Malone

Anyone else love this guy? I read No Country For Old Men after watching the movie, and WOW, can this guy write. His style is so engaging and different. Somewhat Joycian style, but even better than Ulysses' style in my opinion. I wasn't expecting this from McCarthy, so it really blew me away and grabbed me by the balls. I'm definitely going to start reading more of his stuff.

Matt3483

Read The Road. It will change the way you write. A masterpiece in the traditional sense.

On the other hand, I read 100 pages of Suttree and couldn't put myself through the rest. Go figure.

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Truth-Teller

Writers like this is the reason why literature is dead.

Eli Cash

Care to elaborate? I'd put him up there with Roth, DeLillo and Ford as one of the best novelists of his generation.

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papertears

I grew up around where McCarthy likes to write some of his work. In college I minored in SW literature and if I remember correctly, he has a unique style of punctuation for dialogue that can make it hard for some folks to read? I should give him a second chance though.

Parts of No Country For Old Men, the movie, were shot in my home state of NM because there are still areas that have the look and feel of the period. It was cheaper to just bring in the cars and costumes than build an actual set. (One of the few things that NM's governor did in his spare time while trying to win the democratic nomination for president, was that he really tried to get NM some better PR, as well as some of the locals some jobs by singing the praises of our diverse landscape to low budget indy films of the low cost of shooting in his state. )

Growing up a stone's throw from west Texas, watching some of the footage from Javier Bardem. I can't help but be interested in the novel behind the blockbuster.

Sure, Cormac is no Larry McMurtry or Edward Abbey--two of my favorite southwestern US author favorites. Well, maybe he is a bit like Edward Abbey back when he wrote the Monkey Wrench Gang--just with a bit more John Wu. He has a some creative energy he channels into quite violent content. (We never really studied where that came from, though I'd be interested in knowing.)

What I have read of his though (my memory is failing me on the titles) didn't seem like he was using the violience as a gimmick or that it was overdone. Even more proof of this is that I respect the Cohen brothers who may not shy away from violence, but certainly have earned respect enough that I trust them enough not to rely on it.

McCarthy is a bit egotistical, if you noticed him at the Oscars when the Cohen Bros. won for best picture he got up and cheered. I'm not going to judge him and say he didn't deserve to stand up and look thrilled. On the other hand the Cohen Bros. came off as uncomfortable receiving any kind of compliments or praise. So there were two extremes. That may be why they are all so good at what they do. I still think humility is something even the best need to hang on to.

I'll allow CM to be eccentric, the man can write well, from my POV, so I'll even allow his unique punctuation style that causes me headaches--he's probably earned it.

apologies for necroposting, but it was a good topic i missed,

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Malone

The book was almost exactly like the movie, only a bit more filled out with some of the details. He doesn't use quotations at all, which makes it very interesting. He also uses "and" more than once in his sentences a lot, which is somewhat unique and enjoyable.

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papertears

It is interesting. How many authors can get away with that?

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Malone

I think I'll post an excerpt from No Country for us to read and analyze, going on the idea I proposed in The Lounge.

Easton-Ellis gets away with the run-on sentence style too, but McCarthy uses those repeated "and"s and Ellis doesn't. They're two of my favorite writers, yet I try to avoid their long sentence style in my own writing.

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papertears

I try to avoid it, but my grammar is terrible, some people misinterpret that as a style. Gah! I would never be so bold as to.

I've heard of some decent authors attempting it and just get throttled by critics. I wonder how they do it. We should definitely discuss this. How do you achieve greatness enough that you can start messing around with grammar and punctuation? Or is it more that it lends itself to the book?

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geminye

I loved the movie, and i'm looking forward to reading the book. I would love to read an excerpt. I think we're safe with fair use as long as we cite the author. Perhaps you could try to email him for permission? I was successful with this for the other thread we're working on.
Discussions on professional author's work would be invaluable to anyone trying to hone their craft. Post away!!

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Talia_Brie

I've just finished No Country a little while ago, and now I' desperate to get my hands on The Road. I was really surprised as well by how engaging it was.

I found the dialogue really easy to follow because the characters were so well written.

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Straylight

I respect what he does, and he's good at it.

That said, I don't really enjoy reading him. I've read The Road, and I toughed through No Country for Old Men and Blood Meridian. Good plotting (where applicable), great characters, very organic-feeling, but his style just doesn't work for me.

Then again, I love Pynchon and find Melville unreadable, so my tastes are weird.

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SevenWritez

I couldn't get into The Road or No Country For Old Men, but two days ago I stumbled across All The Pretty Horses and I am LOVING it. His style is so subtle yet raw with image and life. It's almost frightening to see such deceptively simple prose convey more than most writers could hope to. He will easily go down as one of the greats.

Malone

Oprah recently added The Road to her book club must read list.

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Shawn

I wouldn't go as far as saying that the style in No Country was better than Ulysses. Joyce will likely remain to take the cake for stream of conciousness for the next century.

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