This is the first one that's a reread for me and I think I like it more this time, but that's not saying much. I have a tough time with this novel because it does feel the most like McCarthy just getting gross.
Haha that's a great way of putting it. It's almost as if the 70s came along and Ol' Cormie just decided to let his hair down. I did enjoy the experience of reading this book, even if I felt like kind of a sicko for enjoying it.
Child of God is such an odd book, but I think using that 1,000 page book of history framework is actually really useful. Not only for this novel, but all three of these early ones. McCarthy seems to be tightly focused on a very specific kind of place and the people who live there and this place is the real focus of these early novels.
Outcasts, castaways, people who have been left behind by society or who have turned their back on it. And Lester Ballard is the one who has most turned his back on the world and maybe the case he's making here is that this will drive you insane. But he gets us there in a real nasty way!
Yeah I think it's not for nothing that people always describe McCarthy's writing as biblical in nature. He really does evoke forces that feel primordial, even though he locates them in rural America. Maybe that's not a quirk! Maybe it's a feature of the landscape. I haven't spent any time there to know for myself. Only ever been to urban America.
Jayson, this review was so good. I especially love how you tied it all up.
“I’m not sure there’s any great lesson to be learned from reading Child of God. I won’t say there’s a little Lester Ballard in all of us, because I don’t think that’s true.”
For me, Child of God feels like one long extrapolation of that Blake poem, The Tyger. If God exists, there’s some real harsh truths about His ability to create or allow pure evil.
Suttree is my second favourite of his books. Can’t wait to hear your take!
I never would have made the Blake connection, having not read The Tyger since high school. Now I’m interested in going back for a reread.
And I’m looking forward to Suttree, despite knowing that it will also be intense. Welcoming such a steady drip of McCarthy into my life has really been testing my appetite for plumbing the depth of human darkness!
Really enjoying Cormac McMonthly!
This is the first one that's a reread for me and I think I like it more this time, but that's not saying much. I have a tough time with this novel because it does feel the most like McCarthy just getting gross.
Haha that's a great way of putting it. It's almost as if the 70s came along and Ol' Cormie just decided to let his hair down. I did enjoy the experience of reading this book, even if I felt like kind of a sicko for enjoying it.
Really glad you're along for the ride!
Ha, it does feel that way!
Child of God is such an odd book, but I think using that 1,000 page book of history framework is actually really useful. Not only for this novel, but all three of these early ones. McCarthy seems to be tightly focused on a very specific kind of place and the people who live there and this place is the real focus of these early novels.
Outcasts, castaways, people who have been left behind by society or who have turned their back on it. And Lester Ballard is the one who has most turned his back on the world and maybe the case he's making here is that this will drive you insane. But he gets us there in a real nasty way!
Yeah I think it's not for nothing that people always describe McCarthy's writing as biblical in nature. He really does evoke forces that feel primordial, even though he locates them in rural America. Maybe that's not a quirk! Maybe it's a feature of the landscape. I haven't spent any time there to know for myself. Only ever been to urban America.
Jayson, this review was so good. I especially love how you tied it all up.
“I’m not sure there’s any great lesson to be learned from reading Child of God. I won’t say there’s a little Lester Ballard in all of us, because I don’t think that’s true.”
For me, Child of God feels like one long extrapolation of that Blake poem, The Tyger. If God exists, there’s some real harsh truths about His ability to create or allow pure evil.
Suttree is my second favourite of his books. Can’t wait to hear your take!
Thanks for reading, Taegan! Glad you enjoyed it.
I never would have made the Blake connection, having not read The Tyger since high school. Now I’m interested in going back for a reread.
And I’m looking forward to Suttree, despite knowing that it will also be intense. Welcoming such a steady drip of McCarthy into my life has really been testing my appetite for plumbing the depth of human darkness!
Oh totally. It’s a real challenge reading that much of him. And some of the darkest stuff is yet to come!