October Reads

McCarthy; Palmer; Hegel; Pippin; Postman; Thelin

What have I been up to in October, reading-wise? Let’s take a look.

Of course, I could talk about Mrs Dalloway — but we’re talking an awful lot about Mrs Dalloway this month, including at tomorrow’s members-only Zoom call. That will be held at 8 PM Eastern, October 27. (Due to a cold, I had to reschedule it from last week.)

If you want to join, you can become a paying subscriber. That also helps me keep writing, making YouTube videos, and hosting these read-alongs.

No Country for Old Men and Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

This is for a forthcoming project (don’t hold your breath; I have no idea when it will come out). I’m going to read every McCarthy novel before the end of the year to get a proper, synoptical view of his corpus. There are very few authors I’ve done this with.

Early thoughts: No Country for Old Men reads more like a crime novel than some of McCarthy’s other work. It has a driving plot. It is less internally focused than The Road, and it has a more earthy feel. It is less operatic than Blood Meridian. If it weren’t for McCarthy’s characteristic diction, you might not think these were all written by the same man.

Blood Meridian, I’m finding, is better the second time around. It was already a personal favorite – back when I was the sort of guy who ranked books on YouTube, it made it into my ten favorite books – but I had begun to suspect that wouldn’t be true if I remade the list. Now, I’m more conflicted. Clearly an American masterpiece. Bloom called McCarthy the true heir to Faulkner and Melville; I believe he’s correct.

And once you’ve read McCarthy, bits of his style make it into your speech and writing. Whenever I write fiction, just a touch of McCarthy appears.

After all – as the master himself said – books are made of books.

Terra Ignota by Ada Palmer