Completists' Club discussion

I guess I haven't read all of McCarthy, because I don't think I'd heard of Wake for Susan. How did you find out about it?

Mike!

Wake for Susan

oooooh. Even better! Digital Archive of the Phoenix, 1959/60

I love digging through the internet for stuff.

Which others haven't you read? Have you read Sunset Limited? I'd love to know what you thought about it.

Mmm. It was super short, if I recall correctly, It only took one subway ride. Perhaps the subject matter was so poignant to me because I read it while I was on the subway. It was more spare than most of his work, but I thought it was really powerful. I'd like to read it again, but I dont have a copy. Maybe I'll go to the library tomorrow and see if they have it.

I'm trying to read more McCarthy to find ones I like more. I think I'm going to try Suttree next since several people liked it a lot more!

Mike wrote: "Jonathan wrote: "I'm trying to read more McCarthy to find ones I like more. I think I'm going to try Suttree next since several people liked it a lot more!"

At the risk of sounding like a geezer (..."

Yes well, I will get to it next but not immediately. It's also a matter of not being drawn in by his style personally, I find it highly distracting from the reading and have been left going 'um so what just happened.'

I've only read the novels from Blood Meridian onwards. Did I miss anything from Cormac's early Southern phase?

I still think Sutree is his second best novel.

Yes! Without any doubt!

I loved 'Blood Meridian' on the first and second reads. After the 3rd, I was burned out by it.

I've read all McCarthy's novels. In the quest to find more McCarthy, I read "The Stonemason", but have difficulty with reading plays.
I agree with Mike's assessment of The Road as being McC's most optimistic book.
A quiet favorite: Outer Dark: For me, incredibly moving, dark, hallucinatory, lyrical, realistic in its assessment of life as both dark and full of light. Presages The Road, perhaps, in its similar movement through a blasted landscape; in its "solution", of using diffusion/poetics, to a full-on looking at human darkness).
In his use of hallucinatory writing, I think that he sometimes teeters on the edge of failing, but always for a very high cause.
Blood Meridian: I kept blanking out during reading of the last few pages; frustrated, then began to wonder if the writing means to induce a kind of fugue state; went with this, and this made his work all the more powerful, for me. Who knows.....
I am curious to hear readers' thoughts on No Country For Old Men. It was perhaps my least favorite. After reading The Road, I wondered if No Country.... was a gearing up to the larger vision (in my opinion) of The Road, the taking of a necessary breather before plunging back in. But, this is said with many grains of salt, as I have understood, in reading of other authors, that I just wasn't ready for that particular work.
Want to read Child of God again; too much niggled, about what was missed, when I finished the book.

I'm very, very close to being a true McCarthy completist. Right now, I am nearing the end of Suttree, and have read all the other novels. "The Stonemason" and "The Gardener's Son" are still on my to read list, once I can track them down.

Before looking here, though, I didn't realize he had written short fiction. Thanks for providing the link to that earlier story!

Patty wrote: "I still think Sutree is his second best novel."

And a close close second.

Updated, now that I've finished (9/22/2013).


Novels
The Orchard Keeper
Outer Dark
Child of God
Suttree
Blood Meridian
All the Pretty Horses
The Crossing
Cities of the Plain
No Country for Old Men
The Road
The Passenger (forthcoming)

Short fiction
Wake for Susan
A Drowning Incident

Screenplays
The Gardener's Son
The Counselor (forthcoming)

Plays
The Stonemason
The Sunset Limited

Mike wrote: "I've read all of CM's novels, telaplays, and plays, at least as of today. Lucky enough to have read some more than once. Up for discussion of any, although an informed discussion may require reread..."

Thanks Mike for the list.

Mike wrote: "You're very welcome, and good job on the CM completionist pursuit. Looking forward to The Counselor."

Yes, me too. I just ordered The Stonemason and The Gardener's Son from eBay. So, as soon as they get here ...

Just finished all of Cormac McCarthy. I'll have to be back on this thread in about a month once 'The Counselor' gets published. But, hell, that just lets me finish twice right?

Darwin8u wrote: "Just finished all of Cormac McCarthy. I'll have to be back on this thread in about a month once 'The Counselor' gets published. But, hell, that just lets me finish twice right?"

An enviable position ;; to have completionized and yet still have that for which one might wait in heightened anticipation.

Reestablished my complete-hood by reading and then watching and then checking and revisiting 'the Counselor'. Even though CM had a large role in the movie, the screenplay is still worth the read because it contains parts that exist in celluloid now only on Ridley Scott's cuttings covered floor.