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I just read McCarthy for the first time - Sunset Limited - and it blew my mind. Beautiful, insightful, unique, playful, tragic. Fantastic way to spend time!

I just read McCarthy for the first time - Sunset Limited - and it blew my mind. Beautiful, insightful, unique, playful, tragic. Fantastic way to spend time! Is this series a good next step, or am I better off reading something from his back catalog first?

mpnagle 4y ago
Stella Maris, volume 2 of his most recent two volume novel, and The Road, have blown my mind. SM in particular focuses on a math prodigy committed to a mental asylum. I think it would speak to many people here. I'm actually thinking of reading his entire collection, I've been so impressed by him. I just got No Country for Old Men. Cool to hear the rec for Sunset Limited!
- cgh 4y ago
  McCarthy simplified his style dramatically with "No Country For Old Men". That novel, and the ones following, are of course still tremendous but lack the almost mythological force of language of his earlier stuff. My personal early-style favourites: "Child Of God", "Blood Meridian" (of course), "The Crossing" Later style: "The Road"
  - mpnagle 4y ago
    Oh that's interesting. I have almost exclusively read older style. (Only exception is "The Orchard Keeper.") Interested to try some things from the mythological early style!
- rgrieselhuber 4y ago
  I’ve read Blood Meridian and then went back to The Orchard Keeper. Going to work forward in rough chronological order of his published dates. Didn’t know about The Sunset Limited, will have to check out both the screenplay and the film.
fluxic 4y ago
Sunset Limited is a ~play, so for a similarly short Cormac rec I'd suggest The Road. If you like his bleak, Hemingway-inflected style I'd suggest trying the short stories of Joy Williams ("Visiting Privilege").
kamranjon 4y ago
I just finished the Passenger - I would definitely not recommend it as an earlier book to read of his. When reading it, I remember thinking during certain sections that if I wasn't already a McCarthy fan, I might just abandon it. Suttree is my favorite of his, and I recommend it to everyone, but I think All The Pretty Horses is part of a Trilogy of books that might be a good place to start.
crabkin 4y ago
Blood Meridian! Surprised I haven't seen this recommendation yet, since it's considered his masterwork and one of the greatest works of the 20th century.
defen 4y ago
If I were doing a guided intro to McCarthy for someone who hasn't read anything, I'd suggest: 1) Watch "No Country for Old Men" (and optionally read it - it's a very faithful adaptation but you'll get additional character motivation/backstory from the book) 2) All the Pretty Horses - bildungsroman of two teenage boys chasing a way of life that no longer exists. One of his more accessible works, and the one that made him famous outside of literary circles. 3) Child of God - a light, quick read with a sympathetic portrait of a necrophiliac cannibal. 4) The Road - This will hit especially hard if you're a parent. A beautiful novel about not giving into despair no matter how dire the circumstances. 5) Suttree - in some ways the mirror of All the Pretty Horses - a young man leaves his way of life when it becomes clear that said way of life is vanishing. Based on McCarthy's real-life experiences growing up in Knoxville. Easily his funniest book. Probably the most compelling description of a specific milieu (1950s Knoxville underclass) I've ever read - simultaneously accessible - there are people who lived that life who are still alive - and yet impossibly remote. 6) Blood Meridian - Hard to describe. I wouldn't read Blood Meridian first because it's quite difficult, and because it has a way of making everything else (like...everything else, not just his other work) seem not as good.
- sharkweek 4y ago
  No Country for Old Men is both worth watching and reading, it's a rare example where both the movie and the book are near perfect.
- SideburnsOfDoom 4y ago
  > Blood Meridian - Hard to describe. Blood Meridian: easy to describe truthfully, hard to do justice to in that description. Easy description: A Western. The western. One of the great masterpiece novels. Set in the Texas-Mexico border area, circa 1850, beautifully lyrical writing, but is also an appallingly violent work, certainly the single most bloody book that I have ever read. "A major theme is the warlike nature of man". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Meridian#Violence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Meridian#Violence
  - sharkweek 4y ago

mpnagle 4y ago

Stella Maris, volume 2 of his most recent two volume novel, and The Road, have blown my mind. SM in particular focuses on a math prodigy committed to a mental asylum. I think it would speak to many people here. I'm actually thinking of reading his entire collection, I've been so impressed by him. I just got No Country for Old Men. Cool to hear the rec for Sunset Limited!

cgh 4y ago
McCarthy simplified his style dramatically with "No Country For Old Men". That novel, and the ones following, are of course still tremendous but lack the almost mythological force of language of his earlier stuff. My personal early-style favourites: "Child Of God", "Blood Meridian" (of course), "The Crossing" Later style: "The Road"
- mpnagle 4y ago
  Oh that's interesting. I have almost exclusively read older style. (Only exception is "The Orchard Keeper.") Interested to try some things from the mythological early style!
rgrieselhuber 4y ago
I’ve read Blood Meridian and then went back to The Orchard Keeper. Going to work forward in rough chronological order of his published dates. Didn’t know about The Sunset Limited, will have to check out both the screenplay and the film.

fluxic 4y ago

Sunset Limited is a ~play, so for a similarly short Cormac rec I'd suggest The Road. If you like his bleak, Hemingway-inflected style I'd suggest trying the short stories of Joy Williams ("Visiting Privilege").

kamranjon 4y ago

I just finished the Passenger - I would definitely not recommend it as an earlier book to read of his. When reading it, I remember thinking during certain sections that if I wasn't already a McCarthy fan, I might just abandon it. Suttree is my favorite of his, and I recommend it to everyone, but I think All The Pretty Horses is part of a Trilogy of books that might be a good place to start.

crabkin 4y ago

Blood Meridian! Surprised I haven't seen this recommendation yet, since it's considered his masterwork and one of the greatest works of the 20th century.

defen 4y ago

If I were doing a guided intro to McCarthy for someone who hasn't read anything, I'd suggest: 1) Watch "No Country for Old Men" (and optionally read it - it's a very faithful adaptation but you'll get additional character motivation/backstory from the book) 2) All the Pretty Horses - bildungsroman of two teenage boys chasing a way of life that no longer exists. One of his more accessible works, and the one that made him famous outside of literary circles. 3) Child of God - a light, quick read with a sympathetic portrait of a necrophiliac cannibal. 4) The Road - This will hit especially hard if you're a parent. A beautiful novel about not giving into despair no matter how dire the circumstances. 5) Suttree - in some ways the mirror of All the Pretty Horses - a young man leaves his way of life when it becomes clear that said way of life is vanishing. Based on McCarthy's real-life experiences growing up in Knoxville. Easily his funniest book. Probably the most compelling description of a specific milieu (1950s Knoxville underclass) I've ever read - simultaneously accessible - there are people who lived that life who are still alive - and yet impossibly remote. 6) Blood Meridian - Hard to describe. I wouldn't read Blood Meridian first because it's quite difficult, and because it has a way of making everything else (like...everything else, not just his other work) seem not as good.

sharkweek 4y ago
No Country for Old Men is both worth watching and reading, it's a rare example where both the movie and the book are near perfect.
SideburnsOfDoom 4y ago
> Blood Meridian - Hard to describe. Blood Meridian: easy to describe truthfully, hard to do justice to in that description. Easy description: A Western. The western. One of the great masterpiece novels. Set in the Texas-Mexico border area, circa 1850, beautifully lyrical writing, but is also an appallingly violent work, certainly the single most bloody book that I have ever read. "A major theme is the warlike nature of man". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Meridian#Violence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Meridian#Violence
- sharkweek 4y ago