Understanding Cormac McCarthy (Understanding Contemporary American Literature)

Densely thoughtful and eminently readable. I was attracted to this book especially for its perspective on "Blood Meridian." I had already read most of McCarthy's books (and seen some of the films), I stayed with Frye's book cover to cover. BTW i like this cover's photo of McCarthy, looks like The Judge to me.

A good scholarly overview of both Cormac's life and his works. Frye breaks down in good length each novel from The Orchard Keeper up to The Road. He touches upon Cormac's plays, but not that much in depth. Chapters are broken down by understanding the author (intro), southern works, Into the west (Blood Meridian), the border trilogy, and later works (No Country, The Road, etc).The book describes each novel's plot, positive and negative reviews (NY Times, etc.), commentary by literary scholars, interviews, meanings and interpretations of the novel's major themes, character developments, and plot points. He also gives you insight into where McCarthy was both geographically and career-wise when he was either writing or researching his next piece. Frye cites such Cormac influences as Faulkner, Flannery O'Conner and other southern gothic and southern grotesque writers, as well as greats such as Dostoyevsky and Melville. He also sheds light on some of the origins of Cormac's philosophical influences such as Hegel and Kierkegaard as well as some of his scientific interests such as Chaos Theory.Frye gives you, more or less, a crash course in understanding each of McCarthy's works and overall evolution as a writer. Frye writes in heavy scholarly prose with sometimes multi-page paragraphs of which you'd find in an MLA journal and the like. At times, I wish he could have delved deeper into each work. But, in Frye's defense, each of Cormac's novels would probably require their very own volume, and the book is just one of many within the Contemporary American Literature collection. Nevertheless, I found the majority of the book quite interesting and I really liked reading the biographical information on this elusive and sui generis of a writer. It was cool to read Frye and say to myself, "Yeah, I thought that too! OK. I'm not crazy!" : )In the end, not only will you understand a little bit more of what's going on in Cormac's oeuvre (with the exception of The Counselor), but I think you'll also understand the author himself a bit more. To me, he now seems to be a writer in the purest sense. Although he's finally enjoying much-awaited commercial success (which I can't knock him for because even genius writers have to buy groceries) and seems to be a writer whom is concerned not so much with a bestseller but with what his works can mean to a person and/or the world on an artistic, intellectual, and even spiritual level. I don't think he really cares about great success in terms of a fat bank account or #1 NY Times best seller. I really think his mission in life is to completely devote himself to writing the best fiction possible while hopefully trying to keep some kind of mystery, hope, truth, and beauty in this world alive. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he wins the Nobel prize some day.To conclude, I think any serious reader of McCarthy's work should definitely read Frye's work!*A typo I spotted: Frye claims No Country for Old Men takes place in 1982. It actually takes place in 1980. I'm sure it's a simple oversight or typo, but couldn't help point it out. In all, it doesn't take away from this commendable work of literary scholarship.