Ever Read Any Cormac McCarthy?

The 2007 Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction has been announced, and it’s Cormac McCarthy’s latest, The Road. Even Oprah has championed it, backing the newly released paperback edition, but don’t let that turn you off. McCarthy is a modern classic, whose work will be taught in universities and high schools, if it isn’t already. It is difficult for any reviewer to avoid using a reference to William Faulkner when describing McCarthy’s blunt tone and passionless delivery. He forces the reader to invest his own emotional state by contributing none himself to the dramas that unfold with a stunning economy of words.

A few years ago under the recommendation of friends, I read McCarthy’s disturbing story of an isolated sociopath, Child of God, and I’ve been unable to let go of the story ever since. I’m not saying it was an enjoyable read per se; it was harrowing, bleak, occasionally difficult to digest, morbid in spurts, dissociated, and utterly depressing to the last page. And, undeniably brilliant.

I expect nothing less from The Road, a tale about survivors in a post apocalyptic America. Cannibalilism, looting, extinct wildlife, starvation abound thematically. And yet, it’s said, hope prevails, that ultimately it’s a story about the love between a father and his son. Newsweek says that this is “the logical culmination of everything he’s written.”

I’m in, I’ve got to check it out. He’s a quick read, I’ll probably have my own review back here inside of the week. Meanwhile, has anyone else read McCarthy, perhaps even this book?

The Road [amazon.com]