Archive of the Day
From The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy:
To see God everywhere is to see Him nowhere. We go from day to day, one day much like the next, and then on a certain day all unannounced we come upon a man or we see this man who is perhaps already known to us and is a man like all men but who makes a certain gesture of himself that is like the piling of one's goods upon an altar and in this gesture we recognize that which is buried in our hearts and is never truly lost to us nor ever can be and it is this moment, you see. This same moment. It is this which we long for and are afraid to seek and which alone can save us.
posted by JMW at 5:59 PM
3 Comments:
I don't get it.
No, I'm just kidding. (Kind of.) This reminds me that I have yet to read a book of his. Down he will go as...let's see.... #2,386 on my reading list. ("All the Pretty Horses" is the first in the border trilogy, right? His latest one sounded interesting, too. Have you read it? I forget the title - something with "old man"... off i go to amazon.com...)
I don't think the last one (No Country for Old Men) is where to start. I heard very mixed things. I've just read the border trilogy -- All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, Cities of the Plain. The first two are brilliant. The third was ok. They're very mythic-male-poetic, but in a way that works, in my opinion. Though there are a few "I don't get it. Just kidding. (Kind of.)" moments in each one.
Blood Meridian might actually be considered his best, from what I've read. That came before the trilogy, when he wrote in an even less accessible, more violent way. So you might start there, too, according to some. For my money, start with Horses. I've read it three or four times, which is rare for me.
thanks for the tip. i'm sure you've given me this same advice before, but now that i've seen it in writing, maybe i'll actually retain it.
out of curiosity, did you ever finish daniel gilbert's "stumbling on happiness", which you said you would attempt a one-man-book-club type deal with here on ASWOBA? i'm sure your other loyal readers might also be interested in what happened to that plan. i ask because i'm now reading it myself and am just wondering how you found it/are finding it...
Post a Comment
<< Home