“The judge was seated upon the closet. He was naked and rose up smiling and gathered him in his arms against his immense and terrible flesh and shot the wooden barlatch home behind him.” Blood Meridian
There is no God and we are his prophets.
A master of the terrible and all things macabre, Cormac McCarthy is a firm favourite here in the We Love office. His tales of destruction and torment, from the scalp hunting gangs of the Deep South at the time of America’s birth to the scavenging degenerates of a post apocalyptic world, offer welcome relief from the sun-kissed paradise of Ibiza. And its not only us that think so, Hollywood it seems has the same opinion. The 2007 film adaption of his novel No Country For Old Men saw massive critical and commercial success winning four Academy Awards including Best Picture. With an adaptation of The Road (for which he won a Pulitzer Prize and my personal favourite) set to hit the big screen any minute it seems McCarthy’s views on death, destruction, trials and tribulation have struck a cord with the cinema going public.
Frequently sited as one of, if not the, top american writers of our time, McCarthy has that rare ability of depicting a world the likes of which we have never seen.
“He lay listening to the water drip in the woods. Bedrock, this. The cold and the silence. The ashes of the late world carried on the bleak and temporal winds to and fro in the void. Carried forth and scattered and carried forth again. Everything uncoupled from its shoring. Unsupported in the ashen air. Sustained by a breath, trembling and brief. If only my heart were stone.” The Road
Along with The Road, Blood Meridian and No Country For Old Men I also recommend Child Of God and Cities of the Plain. All great reads perfect for these long winter nights.
Tags: America, Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy, Film, No Country For Old Men, The Road
