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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
I’ve officially finished the bibliography of the author that got me back to reading and I’m so sad! His last two works are very much his literary goodbyes and the Rosetta stones to his existence. Maybe not quite my favorites from him but I think we’ll look back on this closing duology as definitive works of literature of the early 21st century.
I love McCarthy’s dialogue and this is just a whole ass book of it. completely necessary to understand The Passenger. or at least understand it to the best of one’s abilities.
Alicia is a 20 year old former mathematical prodigy with photographic memory. She's given up on doing mathematics because she's made some discoveries that cause here to doubt math's foundations - something akin to Godel's, apparently (He comes up a lot here) - and now she's even doubting the foundations of reality. She's checked herself into Stella Maris, a mental hospital in Wisconsin. This book is a series of conversations between Alicia and her psychiatrist. The psychiatrist realizes pretty quickly that he's probably out of his depth here - mentally outgunned, but he probably doesn't realize how much; Alicia estimates that she's read over 10,000 books and some of those were psychology books. They talk mathematics as the Dr. tries to figure out what it is that has brought Alicia here. Lots of mathematicians and philosophy are discussed.
I liked this book more than the first book in the series, Passengers, but you'll have to read the first book to have a good idea (and possibly another perspective) of what's happening here.
I liked this book more than the first book in the series, Passengers, but you'll have to read the first book to have a good idea (and possibly another perspective) of what's happening here.
I love Cormac McCarthy and I appreciated the way this book made me think a little more deeply about The Passenger. What I do take issue with is the fact that this is the first (and only!) main female character that he’s ever written used solely for the furthering of a man’s story. It just makes me sad, I wanted a lot more for Alicia after coming to be so intrigued about her and her story in The Passenger. I wish this book was longer and featured more of her life outside of Stella Maris. And I miss the Thalidomide Kid.
Well, what a rather darkly fun romp through physics, philosophy, and mathematics in word-drunk prose in a mad dash toward death. A little bit "My Dinner with Andre," a touch of Tom Stoppard, and smidgens of both Faulkner (sentence structure) and Hemingway (dialogue). This head-spinning novel is an eloquent, layered examination of love, loss, guilt, human existence, reality, and the mystery of creation. In a word: breathtaking.
I only read it because it was the companion novel to The Passenger. Very depressing and too mathematical for me. Didn’t understand most of their conversations.
dark
emotional
slow-paced
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is absolutely the weirdest book I have ever read! It's hard to read because the author's style of writing is to not use quotation marks around dialogue, only minimum other punctuation, including apostrophes (with a few exceptions), and a running dialogue between just two characters, one supposedly insane, and the other a psychiatrist delving into the female protag's sometimes inane thoughts and her life. I continued to read this book until the end thinking that something would explain the reason for the book. But no! Because of the lack of standard English punctuation, the book was only 190 pages, thank goodness!
At least half of the book dwelled on obscure mathematics, which is way beyond almost any layman's understanding (including the psychiatrist in this book), and the author seems to love throwing in obscure words, perhaps to try and prove his intellect. It became annoying.
Cormac McCarthy receives stellar kudos and reviews from some big, important news media outlets, one proclaiming that McCarthy is "nothing less than our greatest living writer." (Give me a good ol' Nora Roberts' mainstream romance/fantasy novel any day!) Anyway, these overrated reviews lead me to believe that the writers of the reviews must've been high on some drug, and not actually high on McCarthy's "talent."
At least half of the book dwelled on obscure mathematics, which is way beyond almost any layman's understanding (including the psychiatrist in this book), and the author seems to love throwing in obscure words, perhaps to try and prove his intellect. It became annoying.
Cormac McCarthy receives stellar kudos and reviews from some big, important news media outlets, one proclaiming that McCarthy is "nothing less than our greatest living writer." (Give me a good ol' Nora Roberts' mainstream romance/fantasy novel any day!) Anyway, these overrated reviews lead me to believe that the writers of the reviews must've been high on some drug, and not actually high on McCarthy's "talent."