Child of God

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It's a hit!

Cormac McCarthy's second novel, "Child of God," opens with a few lines of overly poetic, clumsy prose a friend compared to the lines read by Eli Ca... (show more)

Cormac McCarthy's second novel, "Child of God," opens with a few lines of overly poetic, clumsy prose a friend compared to the lines read by Eli Cash in the "Royal Tenenbaums." (Wes Anderson based the Cash character on McCarthy.) Soon after, McCarthy settles into the arresting prose for which he is known.

The title character, Lester Ballad, reminds you of the kid from "Blood Meridian," possibly how the kid would turn out if things went differently. Personally tragedy so isolates Ballad from man that he remains isolated even when around others. Ultimately, when moral constraints cease to exist in his mind, Ballad controls and puts to order those he contacts.

While "Blood Meridian" and "The Road" exhibit more developed meditations on humanity and life, "Child of God" presents a powerful view of man that is as bleak as the mountains of Tennessee are beautiful. (show less)

 

 

by Facebook User

No, it's a flop!

Child of God is a simplistic story that takes place in a spread out Hamlet in Sevier County Tennessee where we see about a year in the life of Lest... (show more)

Child of God is a simplistic story that takes place in a spread out Hamlet in Sevier County Tennessee where we see about a year in the life of Lester Ballard. Ballard is a character with no redeeming quality to such an extreme that it is impossible to share any empathy or sympathy. We are given so little information of his past that his characteristics seem to have sprung out of the unforgiving and inconsistent land of the middle hills.

Among other crimes, the novel commits a narrative venial sin. Most of the novel is a third person but there are a few first person chapters that give very small bits of information about Ballard or very small bits of information about the region. At least one of these chapters has literally nothing to do with the story or region. The sin is not the sparse chapters, it is that McCarthy dispenses with them after about halfway and for no apparent reason. This gripe may seem silly but it is a metaphor of the novel as a whole: spastic, confusing, unconvincing.

There is an active debate about whether the violence prevalent in McCarthy’s novels is gratuitous. In Child of God this argument is not relevant because there is no artistry that accompanies acts of violence in his other novels. The best example for this is that several aspects in this novel are lifted almost as a whole and moved to his next novel Blood Meridian. A deformed and retarded child, a specific scene and general quality of a philosophy about the evils of women and whisky, and an underlying disgust with other races show up, but are presented with McCarthy’s beautiful and controlled language. (show less)

 

 

by Steven Paul Savage

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  Well - it's disturbing. Imagine a retelling of serial killer Ed Gein's story mostly from his point of view - and minus the mother - and the house...OK, that's not the best comparrison, but I think it's close. Lester Ballard is Hannibal Lecter stripped of all pretense. He's as real as dirt. I was at a bookstore once and was talking to a girl who worked there about McCarthy. At the time I had anly read The Road and No Country for Old Men, and she told me that they were his most "pop" ... (show more)

  Well - it's disturbing. Imagine a retelling of serial killer Ed Gein's story mostly from his point of view - and minus the mother - and the house...OK, that's not the best comparrison, but I think it's close. Lester Ballard is Hannibal Lecter stripped of all pretense. He's as real as dirt. I was at a bookstore once and was talking to a girl who worked there about McCarthy. At the time I had anly read The Road and No Country for Old Men, and she told me that they were his most "pop" novels. I had to question her since The Road is pretty bleak - I mean, come on, they eat babies. She said that Child of God was much more disturbing. Well, after reading both, I can't say that I agree, but it definitely is bleak, and there's not much in the way of redemption (which The Road manages to squeeze in at the end.) (show less)

   

  by Facebook User on Feb 17, 2009 at 05:34PM

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  um, yeah. you know, i enjoy a depressing and tragic tale as much as the next person who likes to horrify themselves with tragedy, but jesus. i can't read any additional cormac mccarthy books for a while. it's like he sits around and makes up lists of the most fucked up human characteristics known to man and then tosses it all into a 200 page story. i did love this book. but i loved it in the same way i love watching myself bleed. it sure is pretty but it's best served up in small doses. you w... (show more)

  um, yeah. you know, i enjoy a depressing and tragic tale as much as the next person who likes to horrify themselves with tragedy, but jesus. i can't read any additional cormac mccarthy books for a while. it's like he sits around and makes up lists of the most fucked up human characteristics known to man and then tosses it all into a 200 page story. i did love this book. but i loved it in the same way i love watching myself bleed. it sure is pretty but it's best served up in small doses. you want a book full of violence and depravity that will make you lose all faith in humanity? here you go. cheers! (show less)

   

   

  by Freedom Williams on Sep 23, 2009 at 04:42AM

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