Books Read Lately

A writing class colleague, Barbara, whose work I enjoy when she reads it out at class, talked about author Cormac McCarthy when we were asked to bring in sentences we liked. I hadn't heard of him at all but Barbara said she'd bring me a book of his to read which she duly did, three in fact. 'All The Pretty Horses', 'The Crossing', and 'Cities of the Plain'.

I read them over a few months. Barb said to read them in order (as listed above) as they are a trilogy. I returned them to Barb on Friday. I loved them. Reading them was like leaving my world behind and being absorbed in the place and time in which they were set, New Mexico and Mexico largely in the 1940's, the main characters being young men in a rural western working environment very much horse orientated and searching for meaning in a changing world. They are great stories and the writer in simple language describes the natural world that is so powerful and brutal and the actions and movements of people and animals that unfold the narrative. There are no quotation marks in the dialogue and little punctuation but there's no difficulty understanding who's saying what. There's philosphy coming at you from almost every page and some of it is rivetting. There's reverence for the horse as a noble beast and respect for the peasant whose kindness and wisdom is heroic. I almost cried in places. That's how I describe it anyway. It has changed the way I see things. The world is not the same tomorrow as it is today.

I have started a new book, 'The Reprieve' by Jean Paul Satre. I'm only up to page 19 and I'm struggling to get into it after the easy pace of Cormac but a sentence stood out to me on page 14-

"It must be rather grim to hope for nothing except that life might continue indefinitely in its present course."