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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was the first “difficult” read i’ve ever completed, with large chunks being completely filled with no spoken character interactions and just focusing on describing landscapes, minute details and events. i’m not sure if this could be described as literary historical fiction but it feels fitting!
here are some fab quotes from the book all from the judge though… he just kept dropping bangers:
here are some fab quotes from the book all from the judge though… he just kept dropping bangers:
- "War is the ultimate game because war is at last a forcing of the unity of existence. War is god." - The judge
- "Hear me, man. I spoke in the desert for you, and you only, and you turned a deaf ear to me. If war is not holy, then man is nothing more then antic clay." - The judge
- “Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent.” - The judge
- “suppose two men at cards with nothing to wager save their lives. Who has not heard such a tale? A turn of the cards. The whole universe universe for such a player has labored clanking to this moment which will tell if he is to die at that mans hand or that man at his. What more certain validation of a mans worth could there be...War was always here. Before man was, war waited for him.” - The judge
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Genocide, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, War
dark
tense
slow-paced
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I can't be seen as unbiased. I am not a huge Cormac McCarthy fan, but I have actively tried, and of his books, this is my favorite. As with his other books, I struggled with the lack of punctuation.
I think maybe the thing people love about McCarthy is also what I am not impressed with. He can write absolutely brutal scenes, but there's also a kind of staleness when nothing brutal is happening. It's almost like a movie with no music (No Country for Old Men, I'm looking at you), but the absolute still nothingness doesn't translate so well for me in a book., and the lack of punctuation gives me too few clues about what the nothingness is supposed to feel like.
I think maybe the thing people love about McCarthy is also what I am not impressed with. He can write absolutely brutal scenes, but there's also a kind of staleness when nothing brutal is happening. It's almost like a movie with no music (No Country for Old Men, I'm looking at you), but the absolute still nothingness doesn't translate so well for me in a book., and the lack of punctuation gives me too few clues about what the nothingness is supposed to feel like.