Oh no...this is good. It appears that I was too hasty in my earlier judgment. All of a sudden, chapter four, and the writing changes, it gets better, it is excellent. McCarthy is describing the gang's horse trek across the desert. There is rhythm and flow and biblical cadence, biblical lyricism and his descriptive language is precise:
"...the ground was bare and there were low mountains to the south and they were bare too."
...
"scarves of dust"
...
"The dust the party raised was quickly dispersed and lost in the immensity of that landscape and there was no dust other for the pale sutler who pursued them drives unseen and his lean horse and his lean cart leave no track upon such ground or any ground."
...
"On this day two men fell sick and one died before dark."
...
"...and then they died. The men turned out in the early morning darkness to dig their graves with the bladebones of antelope and they covered them with stones and rode on again.
They rode on..."
...
"...buried him also and rode on.
"Now the wolves had come to follow them...in the morning when the riders rode out...they could hear...the pop of their mouths behind them as they sacked the camp for meatscraps."
...
"They rode on."
...
..."They moved on...and there were no wolves now."
...
..."They moved on..."
This is wonderful. There is a musical rhythm here, you hear and feel the movement and "they moved on" or "they rode on" are like a chord that gets repeated, or lyrics that get repeated but you don't need that repetition to feel the movement in the passages that those phrases bracket, you feel the movement.
I am shocked. The first three chapters did nothing for me, I noted phrases that were canned or stilted; then chapter four and I'm writing in the margins "good" and underlining and finally stopping briefly to write this! It is wonderful.
"...the ground was bare and there were low mountains to the south and they were bare too."
...
"scarves of dust"
...
"The dust the party raised was quickly dispersed and lost in the immensity of that landscape and there was no dust other for the pale sutler who pursued them drives unseen and his lean horse and his lean cart leave no track upon such ground or any ground."
...
"On this day two men fell sick and one died before dark."
...
"...and then they died. The men turned out in the early morning darkness to dig their graves with the bladebones of antelope and they covered them with stones and rode on again.
They rode on..."
...
"...buried him also and rode on.
"Now the wolves had come to follow them...in the morning when the riders rode out...they could hear...the pop of their mouths behind them as they sacked the camp for meatscraps."
...
"They rode on."
...
..."They moved on...and there were no wolves now."
...
..."They moved on..."
This is wonderful. There is a musical rhythm here, you hear and feel the movement and "they moved on" or "they rode on" are like a chord that gets repeated, or lyrics that get repeated but you don't need that repetition to feel the movement in the passages that those phrases bracket, you feel the movement.
I am shocked. The first three chapters did nothing for me, I noted phrases that were canned or stilted; then chapter four and I'm writing in the margins "good" and underlining and finally stopping briefly to write this! It is wonderful.
