Review of every Cormac McCarthy Novel to Date
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- Опубликовано: 10 сен 2024
- The aim of this video is to give you a good sense of which novels by Cormac McCarthy might be best for you to read next. If you get something out of this overview, consider subscribing for more in-depth coverage of Cormac McCarthy’s catalogue and other book-related content.
For anyone who is intimidated by Blood Meridian as I was - The audiobook is free on youtube, and Wendigoon has a plot summary and analysis video that I would refer back to every couple chapters to check that I hadn't missed a plot point (If you zone out for even two lines in Blood Meridian, you could miss an entire village massacre). I also kept the physical book on hand to make highlights and annotations as they'd come up in the audiobook.
Only other one I've read is The Road, which I agree is accessible and gripping.
I've found the trick to reading McCarthy is to read it out loud in dramatic fashion (listening along to the audiobook while reading along with it works too). It sounds silly, but it's the way it was intended to be read, a lot of sentences are even deliberately written in a way that sounds confusing in your head but makes perfect sense when spoken aloud with enunciations in the right places. He also deliberately uses a lot of biblical, old timey language that isn't often seen today so it pays to look up words you don't understand.
The real genius with Child of God is how McCarthy was able to draw influence from real life figures like Jeffrey Dahmer despite publishing the novel five years before Dahmer's first murder. McCarthy's intellect truly knows no bounds.
Lmao this is the best retort to me misspeaking so far
Fiction manifests in reality via the Mind at Large. Not that I blame Cormac for Dahmer.
Where exactly was Cormac McCarthy in June of 1978? 🤔🤔🤔
It's good to see you young unz reacting to Primal evidence of hillbilly local but Dahmer Gacy Bundy etc al r just a disturbing few compared to the realization of Appalachian appetizers 😂
He could see through time and space and yet he was snubbed for the Nobel prize
In what world is Blood Meridian approachable 😂 I felt that by the time I’d finished the book I’d read it twice because I had to double back to make sure I’d understood what had happened.
Good comments on all the novels. I'd agree in general, but my personal favorites are Suttree and The Crossing, a book that grabbed me and has never really let go years later.
I'm still pretty new to McCarthy. I started with The Road, which I absolutely loved. Upon finishing The Road, I immediately read No Country for Old Men and All the Pretty Horses. All three of those books are really touched me. McCarthy describes a scene like few other authors can. However, even after reading three of his novels, McCarthy's lack of attribution in dialogue is still challenging for me. During longer dialogue scenes I sometimes lose track of who is speaking and have to restart the section. When the characters are really different and have different ways of speaking, the lack of quotations isn't so difficult for me. I understand his reason for avoiding some punctuation, but I sometimes wish he would use quotation marks. I'm currently taking a break reading another author as a palette cleanser. I'm not sure if I'm going to read the other Border Trilogy books next or move to Blood Meridian.
Blood meridian period.
McCarthy meant for his novels to be read out loud, it makes a lot of confusing sections make a lot more sense. Blood Meridian has a free audiobook on YT, I recommend reading a chapter and then listening to the audiobook of that same chapter and you'll totally see what I mean.
The Border Trilogy is so wonderful and I agree that book 3 The Cities of the Plain outstanding.
I read The Road first and felt like I need psychiatric help when I was finished. I decided to give Outer Dark a try next (just a random pick) and I'm back at the state where I'm at awe at his writing but also cannot stand to read what he's writing, either.
Outer Dark is pretty messed up lol. Same with Child of God and Blood Meridian. Check out the Border Trilogy or Suttree, they're still sad but the sadness is more just the sadness of life, and not utter depravity. Suttree also had some of the most genuinely funny moments I've ever read
I was introduced to CM via Blood Meridian in a literature course. I wasn't impressed. I tried All the Pretty Horses since I heard such great things about it. I wasn't impressed. The Road came out around the same time as Everyman by Philip Roth's (who I was a big fan of). Roth won the Pen/Faulkner and McCarthy won the Pulitzer. I tried The Road and fell in love. I reread both Blood Meridian and AtPH and, though I didn't love them, I liked/appreciated them. No Country for Old Men is my second favorite. I'm currently about a quarter into The Passenger and really enjoying it. I've seen some ratings which are about 3.7, but I think the voice and pace is truly interesting. I just feel I breathe differently when I read CM.
Your comment got me thinking. First let me clear my throat a bit, I do not at all mean to attack you here or say what you said is "wrong," Im just interested in this word, "impressed." Is that what you look for when reading? To be impressed? Or is it just what you look for when reading an author whos held in such high regard? I just find it such a different metric than what I use to measure how much I enjoy a novel. Just interested in your thoughts, happy reading.
If you don’t like blood meridian I just assume you are too stupid to read it. That book is a masterpiece
@@thundercheeks1989 I think it is the author's responsibility to tell a story, that's first and foremost. Depending on the manner in which they then go about telling the story will either, entertain, dazzle or any number of ways, impress the reader. I've read most of James Joyce's books and enjoyed them because his style and voice and the story, but Ulysses is still out of my reach. I do hope to return at some point. I was a big fan of Stephen King for many years because he's a good storyteller, but he's not particularly a literary genius. Lolita is one of the most amazing books I've read, but I haven't really liked Nabokov's other stuff.
I've loved a lot of renowned writers, and I've also found many to not be my flavor. I've read a lot of experimental styles, a lot of traditional styles, a lot of pop fiction, and I've enjoyed or disliked books in each of these areas. It's just preference. For me, Blood Meridian, on first reading, was meh. Many people talk about how violent it was, but even that didn't particularly make an impression on me.
I read for enjoyment. I was a literature student because I love books and stories. If a book or story doesn't resonate with me, I don't enjoy it. When I read Heart of Darkness, I hated it. I got all the references and inferences and I respect it as a classic, but other than the ending, I didn't like it. I tried other Conrad books and realized it's just his style that doesn't work for me.
I hope that answer your question.
@@thetheatrezoo3603 have you tried reading “Pnin” and “Luzhin’s defence” by Nabokov? These are his other two works I’ve read so far apart from “Lolita”. I really enjoyed both. Pnin is very funny book with a hint of tender melancholy , Luzhin’s Defence is beautifully sad. The writing in both is astonishing.
@@coolfil9 I have not read those. I think Bend Sinister is the only other Nabokov. There's a very funny exchange on the bridge at the beginning. I'll have to try these others you mentioned. Thanks.
Rest in peace, Mr. McCarthy.
Good reviews! Didn’t spoil any details, but gave us what we needed to know.
I read blood Meridian, the road, and then the orchard keeper. It was kind of a chore to get through the orchard keeper, but I’m glad I stuck with it.
Just finished no country and now I’m onto child of god.
Thank you heaps for this video - I just watched Wendigoon’s video on Blood Meridian and felt I needed to go through a bunch of his stuff
Glad you got something valuable out of the video! Happy reading
@@williampdozier Thank you!
This video was exactly what I was looking for thank you so much !
Outer Dark is criminally underrated.
I've seen so much darkness that I wonder why God hadn't put out the sun and gone away. It's brutally dark and I love it. Suttree as well
Thanks for the overview! I really like dark novels so I think I'll try Outer Dark or Child of God!
I've only read The Road, before not knowing of him. It's very approachable and I have heard it's the best intro into his books
I’d love to watch your reviews of all of these works!
I don't know about American history much. Do i need to know about any perticuler part of American history for reading blood meridian?
Just read up on the real life Glanton Gang, the bounties on natives, the massacres led because of such, that should give you enough frame of reference for a lot of the novel's setting and goings on. Amongst the carnage, however, are some of the most thought provoking and harrowing bits of prose to ever grace my eyes, and for most of that you just need to be able to consider some dark things about the nature of man. I will warn you, though, Blood Meridian is a bit strange to read. McCarthy's use of punctuation is intentionally less than what you might be used to.
I love the movie No Country for Old Men.. I want to read the book too. It has to be even better right?
They're both great in their own ways--but yeah, I prefer the book
I prefer the film for one reason, in the novel we get too much insight to Antons character. It's waters down his mysterious, ghost like nature.
The Crossing is the least accessible of the Border trilogy, but perhaps the best of the three. Also, The Road becomes less accessible if you have kids, in which case it becomes one of the hardest books to read.
There's also a movie for All the Pretty Horses.
I saw the movie The Counselor and bought the screen play. Though the movie received mixed reviews the dialogue was spot on and repays rereading. I think you might like it.
If you watch The Counselor with subtitles on, it turns into one of McCarthy's best works.
Thanks bro, now i wanna read more.
You are an 'all of' reader, bravo.
You've been reading my mail.
R.I.P. Cormac
Orchard Keeper is second best book from him I have read :)
And which one is the best?
Well done, sir. Keep it up!
Thank you for this!
You make it look so easy.
Is that a Joni Mitchell album in the background?
Yes!
I read AllThe Pretty Horses 20 years ago-my 1st & last CM.
I barely see it as a review.. in first 3 you mentioned where the author took his inspiration and literally nothing else. The rest wasn't much more extensive either except for blood meridian
I always discover something new out of your videos 🙌