The Big Move

Blog six  October 2023 The Big Move

I’ve been absent lately…Sorry… I’ve moved to a small country town with all the disruption that brings…but it’s quieter, a necessary ingredient to writing.

In this post, I want to briefly analyse the Cormac McCarthy novel The Road which I’ve just read. For those of you who are not familiar with his writing he wrote No Country for Old Men which was made into a disturbing movie like his other novels. Sadly, he passed away in June this year. I read the short novel The Road not because I saw the movie adaptation years ago but because it won the Pulitzer Prize in 2007. I was curious to see why it won. It was disturbing. A dark film. The book expands on the darkness considerably. More about that later…

The other novel I’ve just read by him is The Passenger recently released (although he wrote it in 2012). This also is a confusing and difficult book to read as a large part is in italics- the dreams and hallucinations of the main character’s sister in a mental hospital.  What moved me most was the beautiful turn of phrases and rich language- a common style of most writers in the literary genre. The Road was also written in this style and because it was only 260 pages long, it was easy to finish quickly.

I’ll give some direct quotes from The Road:

The melted window glass hung frozen down the walls like icing on a cake – (p229)

The mudstained shapes of flooded cities burned to the water line – (p220)

At the tide line a woven mat of weeds and the ribs of fishes in their millions stretching along the shore as far as eye could see like an isocline of death.

(yes, ‘fishes’)

If I had criticism of the novel it would be:

1. Vague timeline
2. Very little backstory or incomplete (unsatisfactory) backstory about the death of his wife, who he refers to a couple of times in the story.

I am a little mystified as to how this novel could have won the Pulitzer. How does it satisfy the four P’s?  people, plot, purpose, place?

The book is weak on plot and place but big on people and purpose. Like the theme, the purpose of the story is to show the determination of a sick and dying man to protect his son- at all costs- A father’s love for his child. And I’m going to add a fifth P : prose. The book abounds in exceptional prose, may be that’s what swayed the judges.

Overall, the book is a depressing but wonderful read.

To sum up, I’m drawn to the literary genre for it’s rich and wonderful prose and language. I’m finding very useful examples to inspire me in the re-writing (yes, the re-writing) of my novel. As I go through and edit, I’m finding parts to delete and parts I want to add. Sorry it’s taking a little more time than I’d hope, but I want the finished product as good as it possibly can be.

Thank you for your patience and for following my blog.

Christopher.