Cormac McCarthy, who passed away on June 13, 2023, at the age of 89, is frequently categorized somewhat narrowly as a Southern writer or a Southern Gothic writer. While McCarthy’s first four novels heavily drew from his Tennessee background, and many of his other works were set in the deserts of the Southwestern U.S., he saw himself as part of a broad literary community. This community extended back to classical and Elizabethan periods and incorporated various genres, cultures, and influences. McCarthy’s distinct and varied writing style has been likened to those of some of the most renowned authors in American literature. Scholars have found connections to the works of Herman Melville, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Toni Morrison, Thomas Pynchon, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Flannery O’Connor, and William Faulkner.
As this extensive list suggests, McCarthy was an author who often experimented with language and literary techniques. Each of his books commonly showed a significant departure in tone, structure, and prose from the previous one. I am currently writing a book tentatively titled “How Cormac Works: McCarthy, Language, and Style.” This work explores McCarthy’s career-long engagement with stylistic play, focusing on his narrative approach and his methods of conveying mood. Depending on the book, or even within passages of a single book, McCarthy’s writing can range from minimalistic to meandering, esoteric to humorous, terrifying to pretentious, sentimental to folksy.
Some of his novels are characterized by dense narrative exposition and philosophical musings, while others rely heavily on everyday dialogue. Certain books celebrate regional voices and vernacular, and others adopt a neutral, detached, and clinical tone. McCarthy’s literary diversity and stylistic experimentation can be seen in two of his most famous novels: “Blood Meridian” (1985) and “The Road” (2006), which was adapted into a film in 2009. In “Blood Meridian,” set in the deserts of the Southwestern U.S. and Mexico, McCarthy’s prose is detailed, with one detail following another.
For instance, in a well-known scene where a group of American scalp hunters encounters Comanche warriors, the prose is relentless in its description: “A legion of horribles, hundreds in number, half naked or clad in costumes attic or biblical or wardrobed out of a fevered dream with the skins of animals and silk finery and pieces of uniform still tracked with the blood of prior owners, coats of slain dragoons, frogged and braided cavalry jackets, one in a stovepipe hat and one with an umbrella and one in white stockings and a bloodstained wedding veil and some in headgear or cranefeathers or rawhide helmets that bore the horns of bull or buffalo and one in a pigeon-tailed coat worn backwards and otherwise naked and one in the armor of a Spanish conquistador…”. The passage continues, laden with minute detail, with minimal punctuation adding to its breathless nature.
In contrast, “The Road,” which won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, is marked by concise, restrained prose, a stark departure from the density of “Blood Meridian.” The novel consists of short, distinct paragraphs that are often unrelated to the preceding or following text:
“It was colder. Nothing moved in that night world. A rich smell of woodsmoke hung over the road. He pushed the cart on through the snow. … In his dream she was sick and he cared for her. The dream bore the look of sacrifice but he thought differently. … On this road there are no godspoke men. They are gone and I am left and they have taken with them the world. Query: How does the never to be differ from what never was? Dark of invisible moon. The nights now only slightly less black. … People sitting on the sidewalk in the dawn half immolate and smoking in their clothes. Like failed sectarian suicides. …”
Each paragraph contrasts with its predecessor in tone, subject, place, and time.
One might view this difference as an evolution in McCarthy’s style, suggesting that he honed his narrative voice over time. However, his final long novel, “The Passenger,” published in 2022, reverts to the expansive prose style reminiscent of his earlier works like “Suttree” and “Blood Meridian.” While some critics consider McCarthy’s stylistic tendencies excessive or pretentious, they reflect his deep love for words and the limitless possibilities of language. In a recommendation for McCarthy’s first novel, “The Orchard Keeper,” Ralph Ellison wrote, “McCarthy is a writer to be read, to be admired, and quite honestly – envied.”