by Cormac McCarthy
Published by The Modern Library in 1985
Summary and Review: One of the fellows Christa works with heard that I am an avid reader and wondered if I had ever read this book. Not only had I never read it, I had never even heard of it. It is one of his all time favorite books and he offered it up for me to borrow and read. I am generally curious to read books that people recommend so I agreed and Christa dropped it off. The cover jacket quotes people calling this a modern day classic equal to the works of Faulkner and Melville, which piqued my interest even further. The story is basically a travel anthology about "the kids" journey west to California in the post Civil War years. His journey connects him with various unique and even bizarre characters including a former priest, Indian hunters, the "Judge," and an assortment of incredibly violent and self absorbed men.
There is no point or real plot to the story, there is no real character development as we never know where the kid came from, what his motivations are for his journey or even any hopes or dreams he has. Half the time he is invisible in the book. People come on the scene, are killed, and more come later. All that drives the reader forward is a mindless push west but to no real goal. To make matters worse McCarthy has chosen to use an incredible amount of dialogue in his writing but uses no punctuation whatsoever. Half way down the page you get lost as to who is saying what and you have to go back and re-read the page. He writes flowing and vivid descriptions of the scenery and the hopelessness of the desolate west and he is not afraid of showing us brutality and violence in a way that can be almost overwhelming, but to call this book an modern classic is in my opinion no where close to accurate. Just because someone chooses to write without punctuation or chooses to describe the reckless violence that was present in the American West does not make it a great book or even a good read. The only memorable moment of the book for me was when the kid finally reaches the Pacific Ocean and observes a horse standing on the beach watching the sunset. The book is a laborious read and from that aspect I can relate to comparing him to Faulkner because Faulkner's dialect and flow is as hard to follow as McCarthy's lack of punctuation. If the book were a movie you would be leaving the theatre asking yourself, "Now what was that movie about again?" Save your time and read Steinbeck if you want to read classics.
Reading Recommendation: Not worth the time and effort required to read it.
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