I also didn't like the long stretches of conversation without quotation marks. Often times, I couldn't tell who was saying what.

In the end, I'm glad I carried on. Will I continue with the Border Trilogy? Maybe. Might I give another Cormac McCarthy book a try? Possibly.

I finished All the Pretty Horses last weekend, but life has conspired to keep me off the computer. Here's my review from my thread:

This was a very enjoyable read, the first novel I've read by McCarthy.

It's the story of two boys, who in 1949 ride their horses into Mexico, looking for a bit of adventure and the old time romantic cowboy life. They found more than they bargained for.

I found the writing beautiful and the story un-put-down-able.

Truthfully, I did put it down at one point when it got a bit intense, even though this one has the reputation of being much less violent and bloody than McCarthy's other books, including the others in this trilogy. But I soon picked it back up and soldiered on, too enthralled by book to let it go into the 'finish it later' pile. And yeah, I shed actual, real tears for the protagonist in the final chapter as he rode on past the oil wells and into his quest for the old ways.

I'm pretty jaded with authors getting details about horses so wrong. I liked McCarthy's writing about horses - neither over romanticized nor over brutalized but with a solid understanding of cowboying. Most surprising detail? A minor point where John Grady Cole is talking bloodlines and the ones he mentions are actually the bloodlines of the founders of the western short running horses such as quarter horses and appaloosas.

Will I go on with the trilogy? Probably, at some point. This is the year for me getting the TBR planet under control. And yet, library and other books keep following me home. Next year perhaps. Too many books! Too little .....

4 stars

>110 streamsong: Nice review! That's cool about the horse details--no being a horse person, I didn't pick up on that.

Heehee. I should have written a review about endings and dreams vs reality. But other people have done all that so much better than I could. And me, I used to have a website of out-of-print books about horse bloodlines. It was only a sentence or two, and probably no one else would ever notice it.

>112 streamsong: No, I think the horse bloodlines are probably more important than dreams vs. reality!

>110 streamsong: Great review!

>113 banjo123: horse bloodlines **are** dreams versus reality