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geller's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This isn't the sort of book that you can "understand" beyond its themes, tone, and vague outlook. It is incredibly disturbing, gratuitous beyond probably anything you have read, and yet everything feels perfectly placed. It is almost beyond morality, highly descriptive and disorienting in its unwillingness to faithfully expound on the topics it introduces. The characters are all opaque, completely closed off from the reader except for their words and actions. I'm sure there have been many attempts to analyze or categorize this book, but I seriously doubt that any of them could have been meaningfully successful.
Most of the time while I was reading this, I felt like I was hallucinating. McCarthy's ability to project the most haunting, graphic, almost psychedelic imagery directly into your mind is uncanny. He stretches the limits of the English language in transporting the reader to another place, time, and situation. I am exhausted and exhilarated by this feature of his writing. Here is one of my favorite passages as an example:
"The ribbed frames of dead cattle under their patches of dried hide lay like the ruins of primitive boats upturned upon that shoreless void and they passed lurid and austere the black and desiccated shapes of horses and mules that travelers had stood afoot. These parched beasts had died with their necks stretched in agony in the sand and now upright and blind and lurching askew with scraps of blackened leather hanging from the fretwork of their ribs they leaned with their long mouths howling after the endless tandem suns that passed above them."
There's not much else I can say, other than that you should absolutely give this a read if you have a strong stomach. And:THE JUDGE WILL BE IN MY NIGHTMARES FOREVER.
Most of the time while I was reading this, I felt like I was hallucinating. McCarthy's ability to project the most haunting, graphic, almost psychedelic imagery directly into your mind is uncanny. He stretches the limits of the English language in transporting the reader to another place, time, and situation. I am exhausted and exhilarated by this feature of his writing. Here is one of my favorite passages as an example:
There's not much else I can say, other than that you should absolutely give this a read if you have a strong stomach. And:
Content Warnings
Minor: Acephobia/Arophobia
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