A Tribute to Literary Icon, Cormac McCarthy

The first part of the two-volume pairing of novels that deals with humanity, grief and consciousness. McCarthy’s first novel since The Road, this is the story of a salvage diver who is ensnared in a conspiracy outside of his control after investigating the wreck of a plane crash. The threads of his life are entwined with those of his sister’s — a brilliant mathematician diagnosed with schizophrenia. This book is an expansive, beautiful and haunting glimpse at life.  

Stella Maris is a philosophical journey that further unravels the story of a young mathematician readers will have met in The Passenger. This novel, while still carrying McCarthy’s idiosyncratic style, delves into issues of physics, spirituality and the intricacies of the mind. This is one of McCarthy’s only novels to focus on a female protagonist. 

Cormac McCarthy’s first novel, the story involves an isolated community in Tennessee during the period between the two World Wars. The story highlights three characters whose lives are connected in challenging ways. A young boy, a woodsman, and a bootlegger cross paths with reverberating consequences. There are lots of themes of William Faulkner in this early work, but it contains the clear root of the ideas that McCarthy would return to book after book.  

This is a controversial work that pushes boundaries to portray a story of morality and the consequences of immoral actions. A woman gives birth to her brother’s son, and the baby is taken and left in the woods by its father. For both adults, this sets off a series of events that bring misfortune to themselves and those around them. There’s a lot of dark stuff in this one, but allegorically this one has a lot to offer. 

This is a dark book as it’s the story of a violent serial killer who becomes increasingly more isolated as the novel progresses. This one takes on many difficult and haunting themes and subjects but maintains McCarthy’s signature style. 

This semi-autobiographical novel breaks in form with many of McCarthy’s other novels and shows McCarthy’s adept use of humor. This is the story of Cornelius Suttree, a man who leaves behind his family and comfortable life to live outside of society in Knoxville, TN. Though not his normal style, it has the themes and motifs his readers will recognize. 

Called one of the Great American Novels, Blood Meridian, or The Evening Redness in the West is loosely based on real events and people of the border area between Texas and Mexico. Extensively researched, McCarthy immersed himself in the culture and history of the Southwest to write a novel that was able to depict the violent times with a sprawling scope. 

The first book in McCarthy’s Border Trilogy and the winner of the National Book Award, this is the story of John Grady Cole, a young man who leaves behind his life on his family’s ranch in Texas to travel south to Mexico. On his journey, he meets a series of people that will shape his life. Cole encounters friends, rivals and even love, all told with the distinct grammatical style with minimal punctuation that McCarthy favors.   

The second book in the Border Trilogy, this novel is a coming-of-age story of a young cowboy, Billy Parham, living on the border of New Mexico and Mexico. A story of family and the rivalry between the bleak landscape and those attempting to inhabit it. Billy faces many trials and obstacles, all of which bring him from his teenage years toward manhood. 

The third and final book in the Border Trilogy. Cities of the Plain reunites us with Jack Grady and Billy, the protagonists from the first two books, as they navigate the end of an era on the range. They find friendship, love and heartbreak in a land that is changing around them. The conclusion to this series encompasses the spirit of the American Southwest at the border of Mexico in a way that only McCarthy can. 

You may have seen the Academy Award-winning film, but we all know that reading the book is always better. The desolate and sprawling book matches the landscape in which it’s set — Texas, on the border. In the wake of a drug deal gone wrong, the lives of three men are tied together in a dangerous web. This book is violent and unrelenting, but readers will be drawn into the book’s web right along with the characters. 

One of McCarthy’s best-known novels, The Road, is a haunting story of a father and son’s struggle through a post-apocalyptic landscape. This novel isn’t for the faint of heart as the pair face obstacles both from the natural world and fellow humans. Known for its unsettling violence, McCarthy’s concise grammar and for the 2009 movie adaptation starring Viggo Mortensen. This enduring story of paternal love and survival has engrossed and enraptured audiences since its publication.