a master word smith

Cormac McCarthy is one of the greatest creator's of sentence that has ever lived. He is a master of descriptive sparse prose that evokes your imagination like few can or will. This is the case in this book, even if it lacks a precise story structure or character progression the narration is spot on fantastic, highly recommended.

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3 people found this helpful

Meditative

I wouldn’t recommend this to any of my friends but I loved it so much.

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The undeniable beauty of McCormac’s rhythm

Andrews and Whelan capture the undeniable beauty and power of McCormac’s rhythm. I read the book and listen to the audible interchangeably,and reading the same passages I realised Andrews interpreted some things slightly differently. A matter of nuance and cadence. Wonderful.

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Well worth the listen

A great book with complex characters. Hard to maintain focus in the audio version sometimes.

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A curious and challenging book

It sounds shallow to say it, but if this wasn’t a Cormac McCarthy book I would struggle with it. Firstly, the performances are first rate and the writing is superb, as expected from McCarthy. The plot however is challenging to say the least. So much so that I don’t have a burning desire to listen to the companion to this book when it’s published shortly, which saddens me as I’ve loved everything that McCarthy has written.

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2 people found this helpful

Passenger to nowhere

I'm a huge McCarthy fan and liked this book, however it is not even a shadow of The Road and others. Biggest gripe were the conversations that go nowhere, just lots of "i don't know" and "no i don't" to the point that i was begging for conversations to just come to an end. If people actually conversed like that we'd still be living in caves.
This is an extremely self indulgent book that a writer as great as McCarthy has probably earnt the right to create as his last work

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1 person found this helpful

A haunting tale of regret

In his last days Cormac delivers a novel so intelligent and insightful it makes the thought of the world losing him and his speculation intolerable. I hope on the day of my death I can see his writings again and I can carry that beauty into the dark. The last pagan on earth softly singing upon his pallet in an unknown tongue.

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A genius to the last

The Passenger, and it's shorter twin novel, Stella Maris, are, sadly, the last Cormac McCarthy books. No one else writes like McCarthy, develops characters as deeply as McCarthy, nor has the dazzling imagination to dissect the human condition with both his care and brutality. Amongst the very best of his novels, in my opinion. A writer in top form, right to the end.

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Smart but odd

If you like a plot driven novel you probably won’t like this one. It includes some intelligent ramblings by the main character and his acquaintances on everything from physics to JFK, and conversations between a woman and her hallucinations, but the story goes nowhere and it was really hard to sympathise with any of the characters, especially the protagonist. There was something very “life sucks and then you die” about it, and something very male, hard to put my finger on what that quality is, but when I said this to someone else they heartily agreed.

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6 people found this helpful

strange. compelling.

as so many reviews say, the story seems unresolved. however the existential angst is vintage Mccarthy and the characters are fascinating. I'm still puzzling over it, so I guess it did it's job!

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