lookingglasswar 's review for:

Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy

4.0

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3.75. I would have been better served by reading the duet closer together, but I think it does a disservice to The Passenger to consider them equals in effort. Stella Maris is more of a chance for Cormac McCarthy to sneakily discourse on his fave mathematical theory arguments and while it's compelling to learn about, this novel simply doesn't have the beauty and bleakness that The Passenger did. Bobby was an explicable character and effortless voice for McCarthy to inhabit because he lacked complexity -- or much beyond a grief-stunned passivity; McCarthy, despite his immense talent, sometimes falters with the more active and existentially-complicated Alicia. There are some real gut-punch sentences in here that left me breathless, nonetheless.