What can I say? I fell for the hype.
I salute this fellow on his book tour, but he suckered me into buying a book I didn’t need. That’s appropriate, perhaps, as the book is about a gang of con men who turn on and eventually kill one another off. It flows from a throwaway line in Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi about a (supposedly) real-life 19th century American flim-flammer. Okay. Fair enough. Good concept. Fairly good writing. Just not a great book. When I want salty dialogue and a pitch-black view of human nature, I turn to My Man, and John Wray just doesn’t quite measure up. I’ll turn to Cormac’s latest for my next read.
August 30th, 2005 at 6:16 pm
Dr J, this book is still in my Amazon cart from when we read the article about this guy floating down the Mississippi all Huckleberry Finn-style. Hopefully he’ll write a book about that, because that rocks. That I didn’t hit the purchase now button was pure oversight. Thanks for the heads up. Speaking of Cormac McCarthy, I heard that he owns a book store in a small town in Texas. That has to be near you, right? I mean, how big can that place be?
September 1st, 2005 at 12:27 pm
I hadn’t heard that rumor before; Cormac is way too reclusive to own a store where he would actually have to talk to people. I think you’re probably thinking of Larry McMurtry (Lonesome Dove, Last Picture Show, etc etc), who does own a mammoth used bookstore in Archer City. Archer City is actually not too far away from us (by Texas standards, anyway), and I plan to visit.
September 1st, 2005 at 12:56 pm
Of course, you are correct. No wonder I couldn’t find anything on McCarthy’s bookstore on Google anwhere. I feel pretty stupid right about now.
September 2nd, 2005 at 10:44 pm
Purchase cheap plane fare out here and I’ll drive you to Archer City. If it’s in stock, I’ll treat you to a used copy of Suttree, Cormac’s best novel and one of the greatest by anyone not named Toole.