Just finished Suttree by Cormac McCarthy
Really enjoyed it, and I can see why people think it's his masterpiece (although imo that honour still belongs to Blood Meridian.)
I've seen people compare it to Ulysses but I'd say in terms of themes it's more part Steinbeck, part Bukowski - it's a book about a man who's determined to find his own way to live, and about finding humour and humanity among poverty, drunkenness and squalor. The depiction of life on the margins in late 50s-early 60s Knoxville is so colourful and vivid, and I found Suttree himself a really interesting and conflicted character - an intellectual drunkard who's kind of a cowardly, self-destructive asshole, but occasionally redeemed by his compassion and obligation to the people around him.
There's a great cast of supporting characters, and the occasional hallucinatory outbursts of weird gnostic poetry that you tend to get with McCarthy. Despite it being a fairly long book and one without much of a plot, I found it really compelling and it flew by.
I'm thinking of picking up The Orchard Keeper next as it's the only one of his novels I still haven't read.
https://redd.it/huhcnx
@r_books
Really enjoyed it, and I can see why people think it's his masterpiece (although imo that honour still belongs to Blood Meridian.)
I've seen people compare it to Ulysses but I'd say in terms of themes it's more part Steinbeck, part Bukowski - it's a book about a man who's determined to find his own way to live, and about finding humour and humanity among poverty, drunkenness and squalor. The depiction of life on the margins in late 50s-early 60s Knoxville is so colourful and vivid, and I found Suttree himself a really interesting and conflicted character - an intellectual drunkard who's kind of a cowardly, self-destructive asshole, but occasionally redeemed by his compassion and obligation to the people around him.
There's a great cast of supporting characters, and the occasional hallucinatory outbursts of weird gnostic poetry that you tend to get with McCarthy. Despite it being a fairly long book and one without much of a plot, I found it really compelling and it flew by.
I'm thinking of picking up The Orchard Keeper next as it's the only one of his novels I still haven't read.
https://redd.it/huhcnx
@r_books