by Cormac McCarthy
Started: Nov. 19
Finished: Dec. 1
Notes: I've been in the mood to read Westerns of late, and since this is a Western and it's by the late, oft highly-regarded McCarthy, I thought I'd give it a go. Also, I've had more than one individual express to me that this is their favorite of McCarthy's works, so that also intrigues me. Personally, I have something of a love-hate relationship with this author's writing. Some of his work I've found to be near masterpieces, while others I've found dreadful. I'm hoping this will be one of the masterpieces.
Mini review: In the mid-19th Century, a teen boy hires on with a group of mercenaries (of a sort) who are hired to kill Apaches. There is some beautiful prose here, and some interesting dialogue, plus a number of great characters, but over all ... I didn't care for it, which might seem blasphemy to some because this is supposed to be McCarthy's magnum opus. Why didn't I care for it? For a few reasons. One, it's supposed to be dark and violent, and I didn't find it to be either. Oh, sure, there is some extreme violence that occurs, but much of it happens off screen (so to speak) or is mentioned with little to no description, which I felt was strange considering this is a novel with lengthy descriptions of just about everything else. Secondly, I felt this novel was overly literary, that it was just literary for its own sake, which felt fake to me, it felt false. And then there is the ending, or at least the protagonist's ending; it's left unexplained, obviously intentionally so, and this also felt fake to me, like a trick the author was doing simply to be performing a trick.
Beer score: 2.4
