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The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Cormac McCarthy: The Passenger Oct 25, Stella Maris Dec 6
 
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Larry Cum Free
Jun 3, 2022

move it or lose it dillweed
I just finished the book last night and haven't dove into Stella Maris yet. I'm looking forward to it as I did enjoy the Alicia talking to her hallucinations chapters, which I think puts me in the minority of the thread.

I struggled with the last chapter of The Passenger and I know I'm going to need to re-read both books at least once to get a handle on it. I've read enough Cormac not to expect a tidy resolution, but I thought we would get....something more?

HashtagGirlboss posted:

Yeah it’s really a central component of his character, so many little details

competent enough to track down the island where the escape raft came aground, but no effort beyond that to unravel the mystery. Or when he hides out in Idaho until he’s starving and only then wanders into town for food. Or when he finds the truck in the ditch and stops the engine and leaves the abandoned passenger to his gate, expecting to find the driver further up the road but nope. Or of course the big one of being unwilling to read his sister’s last letter.

It also strikes me of all the Cormack McArthur I’ve read, which isn’t everything he’s written but most of the big ones, he’s the only protagonist who is never in any overt physical danger, which Kline reminds him a few times. Just kind of blowing in the wind, and that kind of goes with the fatalism that comes up a few times of individual lives and experiences dropping out of existence as time moves on

He’s just stuck on his sister dying (and his father dying too, although less present) the way his uncle is stuck on the drowned farm and just yells at the television

The way I read Western, which is probably overly simplistic, is he's ready for death, but he won't kill himself and he won't succumb to death from some external force willingly. It's like he wants his death to be meaningful and redeeming in some way, but I think it's a big theme of Cormac's novels that there rarely is meaning in death.

I like all the details of his interesting cast of friends, the racecar driver career, the forays into physics, being able to fix and jerry-rig things. It paints a portrait of this supremely interesting character that existed outside the scope of the novel, who gave up on everything and became this blank canvas for everything around him after Alicia died.

* # ¿ Dec 14, 2022 18:18
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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 13:45
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Larry Cum Free
Jun 3, 2022

move it or lose it dillweed

escape artist posted:

To those who have read Passenger / Stella Maris:

Since I have the option, when do you guys think I should read Passenger / Stella Maris? Should I make my way through the rest of his oeuvre first? Or should I insert them somewhere in the middle so I don't see a dropoff in quality? I tried to start The Road last night but I think I am gonna do All The Pretty Horses instead because my mind is still in the frontier.


I've read everything he's written save for Outer Dark and Orchard Keeper, and I didn't think The Passenger represented a drop off in quality at all. You can't go wrong with either The Road or the Border Trilogy because they both own.

e: ^^Suttree is my favourite and I agree it would be good (but not remotely necessary) to read before Passenger. If you're going through the whole oeuvre though I would save Suttree for somewhere in the middle. It's a nice break in terms of subject matter as it's not so heavy/grim. Like read it between The Road and Blood Meridian so you don't spiral into depression lol

Larry Cum Free fucked around with this message at 22:56 on Dec 14, 2022

* # ¿ Dec 14, 2022 22:52
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Larry Cum Free
Jun 3, 2022

move it or lose it dillweed
Ken Jeong legitimately might make a good Judge Holden in the film adaptation that will never happen .

* # ¿ Nov 14, 2023 16:55
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The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Cormac McCarthy: The Passenger Oct 25, Stella Maris Dec 6