It’s been reported that Cormac McCarthy has died at the age of 89. UGH. WOOF.
I read No Country for Old Men shortly after seeing the Coen Brothers movie, and I became obsessed. After that it was The Road (for which he won a Pulitzer), Outer Dark, and The Border Trilogy in quick succession. I remembering taking my time with each of the books, reading and rereading the same lines, trying to understand how he molded language so simply. In the MFA department at Mills there was lore of students getting in a fist fight over their discussion of Child of God, an incident that some blamed for the recently adopted rule that alcohol was no longer allowed in class.
He wrote about really difficult things. I learned so much about language and story from him, about writing into the darkness. I’ve been saving a few of his novels for when the time was right. Blood Meridian is sitting next to me right now. I haven’t read either of the two he released last year. Maybe it’s time.