Hi friends, I would like to read more Cormac McCarthy. I have

I like his early southern gothic novels. Check those out if you can.

>>8339025
Suttree

>>8339035
This.

>>8339025
I enjoy his work, although starting with Blood Meridian probably isn't a recommended thing to do.

Start with Suttree.

If you want the emotional distance from static and symbolic characters in a linear narrative like in BM, read Outer Dark and Child of God

If you want more emotional investment, more character relationships and philosophical themes read the Border Trilogy

>>8339042
>starting with Blood Meridian probably isn't a recommended thing to do
Because it's the best. Save it for later.

>>8339025
is blood meridian or suttree better
im not a retard so im not worried about difficulty and i only want to read one of this memers books

>>8339025
How about Child of God. It's really short but really good. I'd go ahead and give that one a quick read before doing Suttree, which will take a bit longer.

Child of God is my favorite of his. Although (or because) it is simpler, I think it has his best prose.

>>8339032
>>8339035
>>8339042
>>8339084

Thanks friends, will probably read Child of God and then Suttree.

All the Pretty Horses, The Road, and Child of God are all worthwhile. I hear The Crossing is fantastic as well, though I've never had the honor.

I agree with Bloom that, aside from DeLillo and Pynchon, (I'd add Morrison to that list) he may be our greatest living writer. A worthy successor in the Melville-Faulkner tradition of American storytellers with prose that rings of Old Testament tales, with an intensity of the Russian masters.

Blood Meridean is, in particular, a fierce song. I say song because, like the epics of old, it seems to sing over the landscape while honestly depicting all of its harshness and depravity, nearly swooning under the sublime weight of nature and the story itself, but iltimately rising above all with great focus.

A fine storyteller, though by no means a genius.

>>8339111
>by no means a genius
McCarthy has some of the best prose I've ever read, and I've been reading the classics since I legitimately started with the Greeks freshman year of high-school. His ability to purely write is absolutely genius tier.

>>8339025
i think, well, the general consensus is BM is his masterpiece and Suttree a close second. i eagerly await his new one, The Passenger, but it really is taking ages for him to finish it and i don't think that bodes well for a writer who had a steady stream of output since his early days.

i would suggest reading his work in published order after the ones you've already read. that's how i read them after a teacher recommended BM, which i read first. also reread BM when you get a chance. a second reading enhances the overall experience.

>>8339133
The only reason I disagree with you is that he is completely derivative and continues to be so almost to the point of parodying himself. He is heir to an American tradition of overly masculine prose. If he would have written just 40 years earlier we would talk of him in the same vein as Hemingway, Faulkner, and Steinbeck.

>>8339153
>He is heir to an American tradition of overly masculine prose.

lol

>>8339153
Different anon from who you replied to-- I see where you're coming from, he is derivative in many ways, but I'm not really sure that makes him not a genius. There are other writers from earlier times, say Hawthorne and Spenser, who you could call derivative, maybe more so than McCarthy, but I'd still say they were geniuses, and they are pretty widely regarded to be so.

>>8339035
THIS. suttree is his best book imo.

>>8339135
>it really is taking ages for him to finish it and i don't think that bodes well for a writer who had a steady stream of output since his early days
The Passenger is two books.

>>8339153
The Passenger is 80's sci-fi with mathematical, cosmic, and physics themes

>>8339200
>The Passenger is two books.
>80's sci-fi with mathematical, cosmic, and physics themes
is it now? that sounds...awesome. any word on when it'll be published? is he done writing or still at it?

>>8339200
I cannot fucking wait until the Passenger.

>>8339133
The problem I have with McCarthy is that once you learn he isn't a genius his lesser, early works feel very forced. Reading his very, very early novels like Outer Dark and you see the simple workings of his mind.

For example you will get his corncobby tale, told relatively flat, maybe with a little bit of flair and then, as if by clock work will add "like some great supplicant, portent of some primeval beneficence".

I think it's only in Suttree and Blood Meridian that this goes from being a style far too affected and hollow to actually being woven into the text exquisitely forming a satisfying whole. But I find the boarder trilogy to be some poor mixture (at least poor in comparison) of Suttree and Blood Meridian with the less said about NCfOM and The Road the better.

>>8339200
>The Passenger
I really want to know how this will play. He writes old timey and southern stories because his antiquated language makes sense in that context, but an 80's novel?
How the fuck is he going to do that?
I mean his most recent setting-wise story
is NCfOM right, and it wasn't one of his best.

>>8339025
Is that gene genet?

>>8339615
Isn't Suttree set in the 70's?

>>8339666
50's

>>8339230
>>8339615
I don't know when The Passenger will be released, but it was postponed a bit, I believe he intends to release both parts simultaneously.

As for the content, I have the fullest confidence in his undertaking a new genre. You have to understand that he literally hangs out at the Sante Fe Institute for no reason beyond enjoying talking to scientists. He edits their papers and discusses physics and natural science. They would undoubtedly have a hand in helping him with the scientific themes of his work. Hell, the SFI was probably what inspired him to tackle a scientific novel.

He's written works outside of the southern-gothic frame, No Country, The Counsellor, Sunset Limited, and his adulthood was lived in the 80's, it couldn't be very difficult for him.

Tried to read Blood Meridian, just seemed like a boring storyline with periodic bursts of overdone, indulgent depravity that would be labelled as 3edgy5you if it wasn't written by an old Southern guy.

don't read the The Border Trilogy if your looking for something similar to Blood Meridian

>>8339524
>as if by clock work will add "like some great supplicant, portent of some primeval beneficence".

IMO His similes or metaphors often fall flat and seem try-hard-ey at summoning some archaic imagery. Doesnt work as often as he'd like but..

I dont mind his dry prose but it ruins my immersion.

File: image.jpg (27KB, 350x350px) Image search: [Google]

27KB, 350x350px

>>8339935
Whoa. This was the stupidest post I've seen in a while. Time to go back to Stephen, friend.

>>8339949
Nah u

>>8339524
I liked Outer Dark, it didn't read like an overwrought effort at being deep, it felt like a very self-aware parable- linear and interesting and with a message that was more question than answer.

>>8339726
see
>>8339042

>>8339025
read Butcher's Crossing instead