Outer Dark

Another exceptional book by Cormac McCarthy. It is admittedly gloomy and rather violent. In some ways it seems like a precursor to Blood Meridian. As usual with Cormac, one must think hard and delve deep to answer "What is the meaning?" It is highly allegorical, with many allusions to Biblical and other literary sources. It is in the form of a quest journey. A brother and sister, Culla and Rinthy, conceive a child. After its birth, Culla tries to get rid of the child by leaving him in the wilderness, but he is rescued by an itinerant tinker. When Rinthy discovers this she goes in search of the child. Culla, full of guilt for his incest and attempted infanticide, goes on his own quest whose purpose is unclear. It may be to find the child or to find Rinthy or just to assuage his guilt. An image that comes to mind is the Garden of Eden and the expulsion of Adam and Eve due to their original sin. Along the way, both Culla and Rinthy experience a variety of encounters with strangers. Rinthy is mainly treated with kindness by those she meets. Culla, on the other hand, keeps getting into trouble, is falsely accused of a variety of crimes, and is pursued by a mob trying to kill him. The culmination of his troubles is when he runs into an evil trio of killers. They are a murderous lot, terrorizing the countryside, and seem bent on extracting retribution for Culla's sins. Some critics think the novel has a distinct Gnostic overtone, where humans are entraped in an evil world ruled by malevolent demigods or archons. The true, benevolent, God is hidden, but tries to keep a spark of knowledge about him alive in the hearts of men. In this respect, the evil trio may represents archons who persecute Culla. In terms of responding to the proffered interior light, the hapless Culla seems to miss the invitation completely, while Rinthy is responsive to it and maintains her hope and optimism throughout her ordeal. The dramatic culmination of the novel will be left for the reader to discover. The meaning or moral point of this story is somewhat obscure and Cormac leaves it to the reader to figure out. However, as is usual with Cormac, the writing is brilliant with many graphic and penetrating scenes that grip the reader. This is a very significant work. It begs for a re-reading, which I hope to do in the future.

Cormac likes his gothic blood-letting. This book is no exception. An earlier work, it has little of the grandiosity of Blood Meridian (though there are some incredibly lyrical passages IE similes comparing the characters to a cast of alien vaudevillians pirouetting through a menacing landscape as though through a dream lens, those never get old). The story is simple. Brother knocks up Sister, hides baby in the woods, Tinker finds baby, takes off. Sister goes to look for Tinker. Brother goes to look for Sister. Meanwhile, band a three oddball killers are striking through the forest, gutting folks at random. The novel sort of meanders with the brother constantly looking for work from people he meets, or getting into trouble sleeping in what he believes are un-owned houses. The Sister spends most of her time asking about her "chap", witnessing other couples' states of disarray. Cormac's prose captures beautifully the sinful sweep of the world in what we assume to be the early 1900s. There is a sense of perfectly rendered desolation, like the Road but with trees and plant life! The details however are pretty vague. We don't know the time period, the motivation for the killers (we assume it is only a kind of insatiable anarchic glee that drives them) and so on. Also the fates of a couple characters are sort of left hanging, as the book just ends ALA No Country For Old Men, though not as abrupt. All-in-all, the book is short, dark, enthralling, but it is not quite as deep and amusing as Blood Meridian, nor as sparse and electric as The Road. I like it more than No Country, I think. It reads sort of like a gothic fairy tale, where there aren't many likable characters, some bizarre allegorical scenarios, lots of murders (though not compared to Blood Meridian--though most books cannot compare) etc. If you are a fan of old Cormac, give this one a shot. It is wry, poetic, nightmarish. Don't expect a happy ending.

Very dark. Pure Cormac McCarthy.

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Another great read from this author. Even though this novel is one of his earlier one it is classic McCarthy with amazing descriptions of the landscape and full characters you can love and loath. Highly recommend.

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I am biased her as I consider Cormac McCarthy to be the best living writer in the English language. This dark story of incest is set as a parable in a time not specified and in a place of landless intent. The brother and sister plough two different paths – one in search of a child that should never have been. The other to escape the sin that can not be admitted to. The journeys take two different paths but the roads are full of decrepitude, filth, hopelessness and a cast of characters that make the term ‘a grotesquery’ seem somewhat lame. The language used is pure poetry; describing scenes that are often beyond the want to witness and painting a terrible picture with words that add bring an inner beauty to the whole ensemble. This is a book I devoured in a few readings as it is truly astounding and is the only book of his that I had yet to read. I hope he has many more of this ilk still to offer the World.