What are you reading? V1

[Malfatron]

1 minute ago, JohnChimpo said:

I honestly preferred Lonesome Dove, but they’re both 5 star books imo.

No, i really like Lonesome Dome as a western.

Blood Meridian is basically a survival horror 

Reading them back to back is such a change of pace, and a very striking difference at first, especially since I don't typically read westerns.

I'm just starting Act 2 now from Lonesome Dove, and it's got a really good characterization and world building so far

[JohnChimpo]

7 minutes ago, Malfatron said:

No, i really like Lonesome Dome as a western.

Blood Meridian is basically a survival horror 

Reading them back to back is such a change of pace, and a very striking difference at first, especially since I don't typically read westerns.

I'm just starting Act 2 now from Lonesome Dove, and it's got a really good characterization and world building so far

Yes, they are very different in style. It’s cool that you’re doing that because they often get compared to one another since they were published in the same year and both have western settings. 
 

I’m not a big Western reader either. Outside of probably some books as a kid, I’m not sure I’ve read any other westerns. I loved the characters in Lonesome Dove, and it had a great plot. Blood Meridian was more about the style. McCarthy painted a bleak, brutal world with his prose.

[Daniel]

21 hours ago, Malfatron said:

Lonesove Dove. Its no Blood Meridian, but a damn good read.

 

20 hours ago, JohnChimpo said:

I honestly preferred Lonesome Dove, but they’re both 5 star books imo.

Cormac McCarthy is probably my favorite writer.

Blood Meridian is the quintessential American novel imo.  Western expansion and genocide, a riff on the western genre, and strong literary ties to Paradise Lost (England's national epic).  The Judge, imo, is a straight 1 for 1 insert of Milton's Lucifer.

BM definitely operates best though, as a precursor to the Border Trilogy, with No Country as an epilogue.

Also would highly, highly recommend the entire Border trilogy to anyone that likes westerns.  All the Pretty Horses is a classical romantic western put through a modern realist writer.  The Crossing is a great deconstruction of the genre.  And Cities of the Plain combines and contrasts those two in a really, really thematically bleak way, but it's my favorite one.

Crossing does require a working knowledge of really archaic Spanish to get through without some translation material though, which is pretty annoying.

[JohnChimpo]

1 hour ago, Daniel said:

 

Cormac McCarthy is probably my favorite writer.

Blood Meridian is the quintessential American novel imo.  Western expansion and genocide, a riff on the western genre, and strong literary ties to Paradise Lost (England's national epic).  The Judge, imo, is a straight 1 for 1 insert of Milton's Lucifer.

BM definitely operates best though, as a precursor to the Border Trilogy, with No Country as an epilogue.

Also would highly, highly recommend the entire Border trilogy to anyone that likes westerns.  All the Pretty Horses is a classical romantic western put through a modern realist writer.  The Crossing is a great deconstruction of the genre.  And Cities of the Plain combines and contrasts those two in a really, really thematically bleak way, but it's my favorite one.

Crossing does require a working knowledge of really archaic Spanish to get through without some translation material though, which is pretty annoying.

I have All the Pretty Horses, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. No Country is obviously awesome.

[Malfatron]

2 hours ago, Daniel said:

Cormac McCarthy is probably my favorite writer.

Blood Meridian is the quintessential American novel imo.  Western expansion and genocide, a riff on the western genre, and strong literary ties to Paradise Lost (England's national epic).  The Judge, imo, is a straight 1 for 1 insert of Milton's Lucifer.

I need to read more of CMC.

Blood Meridan is the only one and I couldnt put it down, it was so stark, brutal, and yet there was so many layers to it

[Daniel]

19 minutes ago, Malfatron said:

I need to read more of CMC.

Blood Meridan is the only one and I couldnt put it down, it was so stark, brutal, and yet there was so many layers to it

McCarthy is my jam, so insanely long post incoming.

Most of his writings are incredibly dark.  The ones that are the least dark are probably All the Pretty Horses and Suttree.

I went to UT for law school, where CMC attended, and they have a collection of all of his writings, published and unpublished.  I've read everything he's written.  All good.

Orchard Keeper is probably the worst.  It's his first novel, and he was still trying to write too much like Faulkner.  Hadn't found his own voice.  The Stonemason (a play) isn't great either, but both are still worth reading.  Sunset Limited is much better as far as plays go, and there's actually a really good adaptation with Samuel L Jackson and Tommy Lee Jones from a few years ago.

If I'm making recommendations though, I'd go with All the Pretty Horses if Blood Meridian is too bleak for you, and The Road if it isn't.  Everyone seems to love The Road.  I think it's his most popular novel.

Personally, I'd rank his published works:

1. Blood Meridian: Like one of the best novels of the 20th century, bar none.  Only novels that stand toe to toe with it from the second half of the century are Invisible Man, Midnight's Children, and Lolita.  Yall've read it so not much needs to be said.  I could talk about this book all day.

 2. Cities of the Plain: Third book of the Border Trilogy takes the protagonists from the previous novels and puts them together.  It's a great examination of what happens to a romantic hero (Cole) is dropped into a bleak, realist setting, and how a modernist protagonist (Parham) reacts to it.  It takes the best parts of the previous two books and distills them into one amazing novel.

 3. Child of God: McCarthy's earliest masterpiece, it's a transgressive novel in the most extreme sense.  The protagonist is a disgusting, pitiful excuse for a human being, but McCarthy manages to make him somewhat sympathetic.  The title comes from the beginning, where it calls the protagonist "a child of God, much like yourself perhaps" and delivers on that one promise from there.

4. The Road: The posterchild for post-apocalypse novels in "literary fiction."  Possibly the bleakest McCarthy novel, the world it's set in isn't just destroyed, it's dead, with no indication of any kind that there's any possibility for what's left of all life for anything better than delaying death for a little while longer.  Makes use of the Blood Meridian not-naming-your-protagonist thing.

5. All the Pretty Horses: McCarthy takes a stab at a romantic novel (in the sense of the artistic movement), and it makes for one of the most unique novels in his bibliography.  Protagonist is your standard western hero who leaves home after his late grandfather's ranch is sold to find work as a cowboy.

 6. The Sunset Limited: A play that is just an extended conversation between two unnamed men, one black, one white, after the former prevents the latter from killing himself by jumping in front of a train.  Their conversation veers from religion to literature to philosophy as black tries to convince white not to attempt to kill himself again, and white tries to talk black into letting him do it (big oversimplification, but that's the jist).

7. Suttree: I hate the term post-modernism in the realm of literature, but for how people use it, this is McCarthy's spin on the standard postmodern novel that is essentially a story of a place in a particular point in time more than an actual story.  It follows a man named Suttree who lives on the Tennessee River in a houseboat outside Knoxville.  A lot of stuff happens.

8. No Country for Old Men: The movie is actually a really good adaptation.  It only changes a few things, and keeps the spirit of the novel completely intact.  It takes another stab at deconstructing westerns.  It's the closest thing McCarthy has to a plot driven novel.

9. Outer Dark: McCarthy's Faulknerian allegory novel.  Follows a set of fraternal twins that produced a baby from an incestuous relationship and the fallout of some of those actions.

 10. The Crossing: The first deconstruction of the western novel by McCarthy.  You see a lot of the western tropes here, but they're played against, and the setting is distinctly realist.  Follows two brothers who cross the border to look for some stolen horses.  Does not play out like you would think based on that description.

 11. The Stonemason: A play that centers on a black family in Alabama, told entirely by one who chooses not to go to college to follow his father and grandfather as a stonemason.  It's fine, wouldn't recommend unless you just love McCarthy.

12. The Orchard Keeper: Another ok novel, deals with a few characters in a rural east Tennessee town.  One guy kills another in self defense, and the dead man's son is made, by his mother, to vow to take vengeance on his father's killer.  And of course, those two meet without knowing that about each other.  It's fine, but like I said, McCarthy was trying to write like Faulkner, so it comes off as a lesser imitation of a Faulkner novel.  Wouldn't really recommend.

[JohnChimpo]

18 minutes ago, Daniel said:

McCarthy is my jam, so insanely long post incoming.

Most of his writings are incredibly dark.  The ones that are the least dark are probably All the Pretty Horses and Suttree.

I went to UT for law school, where CMC attended, and they have a collection of all of his writings, published and unpublished.  I've read everything he's written.  All good.

Orchard Keeper is probably the worst.  It's his first novel, and he was still trying to write too much like Faulkner.  Hadn't found his own voice.  The Stonemason (a play) isn't great either, but both are still worth reading.  Sunset Limited is much better as far as plays go, and there's actually a really good adaptation with Samuel L Jackson and Tommy Lee Jones from a few years ago.

If I'm making recommendations though, I'd go with All the Pretty Horses if Blood Meridian is too bleak for you, and The Road if it isn't.  Everyone seems to love The Road.  I think it's his most popular novel.

Personally, I'd rank his published works:

1. Blood Meridian: Like one of the best novels of the 20th century, bar none.  Only novels that stand toe to toe with it from the second half of the century are Invisible Man, Midnight's Children, and Lolita.  Yall've read it so not much needs to be said.  I could talk about this book all day.

 2. Cities of the Plain: Third book of the Border Trilogy takes the protagonists from the previous novels and puts them together.  It's a great examination of what happens to a romantic hero (Cole) is dropped into a bleak, realist setting, and how a modernist protagonist (Parham) reacts to it.  It takes the best parts of the previous two books and distills them into one amazing novel.

 3. Child of God: McCarthy's earliest masterpiece, it's a transgressive novel in the most extreme sense.  The protagonist is a disgusting, pitiful excuse for a human being, but McCarthy manages to make him somewhat sympathetic.  The title comes from the beginning, where it calls the protagonist "a child of God, much like yourself perhaps" and delivers on that one promise from there.

4. The Road: The posterchild for post-apocalypse novels in "literary fiction."  Possibly the bleakest McCarthy novel, the world it's set in isn't just destroyed, it's dead, with no indication of any kind that there's any possibility for what's left of all life for anything better than delaying death for a little while longer.  Makes use of the Blood Meridian not-naming-your-protagonist thing.

5. All the Pretty Horses: McCarthy takes a stab at a romantic novel (in the sense of the artistic movement), and it makes for one of the most unique novels in his bibliography.  Protagonist is your standard western hero who leaves home after his late grandfather's ranch is sold to find work as a cowboy.

 6. The Sunset Limited: A play that is just an extended conversation between two unnamed men, one black, one white, after the former prevents the latter from killing himself by jumping in front of a train.  Their conversation veers from religion to literature to philosophy as black tries to convince white not to attempt to kill himself again, and white tries to talk black into letting him do it (big oversimplification, but that's the jist).

7. Suttree: I hate the term post-modernism in the realm of literature, but for how people use it, this is McCarthy's spin on the standard postmodern novel that is essentially a story of a place in a particular point in time more than an actual story.  It follows a man named Suttree who lives on the Tennessee River in a houseboat outside Knoxville.  A lot of stuff happens.

8. No Country for Old Men: The movie is actually a really good adaptation.  It only changes a few things, and keeps the spirit of the novel completely intact.  It takes another stab at deconstructing westerns.  It's the closest thing McCarthy has to a plot driven novel.

9. Outer Dark: McCarthy's Faulknerian allegory novel.  Follows a set of fraternal twins that produced a baby from an incestuous relationship and the fallout of some of those actions.

 10. The Crossing: The first deconstruction of the western novel by McCarthy.  You see a lot of the western tropes here, but they're played against, and the setting is distinctly realist.  Follows two brothers who cross the border to look for some stolen horses.  Does not play out like you would think based on that description.

 11. The Stonemason: A play that centers on a black family in Alabama, told entirely by one who chooses not to go to college to follow his father and grandfather as a stonemason.  It's fine, wouldn't recommend unless you just love McCarthy.

12. The Orchard Keeper: Another ok novel, deals with a few characters in a rural east Tennessee town.  One guy kills another in self defense, and the dead man's son is made, by his mother, to vow to take vengeance on his father's killer.  And of course, those two meet without knowing that about each other.  It's fine, but like I said, McCarthy was trying to write like Faulkner, so it comes off as a lesser imitation of a Faulkner novel.  Wouldn't really recommend.

I also own The Road and haven’t gotten to it yet.

In addition to Blood Meridian and No Country, I have also read (listened to) Suttree. Blood Meridian is clearly the greatest of the 3, but I preferred No Country because I’m more of a plot guy. Wiki says No Country was originally written as a screenplay, which makes sense given the excellence of the film adaptation.
 

Although I haven’t read Paradise Lost, I had read that before about the Judge, and it makes total sense. CMC seems to be a master of both prose and symbolism. Suttree was a fun ride down the river, but it wasn’t really my kind of book. I still appreciated the craftsmanship though.

[Ty21]

Halfway through a storm of swords. I really wish I could’ve read this before I saw the show. I’m curious if I would’ve guessed Rhaegar and Lyanna being Jon Snow’s parents based on all the hints throughout. Probably not though, as I would’ve taken Eddard Stark claiming to be his dad as gospel, despite the hints that he would never forgo honor for that sort of thing. 

[Fresh Prince]

30 minutes ago, Ty21 said:

Halfway through a storm of swords. I really wish I could’ve read this before I saw the show. I’m curious if I would’ve guessed Rhaegar and Lyanna being Jon Snow’s parents based on all the hints throughout. Probably not though, as I would’ve taken Eddard Stark claiming to be his dad as gospel, despite the hints that he would never forgo honor for that sort of thing. 

Fans of the book all knew way before the show came out. I think you would’ve guessed it.

[MikeT14]

Pet Sematary for Spooktober 

[JohnChimpo]

8 hours ago, MikeT14 said:

Pet Sematary for Spooktober 

Good one

[Fresh Prince]

10 hours ago, JohnChimpo said:

Good one

Ever time I go to B&N I have that book in my hand but I never buy it.

[Ty21]

Pet Sematary is the shining example of what I hate most about Stephen King’s writing: blatant foreshadowing. Other things receiving votes: terrible at endings and incoherent rambling at times. 

[JohnChimpo]

8 hours ago, Ty21 said:

Pet Sematary is the shining example of what I hate most about Stephen King’s writing: blatant foreshadowing. Other things receiving votes: terrible at endings and incoherent rambling at times. 

It didn’t bother me, but you’re right. He makes fun of himself for his endings in IT.

[Malfatron]

9 hours ago, Ty21 said:

Pet Sematary is the shining example of what I hate most about Stephen King’s writing: blatant foreshadowing. Other things receiving votes: terrible at endings and incoherent rambling at times. 

Subverted in The Stand.

"That was the last time they ever saw Stu"

Edited October 19, 2022 by Malfatron