The majority of my bookshelf...
For the last few months (actually, almost a year) I’ve been labouring through Spanish books in a spirited attempt to improve my language. It’s working, but I certainly can’t confess to reading the most taxing literature.
Having polished off A Wrinkle In Time (Una Arruga En El Tiempo), my teacher friend Scott dropped a real novelty on my lap; a book in English! Showering frothy praise on the novel, he told me that I should put aside some time to read it. I did, and boy is it worth the effort.
The book in question is Cormac McCarthy’s Border Trilogy; a collection of three stories based around the border between the United States and Mexico. I’m currently hammering through the first of the three, All The Pretty Horses. Maybe it’s my joy at being able to understand every last shred of prose delivered page after page, but I think it is actually more to do with McCarthy’s wonderful writing style; he’s a genius.
For those of you familiar with the Cohen Brother’s multi-Oscar winner, No Country For Old Men, you’ll know a little about what to expect as McCarthy wrote the book upon which the film was based. I’ve never read laconic prose before (or in fact thought it was possible) but I’m completely gripped by his book. Characters say little, and when they do words are passed like kidney stones, punctuation and respect for the niceties of English language tossed away. Between terse conversational exchanges the poetry of all-encompassing landscapes is allowed to run wild, almost making the bleak and rolling presentation of nature more the focus that the plights of the characters within it.
I love this book, and if you get the chance to read it, grab it with both callused, road weary hands. Between this and “Into The Wild”, you’ve got all the adventure inspiration that you would ever need…
A Jolly Nice Outing 