Want a NOOK? Explore Now
An American classic, The Orchard Keeper is the first novel by one of America's finest, most celebrated novelists. Set is a small, remote community in rural Tennessee in the years between the two world wars, it tells of John Wesley Rattner, a young boy, and Marion Sylder, an outlaw and bootlegger who, unbeknownst to either of them, has killed the boy's father. Together with Rattner's Uncle Ather, who belongs to a former age in his communion with nature and his stoic independence, they enact a drama that seems born of the land itself. All three are heroes of an intense and compelling celebration of values lost to time and industrialization.
An American classic, The Orchard Keeper is the first novel by one of America's finest novelists and author of the critically acclaimed national bestseller All the Pretty Horses. Set in a small, remote community in rural Tennessee, it tells the story of a young boy and the outlaw bootlegger who, unbeknownst to either of them, has killed the boy's father.
I read this, McCarthy's first novel, after No Country For Old Men, The Road, Blood Meridian, Child of God, and Outer Dark, and I think it suffers by comparison. <BR/><BR/>The writing isn't as honed as his other novels. Though there is one passage in the end that made me love the book. It's a real glimpse at the true beauty of McCarthy's mind. <BR/><BR/>The Orchard Keeper is not a bad book by any standard, it's just not his best, as it is his first. <BR/><BR/>The novel and its three main characters move sluggishly through their world and their lives. At some points it will grab you with a sentence or a passage. But there are also long draughts of well written nothing. Landscape descriptions, while well worded, get old. I know he is describing what no longer exists, and maybe when I read it at a different time in my life I'll be able to appreciate it more, but as of now it is just too all over the place at times to really stick in my mind.<BR/><BR/>There is humor and the omnipresent sense of foreboding that permeates in every McCarthy story. If you are a McCarthy fan such as myself, then definitely check this one out for you own perspective.<BR/><BR/>I think I liked it more than No Country For Old Men, but only for the writing. The Orchard Keeper has no identifiable pace or plot, and it is very easy to get lost at times. I don't have a problem with the no plot thing, or even the no pace thing. They work fine if done well. And while The Orchard Keeper is a precursor to McCarthy's true talent, it is also his flaws clawing at you the entire way through.<BR/><BR/>All said, it's still better than ninety percent of the books published today.
2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted January 19, 2003
The life that is no longer in the Tennessee hills, with its bootleggers, it's hound-dog hunting, its freedoms and its wildness, runs its last miles through the experiences of an old man of the mountain, a bootlegger, and a young boy. Their stories interlace and tell how it was, good and bad, the old man a mythic figure for what we all have lost.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted November 28, 2000
Cormac McCarthy addresses the dying out of a pre-industrialized society in this book. One boy finds himself between the two ways of living and his relationship to both ways is told in this book. It reminded me much of Faulkner in style. Excelent read.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Busterdawg
Posted February 9, 2009
I am sure that if I had read this book before I read McCarthy's other wonderful books, I probably never would have read the other books by this author. This was a dreadful pointless book that I could find no meaning too. Of the 200 or more books that I have read in the past 3-4 years this was the worst.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted August 8, 2010
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted July 12, 2009
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted August 17, 2010
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted October 14, 2011
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted August 22, 2009
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted May 5, 2010
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted May 8, 2012
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted April 5, 2009
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted June 7, 2010
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted April 22, 2009
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted September 19, 2009
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted December 21, 2008
No text was provided for this review.
Overview
An American classic, The Orchard Keeper is the first novel by one of America's finest, most celebrated novelists. Set is a small, remote community in rural Tennessee in the years between the two world wars, it tells of John Wesley Rattner, a young boy, and Marion Sylder, an outlaw and bootlegger who, unbeknownst to either of them, has killed the boy's father. Together with Rattner's Uncle Ather, who belongs to a former age in his communion with nature and his stoic independence, they enact a...