That would have been me. The border trilogy are some of my all time favourite books and McCarthy's sparse writing style just suits the setting perfectly. The best of his work.SerjeantWildgoose wrote:Cormac McCarthy's Cities of the Plain. Reviewed by someone on here a couple of years ago, I finally got round to slotting the final instalment of the Border Trilogy into my reading schedule. Despite the difficulty I have in dealing with much of the Spanish dialogue (Choice: skip it and lose some of the detail or sit there with a translator App and lose the flow?), I have enjoyed all 3 of these books, Cities of the Plain being my favourite. It is brutal, I suppose predictable, but McCarthy's writing comes in wonderful and atmospheric swathes. In terms of emotional entrapment, there are few equals. Truly brilliant.
I have Suttree (A far heftier looking volume than the works of McCarthy that I've read so far) sitting on my shelves waiting to go, but given the line-up I have waiting - and that I start my Masters next Monday - I could see it being another few years before I get round to it.paddy no 11 wrote:I think Suttree is up there wit the trilogy. The first 150 pages of the crossing are the best imo. The conversations with the woman about the war in ATPH and with the old man about the tremolo in the crossing are incredible, whole thing a gift.
(still reading war and peace!!)
What in? You're time nearly up?SerjeantWildgoose wrote:I have Suttree (A far heftier looking volume than the works of McCarthy that I've read so far) sitting on my shelves waiting to go, but given the line-up I have waiting - and that I start my Masters next Monday - I could see it being another few years before I get round to it.paddy no 11 wrote:I think Suttree is up there wit the trilogy. The first 150 pages of the crossing are the best imo. The conversations with the woman about the war in ATPH and with the old man about the tremolo in the crossing are incredible, whole thing a gift.
(still reading war and peace!!)
Gave up on it in the end, sorry to say. It was well-written (in a technical sense) and recreated the American South around the middle of the 20th century quite well, but almost too well, and really that was all it did. The writing and characterization were mechanical and empty, there was none of the life and soul of To Kill a Mockingbird, and basically nothing to keep me going after 80 or 90 pages, especially as by then I'd become about as sure as I could be that I'd allowed myself to be duped by a fairly obvious scam.rowan wrote:Well into Go Set a Watchman now and have mixed feelings about it. Firstly, it is certainly readable and quite enjoyable so far. However, I am as sure as I can be that it was not written by the same author as To Kill a Mockingbird. The style is very different. They may have collected some of her notes from a failed attempt to write a sequel and made a novel based upon them, but that's all, IMHO.
If you like the border trilogy then try Butcher's Crossing by John Williams.switchskier wrote:That would have been me. The border trilogy are some of my all time favourite books and McCarthy's sparse writing style just suits the setting perfectly. The best of his work.SerjeantWildgoose wrote:Cormac McCarthy's Cities of the Plain. Reviewed by someone on here a couple of years ago, I finally got round to slotting the final instalment of the Border Trilogy into my reading schedule. Despite the difficulty I have in dealing with much of the Spanish dialogue (Choice: skip it and lose some of the detail or sit there with a translator App and lose the flow?), I have enjoyed all 3 of these books, Cities of the Plain being my favourite. It is brutal, I suppose predictable, but McCarthy's writing comes in wonderful and atmospheric swathes. In terms of emotional entrapment, there are few equals. Truly brilliant.
I'm highly suspicious that you live in a library.SerjeantWildgoose wrote:Sitting on my shelf waiting its turn. If its anything like the quality of Stoner than it promises to be a gem.
Looks good, it's been added to the list.Numbers wrote:If you like the border trilogy then try Butcher's Crossing by John Williams.switchskier wrote:That would have been me. The border trilogy are some of my all time favourite books and McCarthy's sparse writing style just suits the setting perfectly. The best of his work.SerjeantWildgoose wrote:Cormac McCarthy's Cities of the Plain. Reviewed by someone on here a couple of years ago, I finally got round to slotting the final instalment of the Border Trilogy into my reading schedule. Despite the difficulty I have in dealing with much of the Spanish dialogue (Choice: skip it and lose some of the detail or sit there with a translator App and lose the flow?), I have enjoyed all 3 of these books, Cities of the Plain being my favourite. It is brutal, I suppose predictable, but McCarthy's writing comes in wonderful and atmospheric swathes. In terms of emotional entrapment, there are few equals. Truly brilliant.
Great book and sad to hear of his passing. How his story isn't more widely known I do not know.OptimisticJock wrote:If anyone has read The Forgotten Highlander you may want to know Alistair Urquhart passed away on Friday. I could have has the honour of meeting him a few months ago. Picked a patient up and he was in the next bed, recognised him but couldn't place where from. My patient ended up mentioning him, I was gutted, would have shaken his hand.