By Cormac McCarthy. Traditional folkways and folk speech, the sounds and smells of the natural world, and the violent behavior of men not yet truly civilized are irresistibly appealing as material for fiction.
Some novelist can write with brilliance and a fresh point of view about such familiar matters.
Others, although they are highly gifted too, are sorely handicapped by their humble and excessive admiration for William Faulkner. Tenn. There he must have spent much of his time inspecting flora and fauna, listening to the talk of the hill people and acquiring a nostalgic yearning for a society not so much outside the law as indifferent to it. Later he must have spent as much time studying Faulkner's novels. But the wonder is that in spite of them it is also an impressive book. Mr. McCarthy is expert in generating an emotional climate, in suggesting instead of in stating, in creating a long succession of brief, dramatic scenes described with flashing visual impact.