His books are always a challenging read for me – both in topic and depth. In this new book I was again caught up in the beautiful writing and that helped to get me through some more difficult sections (the in-depth discussion of the state of quantum physics, or recurring conversations with an impish hallucination, for example).
But the story here was both broad (covering a wide variety of topics) and narrow (diving deep into one man’s soul) – and there is a lot to process for the reader. Once again with McCarthy’s writing I felt some scenes will stick with me for a long time: the main character’s nights alone on an abandoned (?) oil rig, living in an old empty house in the middle of nowhere, the submerged passengers in the beginning of the story. There were plenty more – some really good stuff here.
It was also fun to read through the philosophical discussions throughout the book between some recurring characters. The book approaches these meaty topics without dumbing them down. As I said before, some sections were hard to get my mind around, but reading this author’s books you should know to be prepared to go through the mental wringer.
I’ll be thinking about this one for a long time – and there is a sequel/coda/partner book coming out next month so I’m sure I’ll read that and see where it takes me.
Next I’m getting back into sci-fi/fantasy with Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Elder Race.
