Scan barcode
A review by tits_mcgee
Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The kind of book that floods your innards with nihilistic, existential dread, and makes you thank the author for doing such a thing with grace. If the word “morose” was a book, this’d be it.
“Ive seen the meanness of humans till I dont know why God aint put out the sun and gone away.”
Enter a landscape that is cruel and grey and full of despair; see its people: a dreamlike cast of beaten down southern American folk, racist and poor, desperate and evil, diverse and believable, whose quirks and flawed characteristics filled me up with joy like a wholesome home cooked pie and a cool beer on a chilly afternoon. Oh man, I loved how nasty these people were.
I am addicted to Cormac’s southern gothic flavour, his ability to capture a mood left me in awe, I could read his writing all day long. His prose is a sharp thing, fully controlled and subtly emotive; the atmosphere injected into this book is thick and immersive and yet no word was overly flowery or abstract. The whole thing had a tone of calm indifference despite the violence, it was as though the author was simply observing something he’d seen a million times before, unflinching at the cruelty and depravity of his world; this gave me a reading experience that only McCarthy can conjure so expertly.
In a strange way, I felt myself comforted by the grim setting, as though the beauty of his prose pierced through the moroseness, a feat not easily achieved when a plot follows such absurd amounts of abuse and poverty stricken civilization. Cormac doesn’t hold back either, this book is as bleak as hell and full of violence. If you’re the kind of person who needs trigger warnings before reading a book, well . . . maybe sit this one out.
“In a world darksome as this'n I believe a blind man ort to be better sighted than most.”
One of the best books I’ve read this year, and one that has set me on a path of southern gothic obsession.
10/10
“Ive seen the meanness of humans till I dont know why God aint put out the sun and gone away.”
Enter a landscape that is cruel and grey and full of despair; see its people: a dreamlike cast of beaten down southern American folk, racist and poor, desperate and evil, diverse and believable, whose quirks and flawed characteristics filled me up with joy like a wholesome home cooked pie and a cool beer on a chilly afternoon. Oh man, I loved how nasty these people were.
I am addicted to Cormac’s southern gothic flavour, his ability to capture a mood left me in awe, I could read his writing all day long. His prose is a sharp thing, fully controlled and subtly emotive; the atmosphere injected into this book is thick and immersive and yet no word was overly flowery or abstract. The whole thing had a tone of calm indifference despite the violence, it was as though the author was simply observing something he’d seen a million times before, unflinching at the cruelty and depravity of his world; this gave me a reading experience that only McCarthy can conjure so expertly.
In a strange way, I felt myself comforted by the grim setting, as though the beauty of his prose pierced through the moroseness, a feat not easily achieved when a plot follows such absurd amounts of abuse and poverty stricken civilization. Cormac doesn’t hold back either, this book is as bleak as hell and full of violence. If you’re the kind of person who needs trigger warnings before reading a book, well . . . maybe sit this one out.
“In a world darksome as this'n I believe a blind man ort to be better sighted than most.”
One of the best books I’ve read this year, and one that has set me on a path of southern gothic obsession.
10/10