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stevereadthatbook 's review for:
Stella Maris
by Cormac McCarthy
I’m following up my review of Cormac McCarthy’s “The Passenger” with my thoughts on “Stella Maris”, the companion novel. I had initially thought that I’d take a breath between the two – particularly since “The Passenger” was such so intense – but ultimately I couldn’t. I had become so committed to these characters and this world that waiting wasn’t possible.
And so… whelp, if I worried that “Stella Maris” might pack any less of a punch than “The Passenger”, let’s make it clear off the bat - it doesn’t. It is a very different book, in style and story, but it shares themes of grief and madness and existence and love and pain, that I was emotionally devastated once again.
I didn’t go into too many details on my last post, so why change now? While “The Passenger” was sweeping and complex, the strength in“Stella Maris” is in its perceived simplicity. The novel is entirely dialogue - a medical transcript - made up from seven session between Alicia, the sister we meet in “The Passenger”, and her psychiatrist at Stella Maris, the mental facility where she has admitted herself. These conversations are funny and sad, wildly thought-provoking and ultimately illuminating, as they provide some answers to questions raised in the first book.
So much of the power of this novel is how it plays on what the reader has already learned in “The Passenger”. The connections between the two novels make the emotions even more raw. Could this, as has been suggested, been woven in to the first novel, to make one complete epic story? Maybe. All I know is that it worked for me as written, and “Stella Maris” has one of the most devastating final lines of any novel I have read.
I am sad to be done with this world and these characters, though great art, as we all know, never really leaves us.
And so… whelp, if I worried that “Stella Maris” might pack any less of a punch than “The Passenger”, let’s make it clear off the bat - it doesn’t. It is a very different book, in style and story, but it shares themes of grief and madness and existence and love and pain, that I was emotionally devastated once again.
I didn’t go into too many details on my last post, so why change now? While “The Passenger” was sweeping and complex, the strength in“Stella Maris” is in its perceived simplicity. The novel is entirely dialogue - a medical transcript - made up from seven session between Alicia, the sister we meet in “The Passenger”, and her psychiatrist at Stella Maris, the mental facility where she has admitted herself. These conversations are funny and sad, wildly thought-provoking and ultimately illuminating, as they provide some answers to questions raised in the first book.
So much of the power of this novel is how it plays on what the reader has already learned in “The Passenger”. The connections between the two novels make the emotions even more raw. Could this, as has been suggested, been woven in to the first novel, to make one complete epic story? Maybe. All I know is that it worked for me as written, and “Stella Maris” has one of the most devastating final lines of any novel I have read.
I am sad to be done with this world and these characters, though great art, as we all know, never really leaves us.