Cormac McCarthy - RIP

Jack Daw

Novelist Cormac McCarthy died yesterday,he was 89 years old.

Once of the great novelists in my opinion.

He was such a beautiful writer, reading one of his books was like being in a trance.He could write about the most banal things and make it interesting.You could just find joy in the beauty of the writing even if nothing was happening in the plot.

I haven't read all of the books yet but All The Pretty Horses is probably my favourite book of all time (along with Lonesome Dove), although the entire Border Trilogy is outstanding. We're lucky he lived long enough for his final 2 Novels The Passenger and Stella Maris to have been published late last year.

silliussoddius

Once there were brook trouts in the streams in the mountains. You could see them standing in the amber current where the white edges of their fins wimpled softly in the flow. They smelled of moss in your hand. Polished and muscular and torsional. On their backs were vermiculate patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming. Maps and mazes. Of a thing which could not be put back. Not be made right again. In the deep glens where they lived all things were older than man and they hummed of mystery.

buried

One of the best to ever do it. A total wordsmith magician. 'Blood Meridian' is one of the greatest novels of all time. His skill in that work creates images in your mind more visually potent than any filmaker could ever accomplish.

Arghus

Yes indeed, one of the all time greats. Watched an interview between himself and some other guy that was released a few months ago at the time of the publication of The Passenger and while he was as sharp and as lucid as you'd expect he did look incredibly frail, so I guess news of his death isn't a total shock. Went through a big phase of him a few years back and read everything I could get my hands on. I'd probably say The Border Trilogy is my favourite.

The latest ones were good too, although plotting had gone totally out the window, but you'd often find your mind blown by a passage or even a sentence. When he was on it, he was really on it. He could write a sentence about someone eating toast and turn into something genuinely profound.

Irish American Catholic, Southern Appalachian, wild west, Tex Mex dude. What a combination. He lived one hell of a life. Proper old school scribbler. Fascinating man.

chrissb8

When I was 16 I rarely read at all, I just didn't understand the wide appeal but had read the Harry Potter series. The Road was the 1st "serious" book I read and it transformed in me the power of what words could do and the depth of their effect on a person.

I still think of the effect that novel had on me to this day and I don't think I have any other higher praise than that for Cormac McCarthy.

silliussoddius

I don’t think I could read The Road again. I read it two or three times, but after having kids I don’t feel up to it.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120728297#Comment_120728297

Yeah it's not a book I'll ever return to.