Cormac McCarthy Rules!

So, you’ve seen the Oscar-winning No Country for Old Men by now. You may have even rented the DVD and watched the extras. If you did, you probably remember the name Cormac McCarthy. I watched The Charlie Rose Show with the film's directors (The Cohen brothers) and actors and every other reference was to the extraordinary story-telling power and grace of the book's author, Cormac McCarthy. In fact it was more like Cormac McCarthy Cormac McCarthy Cormac McCarthy… Though the topic at hand was their recent Academy Awards, the actors and filmmakers kept coming back to McCarthy.

McCarthy tends to stick with the Southern Gothic and post-apocalyptic genres because that’s what he does best. Take for example another brilliantly dark novel by the author, the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Road. Think Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle mixed with Don DeLillo’s White Noise, but darker. The Road is a beautifully written, genuinely creepy post-apocalyptic dystopian tale of a father and son making their way across a barren wasteland after an unknown cataclysm has wiped every other living thing off the face of the earth. If, for the reader, modern times summon feelings of eminent doom, The Road is a thoroughly moving story, and truly not too dark for the casual reader, unless they are a casual reader of 'Desperate Housewives' novelizations. But seriously, please do check out The Road from my Staff Picks shelf at the Watha T. Daniel Interim Library. You'll be glad you did.