Tales of the Dark Side...And Hope

     It is not inappropriate that the skies overhead are dark and rainy this morning as I type this on the 14th day of June...Flag Day. It is appropriate because yesterday, the esteemed novelist Cormac McCarthy died. For me, McCarthy was one of four of America's greatest novelists of the second half of the twentieth century and the first two decades of this one. At the same time in our history, McCarthy, along with fellow giants Philip Roth (who died in 2018), Don DeLillo, and Thomas Pynchon, embodied a literary genius that may never be duplicated in this country again. I am in awe that I typed that sentence. But it's true.

    The first McCarthy novel I ever read was, for me, his greatest work...Blood Meridian, or The Evening Redness in the West (1985). It was a suggestion from the great literary critic, Harold Bloom. And if you love reading as I do, and Harold Bloom tells you to read something...you read it! Bloom called Blood Meridian, "The greatest Western ever written." He also said that it pretty much closes out the Western genre. "It cannot be duplicated or surpassed." To be honest, I don't know enough about Westerns to comment on that, as it was the first and only one of a few Westerns I've ever read. The whole cowboys and Indians thing just never appealed to me. And while I have seen Unforgiven, as well as Dances With Wolves on the big screen, those are greatness exceptions. 

    But back to Blood Meridian. This novel is dark, dark, and dark. Infants hanging dead in a tree under a sweltering sun; white men and Indians butchering one another, as well as their own; murder and mayhem practically every time you turn the page; and a seven-foot tall mysterious albino who talks of history, philosophy, Gnosticism, and the art and morality of war, like Man About Town Chip Magee and I talk about RUSH, Genesis, and Little Feat! If there's a hell...everyone in this novel is going. It is not a book for the feint of heart. And yet, it really is one of the greatest novels you will ever read. Trust me. Think of Herman Melville and William Faulkner all wrapped up in one genius. 

    I'd like to tell you that Blood Meridian is an exception for McCarthy when it comes to focusing on the dark heart of man. It isn't. After the deep breath I needed once I finished Blood Meridian, I moved on to works like Orchard Keeper (1966), Child of God (1973), and Outer Dark (1968). These superb novels, and others that preceded Blood Meridian also highlighted the depravity of man, albeit in stylistically different ways. It wasn't until The Road in 2006 that McCarthy gives us, sort of, a happy ending. I've written about The Road before so I won't repeat myself here, except to say that I wish I had a son to share that novel with. And I urge you again, dear reader, to marinate yourself in that work, as well as the rest of McCarthy's collective oeuvre. 

    A fellow writer and friend of McCarthy said he was somewhat of an Old Testament prophet, telling us that we are sinners, all. I don't know about that, and I'm not sure McCarthy would appreciate being lumped in with prophets like Jeremiah and Elijah. But then again, who am I? McCarthy had clear gnostic tendencies in all of his novels. I mean, you could make an argument that Blood Meridian is one long gnostic sermon. That is not to scare you away from reading the novel, or his other works, but just to give you an idea of where I think he is coming from, philosophically. However, he also wrote All The Pretty Horses which was the first book of his Border Trilogy, and No Country For Old Men. Both of these novels were adapted for the big screen and did not lack for murder and mayhem, while only hinting at deep spiritual and philosophical questions.

    Here's the thing, kids...I could go on forever, very happily mind you, about Cormac McCarthy. But have no fear...I won't! What I will say is, he's a writer's writer. Even for a schlub like me! He once said, "My perfect day is sitting in a room with some blank paper. That's heaven. That's gold and anything else is just a waste of time." Man, that is great! 

    There are plenty of obituaries out there today, and for the next few days and weeks there will be many more intelligent opinions than what I have offered here. What I will finish with is (including the text below from The Road), if you love to read, and I mean, really read...read McCarthy. Give me a call. I have all his novels! His style is so cool; his sentences can go on forever; punctuation is only a suggestion to him; his characters come to life like only great characters can; and his stories will stand the test of time. A period piece writer he is not. He's a literary Hall-of-Famer who commands your attention and respect. He reminds me, and all of us (even in the depths of our despair), to "CARRY THE FIRE." And he will be sorely missed. 

[Papa and the boy; The Road by Cormac McCarthy]

"You have to carry the fire."

"I don't know how to."

"Yes, you do."

"Is the fire real? The fire?"

"Yes, it is."

"Where is it? I don't know where it is?"

"Yes you do. It's inside you. It always was there. I can see it."

write to Peter: magtour@icloud.com