RARA-AVIS: Re: L'Amour's crime stories

From: jacquesdebierue (jacquesdebierue@yahoo.com)
Date: 05 Nov 2008

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    --- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "cptpipes2000" <cptpipes@...> wrote:
    >
    > Jim, thank you for the list of contemporary Western writers. I look
    > forward to giving each of them a try.
    >
    > A few other Westerns that I would have missed had they not been
    > mentioned on this list are COTTONWOOD by Scott Phillips, WOE TO LIVE
    > ON by Daniel Woodrell and TRUE GRIT by Charles Portis.
    >
    > And then there's BLOOD MERIDIAN.

    And if you follow up Blood Meridian with The Road, you get a complete diet of masterpiecemeal. I cannot find the words to praise these books high enough. In the case of The Road, the feeling of reading a freshly minted masterpiece was thrilling, despite the content of the book, which is devastating. And Blood Meridian kicks ass in the most categorical fashion imaginable.

    The caste of McCarthy gives one hope that guys who are ignored for a long time can make it, even commercially. And it proves that old guys can write great stuff (well, Cervantes had proved that already, eloquently).

    Just what is it about McCarthy that elevates him? I find him quite impenetrable to analysis.

    Best,

    mrt



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