Maybe it Was the Enormous Red Bull I Was Drinking, but I Doubt it.

[create_destiny]

Dear Cormac McCarthy,

If you want me to read your National Book Award-winning trilogy that begins with All the Pretty Horses, then in the beginning, when you are introducing your characters to your readers, do not make it so freaking difficult to figure out who is telling the damn story. Because, look, when you introduce new characters, and don't give the reader any threads of comprehension as to how they are related or who the frell is speaking, then your average Mtv generation reader will give up about 10 pages in. Life is too short to read books that frustrate and bore me. For you, and for superhappytime and 1gr8poetess and for the sake of my own damn ego and love of great literature and also for my budding love of the Texas/Mexico border I gave you a second chance. I went back and re-read the first 10 pages right after I read them and was still confused and bored. If that's all part of your style or whatever, then that's fine. Just know that one girl in Northern California is gonna quit your book and talk smack about you in her Attention Deficit-addled blog.

Comments

[superhappytime.livejournal.com]

10 pages?

give it 50.

he doesn't make it clear in any book. he writes the same in all of them. and roddy doyle and irvine welsh "borrowed" that idea, among others.

[agaitis-byrjun.livejournal.com]

Cormac McCarthy is one of my favorite writers. Like, top five.

Seriously.

[substitute.livejournal.com]

I can't fucking stand that guy. Loads of pomo precious style like he's Joyce and Faulkner, and then no story.

[lcurtis.livejournal.com]

I absolutely hated "The Road". Did not feel compelled to read "No Country For Old Men" (however loved the movie because of Javier Bordems portrayal of "Chigurh"}. Have no interest in "All the Pretty Horses"; however, be advised, that I think Jack Kerouac wrote the "Great American Novel" when he wrote "The Town and the City". Life is too short to give any writer "another try". Go with your gut.

[bardcat.livejournal.com]

hmmm. someone just gave me a birthday gift of mcCarthy's Suttree and said it changed his life. i think i tend to agree with you because there is so much to read and so little time. i prefer not to struggle immensely early on in an effort to figure things out, especially as i age.

[sardonic-artery.livejournal.com]

Yeah, double Mac can be tough. I liked No Country For Old Men, but thought Blood Meridian really missed the mark.

[raingirl26.livejournal.com]

Being married to a poet I have all sorts of opinions about all kinds of writers, BUT you have to go with what works for you. I'm not against things being confusing (though I do have to be in the right mood to confront it) but I am against being bored for many pages. My guess is that the boredom kept you from being able to deal with the confusion. No sweat, there are plenty of authors out there. (But I'm not sure one should be against someone as a writer just because one doesn't like that style of writing, just be against it for you.)