Cormac McCarthy

Cormac McCarthy is one of the greatest American storytellers ever, acclaimed by some as our greatest living storyteller, which I am inclined to agree with. He is certainly the very best writer of the area known as the borderlands between the US and Mexico with his novels that range from the beginning of European exploration to the pressing issues of drugs and immigration in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. His 'Border Trilogy', consisting of All the Pretty Horses (1992), The Crossing (1994) and The Cities of the Plain (1998) is magnificent in every way, telling the story of a protagonist from a poor farming background whose life along both sides of the border as a real cowboy through the early to mid-twentieth century is a vivid and telling picture of an America long past. Terse prose eerily accurate to the patterns of speech of the weathered characters of these settings echoes long after reading. All the Pretty Horses was made into a film in 2000 by director Billy Bob Thornton, though we have never seen the film he made as the studio gutted it to a 'standard run length' alienating along the way the genius creator of the custom musical score (among others), so that what was released, starring Penelope Cruz and Matt Damon, was a two hour Hollywood cookie cutter that ran lukewarm to the critics. It was, before cutting room butchery, a beautiful adaptation of an excellent novel, and many hope the studio someday will let the 'Directors Cut' be sold and with the original musical score attached. I, for one, am willing to pre-order it right now so that I may just have the 'someday' of seeing it and am sure tens of thousands of others will as well. the handful of people who have seen it whisper of it with the reverence of ancient Dionysian mystery cult initiations long faded into myth.
Thank the cult status of All the Pretty Horses, Hollywood had a great many McCarthy fans when in 2005 he published No Country For Old Men which quickly became a highly successful film in 2007 with multiple Oscars awarded, including to Javier Bardem. A wonderful read and an equivalently enjoyable film that lives up to being a rather tough act to follow after such a great book. His post apocalyptic novel of a father's struggle for survival while guarding his young son in an America that is barely recognizable, entitled The Road (2006). It won a Pulitzer for and it was about G D time the committee recognized this genius. I was disappointed they didn't award him one for his westerns, but happy they finally did give him the beginning of the credit he deserves. Made into another successful film this time starring Vigo Mortensen, I have not seen it yet as I am incarcerated, but it is high on my list of 'to view a.s.a.p.'. Sving the best for last, let me say that my favorite western ever from any author and my favorite book by McCarthy is his masterpiece Blood Meridians or the Evening Redness in the West (1985). Innovative in style, brutal in composition and subject matter, influential across a myriad of authors worldwide (even Johnathan Ferris gives this work a shout out in the afterwards of one of his hilarious modern day comedies, but more on him later), it is absolutely riveting and is on my 'desert island' book list. For those who have not read it, prepare to be amazed, but be forewarned, it will haunt your memories and you will never read or write the same again.