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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
great book if you love short bursts of extreme violence and lots of riding horses
adventurous
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Had some great moments but dragged at points
I'm not exactly sure what happened to the kid. McCarthy is an odd one. I think a lot of this story went over my head. Very brutal and starkly vivid telling of the west after the Mexican-American war.
adventurous
dark
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Incredibly dark and gory western. Makes one question whether we're all as cold and callous as every main character in this book.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
challenging
dark
reflective
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
Yikes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Violence
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It's a strange feeling when you realize that reading is a skill which can be improved over time. I've always read but when I first "got into reading" a few years back (thanks to a drunken conversation about John Steinbeck with an English literature professor at a bar - along with my twin brother who is also now a reading addict thanks to this conversation) I started looking at book lists and repeatedly saw this. It looked like it was up my alley so I bought a copy and promptly started to read it. After about 60 pages I had to put it down. It didn't seem to be about anything and the prose was mind bogglingly difficult. I hated it. I grew resentful of it. I decided to pick it up again about a year later and felt like gagging just from reading the prose. Then I spent the next year soaking up Melville, Pynchon, Marquez, Calvino, Faulkner, etc, etc, and went back and read it. After about 10 pages I was drooling over the prose. About 100 pages in I was in love.
The main thing that strikes out at me about the novel is the dichotomy between the extreme violence - literally bashing children's brains out on rocks and scalping people - and the pastoral beauty of narrative. It's a constant in the novel. Just absolute sheer beauty mixed with sheer violence. I've never experienced anything like it in the written form. Maybe the closest thing I could think of would be the film of The Last of the Mohicans.
After finishing the novel I looked it up and I found that Harold Bloom also took three tries to get through it - albeit for different reasons. I don't think he grew up looking at the awful things on the dark corners of the internet and has a far weaker stomach for violence. Anyway, it's fucking amazing. If you don't enjoy it, it's you - not the book. Read more difficult books and come back to it later, if you want. I assure you, it's worth it.
The main thing that strikes out at me about the novel is the dichotomy between the extreme violence - literally bashing children's brains out on rocks and scalping people - and the pastoral beauty of narrative. It's a constant in the novel. Just absolute sheer beauty mixed with sheer violence. I've never experienced anything like it in the written form. Maybe the closest thing I could think of would be the film of The Last of the Mohicans.
After finishing the novel I looked it up and I found that Harold Bloom also took three tries to get through it - albeit for different reasons. I don't think he grew up looking at the awful things on the dark corners of the internet and has a far weaker stomach for violence. Anyway, it's fucking amazing. If you don't enjoy it, it's you - not the book. Read more difficult books and come back to it later, if you want. I assure you, it's worth it.