The Orchard Keeper (Vintage International) (urspr publ 1965; utgåvan 1993)

I decided to read McCarthy in order, including the novels I hadn't got around to reading the first time, because I just kept re-reading Blood Meridian. Well, as others have noted, this one is more or less McCarthy juvenilia. It gives you much of what is best about his later work--the sheer density of nouns, mostly--but also a bunch of what is worst about 20th century American literature: the tiresome scene-setting ("Fartswogton was a small town about twenty miles outside Nashville..."), the haziness masquerading as profundity (see also: Robinson, Marilynne, Housekeeping, which is more or less this book but with women instead of men), and the simultaneous need for a plot (because there are no ideas, or formal innovations, or really form at all) and inability to provide one.

On the other hand, this man could always write sentences. ( )

Nebulous, incoherent story. Puts the authors poetic language across as pretentious, because it doesn't match the quality of the narrative, something the author does so well in his later works. It's something of historical interest for fans, but it's not representative, and i didn't enjoy it. ( )

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Finish date: January 2016
Genre: Fiction
Rating: B
Review: I prefer McCarthy's western novels, but The Orchard Keeper has the beginnings of his beautiful prose style.

It is nominally a coming of age tale set in the mountains of eastern Tennessee. A fatherless boy is influenced by two men. One is an older, recluse and the other a bootlegger.

The description of the mountains is absolutely beautiful, but with the exception of a couple scenes the story did not impress me.

I recommend Suttree and/or Blood Meridian instead.

[bc:Suttree|394469|Suttree|Cormac McCarthy|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1397600192s/394469.jpg|1196119][bc:Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West|394535|Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West|Cormac McCarthy|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1335231647s/394535.jpg|1065465]by[ai:Cormac McCarthy|4178|Cormac McCarthy|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1414695980p2/4178.jpg][a:Cormac McCarthy|4178|Cormac McCarthy|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1414695980p2/4178.jpg] ( )

Some thoughts:
-The conclusion of *The Orchard Keeper* reminded me of the recent *Train Dreams* by Denis Johnson, to the point that I would argue that it is highly likely the former was a major influence on the latter. But Johnson's treatment of the same subject is sharper, honed. SPOILER While McCarthy simply talks about a way of life that has passed, Johnson's conclusion is a synecdoche, where the death of the protagonist (the part) is taken as the death of the way of life (the whole). Johnson's refinement is considerable, transforming a sentimental abstraction into something personal--an argument into a story. Sorry for the vagueness. In a nutshell: early McCarthy good, later Johnson better.
-I heard something once about early McCarthy having been mistaken (or easily mistakable) for Faulkner. I'm not a Faulkner specialist by any stretch, but that seems really wrong to me. From what I remember, Faulkner's basic stories are set roughly in the present or near past (i.e. at the time Faulkner himself was writing them). *The Orchard Keeper*, by contrast, is set in the distant past (again, relative to the time McCarthy was writing it)--31 to 24 years, that is. What for Faulkner is description is for McCarthy (here) nostalgia. McCarthy certainly outgrows this sort of nostalgic sentiment later, but it is (as far as I can tell) never Faulknerian, at least in that respect.
-Who ever said McCarthy has no sense of humor?
"Why I done it. Rung shells and shot your hootnanny all to hell? Where YOU from, heh? You talk like a God-damned yankee. What do you do for a livin, ast questions?"(OK, 221) ( )

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