Cormac McCarthy: All the Pretty Horses, No Country for Old Men, The Road

by Sara L. Spurgeon

Cormac McCarthys significance in the field of contemporary American fiction is enormous. Harold Bloom has called him one of the greatest living American writers, and named him one of the three most important authors of the 20th century. His impact has been even greater in the 21st century. He won the American Book Award for All the Pretty Horses (1991), the Pulitzer Prize for The Road (2006), and his influence on contemporary American literature has been compared to that of Herman Melville, William Faulkner, and Ernest Hemingway, while The Guardian likened the language of The Road to that of Beckett and Yeats. This collection of new critical perspectives on three of McCarthys most widely studied novels All the Pretty Horses, No Country for Old Men and The Road provides a wide-ranging introduction to the different interpretations of his work. Introductions to each set of essays encourage readers to see connections and contrasts between different approaches and comprehensive Further Reading will help students to take their study further.

Genres: Fiction

224 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 19, 2011

Reviews

[Dr. Jon Pirtle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since McCarthy died just a few days ago, and I'm completing my PhD on biblical anthropology in McCarthy, I thought it best to write on this volume. Most of the chapters are well-argued. The exception is the chapter by Andrew Husband. From his Marxist worldview, any and every piece of literature is necessarily about class envy, oppressors, and the oppressed. In other words, the death of literature. There are, however, other chapters in the book, most of which have their own angles but are helpful in exploring the profound depths found in McCarthy's canon.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not for the faint of heart or those prone to stressful sleep. The characters and the story stay embedded in the psyche long after the last sentence is read. Typical of the author’s style, the use of simple and everyday details in the story design make the novel relatable to the reader. This makes the events more haunting as evil is not always kept to a dark abandoned house in the woods.

[Chrisbaker811 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very dark, but a fantastic writer

[Jessie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brilliant insight into the themes, motifs, beauty and rawness of McCarthy's prose - a must read for anybody studying him

[Joshua Crook]

An excellent set of essays on McCarthy's work that examine the depth of his writing.