Another Cormac McCarthy thread. (Split from elsewhere)

Which McCarthy book (is MTGuru listening to?)

No Country for Old Men. Probably not the best choice to cheer me up. But I hear it’s the kind of gritty fiction basmatis enjoy, and I’m working on my act. :stuck_out_tongue:

Actually, relative to his other works, NCFOM is a light comedy.

Well, I’m only a junior basmati, so maybe it’s about the right level of grit for me. Consider that I previously received my copy of The Road as a birthday gift, and that made me reconsider the utility of birthdays … or any days, for that matter. :astonished:

yes, there’s a lot of grit in “the Road”. :slight_smile:

I’ve ended up listening to some parts, reading some parts, and some parts both. Which has made it an interesting multi-modal experience.

I’m around 75% through now. Something tells me not to expect a happy ending.

Well, I was half right. No happy ending. In fact, no ending at all, in a sense. When the plot lines all fall away with 20% to go, the frame is all that’s left. The frame becomes the story. I understand how and why in this case. But it’s disconcerting. Yes, as Sheriff Bell might say, I reckon it’s kindly supposed to be.

I have not seen the film, which I hear is well done. But I have to say I’m glad I didn’t look up the casting until turning (or listening to) the last page of the book. As with many stories, the discrepancy between the actors chosen and the characters as they appeared in my mind’s eye was quite jarring. I find that if I’ve read a book first, I can bring back the mental world of landscape and characters even after film interference. But no so much if the order of exposure is reversed.

So what should be next in my queue? Pretty Horses?

Have you read “Blood Meridian”? That’s a great one (don’t know about audiobooks, though; I’ve never tried one except for poetry compilations, to hear poets read their own work).

Or you can try “Outer Dark” for a sort of existentialist Southern Gothic bit of literature; it’s relatively short, but packs a (pitch-black) wallop. You may want to put some lighter stuff between “No Country . . .” and this one (or most McCarthy books), just so you don’t go looking for tall things to jump off of. . .

“Pretty Horses” is a good 'un, too, for sure. “Blood Meridian”, though, knocked my socks off. Just amazing language.

All the Pretty Horses, and the other two novels that make up the “border trilogy” are splendid books. I read them next after The Road, then I read No Country, then Blood Meridian, then, probably, Suttree. After that, I don’t remember. I’m going to re-read the border trilogy.

One thing about the Border books, a lot of the characters speak Spanish and Cormac doesn’t bother to translate. So, having some Spanish reading skills is helpful. Somewhere on the web, is a big document that translates all the Spanish.

Ridley Scott is supposed to be making the movie version of Blood Meridian, but I gather it’s in development hell. (As is, by the way, Ron Howard’s remake of The Forbin Project.)

The Road is still by far his most emotional piece.

Thats another one stuck in development hell, I hear…and, now Viggo Mortenson is quitting acting…hopefully The Road doesn’t need any reshots… :frowning:

I sort of hope it stays there. I’m trying to wrap my head around a filmed version of something that springs up so much from the language of the book. (I’d probably go see it anyway, though.)

Wonder what Howard plans to use to replace the Cold War. If anything. (I just saw the remake of “The Day the Earth Stood Still”, and first of all: ick. Second of all, climate change doesn’t really make for a good Nuclear Annihilation replacement, or didn’t in this case.)

No Country has just turned up on this month’s rotation on Encore, so I finally saw the film last night. Not bad, very faithful to details, except for the huge gaps and leaps in the story line - as always with movies of novels. I’ve always thought that 2 hours of film narrative equals one short story. So movies are always like Reader’s Digest versions, and this could have used at least another 1/2 hour.

At least after a 6 week hiatus since reading, it was easier to accept the casting choices. Really not bad. Javier Bardem as Chigurh is excellent as a nexus of both directed and aleatoric evil incarnate.

The most jarring change to me was the devaluation of Sheriff Bell from the framing conscience of the entire story to a basically minor or at least co-equal character. Yes, it’s difficult to translate contemplative exposition to visual narration. But retained scenes such as his visit with Ellis, and even Bell’s presence in the plot at all, no longer quite make sense.

Still, a good movie experience all in all.

I’ve seen the movie three times and read the book twice. It’s funny, I thought the film caught almost all of the narrative, but I can see what you mean about the difficulties that stem from trying to deal with the extensive exposition.

I would love that movie, though, if for no other reason for the last two minutes which, of course, are the same two minutes that madden your basic popcorn movie goer.