Western novels in the style of McCarthy (dark, violent and biblical)

[hampusforev]

Right, I should get around reading Steinbeck, but East of Eden has always seemed like a sort of monumental task, like Moby Dick, which I loved, but dreaded reading.

Anyway, I received a beautiful copy of the King James Bible and McCarthy's Border trilogy, and some of the western novels mentioned. I have a lot of Christmas credit on an online site, which is brilliant.

Again, without wishing to start a new thread. As I say, I loved And The A-ss Saw The Angel, and remember reading an interview with Cave where he mentioned "stylized literature" as an inspiration, which his father got him interested in. Any ideas what he might be alluding to?

[Davidbrookesuk]

This is an old post that will give away this obvious plug, but if you're interested in Westerns I have just released "The Gun of Our Maker" on Amazon and Smashwords. If you have a second and want to check it out, searching the title will bring it up as the first match.

THE GUN OF OUR MAKER by DAVID BROOKES:

Minnesota, 1859: a man is executed for skimming from a silver mine to provide for his family.

Arizona, 1877: the sins of the father catch up with the son

Six weeks later: a man on horseback scales the forests of the Mogollon Rim. He is searching for Bill Hawken, a renowned gunsmith.

Vivian Culhane is far from a typical hero. Crippled by a childhood illness, he is weak, blind – yet unstoppable.

Together they will build an instrument of vengeance that will be known across Arizona, New Mexico and Texas – a revolver that produces red smoke, with a limited supply bullets and a thirst for justice.

[Pike Bishop]

There is a Australian film called, "The Proposition", staring Guy Pierce which is loosely inspired/based off of McCarthy's "Blood Meridian."

I also thought The Proposition was a brilliant McCarthyesque film. However, outside of Western violence, I saw little similarities to Blood Meridian.

[Eiseabhal]

I doubt if you'll find much in the western genre that is in any way close to McCarthy's linguistic style. All of McCarthy's work that I've read is dark and has a fascination with violence. He is one of the great living American writers. Describing it as Biblical? In a Kings and Chronicles gangster way ... maybe. Most pulp Westerns are full of routine boys-with-guns violence. The last section of Williams' buffalo hunters novel has a Clint Eastwoodesque climax. The Searchers which I like is by contrast a slow moving affair. Not as slow moving as The Leader of the People. I'm sure there must have been the odd good pulp Western. Even fifth rate writers can produce good plots, good scenes, interesting characters sometimes and sometimes almost by accident can create a classic unforgettable text. But right now, despite having gone through a lot of these in my teens, I cannot think of any. There is a book called The Last Frontier which I read a long time ago and enjoyed. There is also Buffalo Soldiers if you really must have blood-drenched pages.

[ennison]

Outer Dark sums up his artistic position. There are bits in the Trilogy that are lighter though the main character is a teen going on fifty!

[Pike Bishop]

How does Outer Dark sum up Cormac McCarthy's artistic position? I've read most of his novels and have yet to discern such a static aesthetic. And the trilogy is pretty austere. At least John Grady keeps trying to get some; Billy Parham is so quasi-fatalist and dour, which tends to happen when everyone you encounter tells you another meta-critical account of the inherent instability of stories and narrative.

[ennison]

It inhabits a physical region a spiritual region an area of the human mind which is integral to us as humans but on the edge of our understanding and experience and I believe that is where he feels most involved. Not that the man himself seems anything but entirely sane and rational. It's not that that is all he does but these dark places are a territory he seems to like exploring. It's not mainstream America but it is mainstream human spirit. The Orchard Keeper is a strange and dark tale of small tragic lives in out-of-the-way places in time and geography. I think though Outer Dark is my favourite of his but I have read nothing by him that hasn't hit the spot for me.

[Pike Bishop]

Yes, I would certainly agree that "edge of understanding" is a recurrent theme in his works. The Crossing is definitely my favorite, with Blood Meridian a close second. As to disappointments, Cities of the Plain was my only disappointment. When I read No Country For Old Men, I thought it was an ok novel, but would make a much better film. Leave it to the Coen Brothers to make me feel prescient.