Outer Dark (Vintage International)

This 1968 novel written by Cormac McCarthy is brilliant, but also one of the most disheartening stories that I've ever read. Warning: If you are suffering from depression, don't even think about reading this somber book. Cormac is truly the gloom and doom master. A quote from 'All the Pretty Horses' sums up Mr. McCarthy's thoughts on life:" It was good that God kept the truths of life from the young as they were starting out or else they'd have no heart to start at all." One of Cormac's Outer Dark quotes is:"Ive seen the meanness of humans till I dont know why God aint put out the sun and gone away." One of the two main characters, Culla states bleakness best when talking to the mysterious bearded man and says:" I never give nobody nothin, I never had nothin. Never figured nothin, never had nothin, never was nothin, the man said. He was looking at nothin at all." I added the quote marks, but Cormac doesn't use them, or any other basic elements of prose in his novels. If you have read any of my reviews, you know that I'm not a fan of his famous novel 'The Road', however I am an admirer of this novel. He has stated in the past that if the story is good enough, the author doesn't have to be grammatically correct. I hear you loud and clear! This story will stay with me for awhile. Even though Cormac doesn't mention a time, or place, I did some basic research and it seems that this story takes place in the Appalachia mountains of east Tennessee. I can't find a time period, but it felt like I was reading a novel set in the early 1900s. It's the story of a brother and sister, Culla and Rinthy, who have an incestious relationship resulting in a baby. Both of these people are destitute mountain people of low education living in a rural cabin. As Rinthy recovers from the birth, she hears a tinker ( a travelling seller of pots and pans ) outside talking to her brother. The tinker leaves, and while Rinthy sleeps, Culla goes in the woods and leaves the baby in the glade to die. When Culla goes home, he chops a fake grave with his axe. The tinker, in his travels, finds the baby. When Rinthy wakes, Culla says the baby died. She discovers that the grave is fake and thinking that her brother sold her baby to the tinker, she leaves on foot pursuing the tinker. Culla also leaves on foot seemingly looking for his sister, but more likely because he is fleeing from his sins and just wants to get away. To complicate matters for Culla, three mysterious men apparently follow Culla causing death and mayhem in his wake. Rinthy, in her travels, finds people mostly accommodating to her plight. Culla, Rinthy, the baby, the tinker, and the three mysterious men are heading for a collision of monumental and unguessable fruition. You must read this precocious second novel by Cormac McCarthy, it is stunning. I find this story full of symbolism and metaphors. For instance, Culla and the three mysterious men seem to have nothing in common. But why do the three men appear to follow Culla from town to town, causing Culla many troubles. The leader of the men wears black, which is a symbol of evil and death. Culla seems to be running from his sins and the three men are in pursuit to mete out punishment. Evil looms all around Culla. Are the three men emissaries of the devil? Rinthy, on the other hand, receives food and shelter from most of the people she meets on her quest to find her baby. Are these people representing the Archangels of God? I don't know, but I do know when I'm reading a book full of symbolism. And what about the mean tinker? Who does he portray? And finally, who is the blind man Culla meets at the end of the novel who says:"But I knowed I'd seen ye afore." Culla wants to know if the blind man is a preacher, and the blind man says:"No. No preacher. What is they to preach? It's all plain enough. Word and flesh. I don't hold much with preachin."Is this the Grim Reaper, now hot on Culla's trail? I don't know, but it's fun conjecturing on a Cormac McCarthy novel.

Cormac likes his gothic blood-letting. This book is no exception. An earlier work, it has little of the grandiosity of Blood Meridian (though there are some incredibly lyrical passages IE similes comparing the characters to a cast of alien vaudevillians pirouetting through a menacing landscape as though through a dream lens, those never get old). The story is simple. Brother knocks up Sister, hides baby in the woods, Tinker finds baby, takes off. Sister goes to look for Tinker. Brother goes to look for Sister. Meanwhile, band a three oddball killers are striking through the forest, gutting folks at random. The novel sort of meanders with the brother constantly looking for work from people he meets, or getting into trouble sleeping in what he believes are un-owned houses. The Sister spends most of her time asking about her "chap", witnessing other couples' states of disarray. Cormac's prose captures beautifully the sinful sweep of the world in what we assume to be the early 1900s. There is a sense of perfectly rendered desolation, like the Road but with trees and plant life! The details however are pretty vague. We don't know the time period, the motivation for the killers (we assume it is only a kind of insatiable anarchic glee that drives them) and so on. Also the fates of a couple characters are sort of left hanging, as the book just ends ALA No Country For Old Men, though not as abrupt. All-in-all, the book is short, dark, enthralling, but it is not quite as deep and amusing as Blood Meridian, nor as sparse and electric as The Road. I like it more than No Country, I think. It reads sort of like a gothic fairy tale, where there aren't many likable characters, some bizarre allegorical scenarios, lots of murders (though not compared to Blood Meridian--though most books cannot compare) etc. If you are a fan of old Cormac, give this one a shot. It is wry, poetic, nightmarish. Don't expect a happy ending.

Another exceptional book by Cormac McCarthy. It is admittedly gloomy and rather violent. In some ways it seems like a precursor to Blood Meridian. As usual with Cormac, one must think hard and delve deep to answer "What is the meaning?" It is highly allegorical, with many allusions to Biblical and other literary sources. It is in the form of a quest journey. A brother and sister, Culla and Rinthy, conceive a child. After its birth, Culla tries to get rid of the child by leaving him in the wilderness, but he is rescued by an itinerant tinker. When Rinthy discovers this she goes in search of the child. Culla, full of guilt for his incest and attempted infanticide, goes on his own quest whose purpose is unclear. It may be to find the child or to find Rinthy or just to assuage his guilt. An image that comes to mind is the Garden of Eden and the expulsion of Adam and Eve due to their original sin. Along the way, both Culla and Rinthy experience a variety of encounters with strangers. Rinthy is mainly treated with kindness by those she meets. Culla, on the other hand, keeps getting into trouble, is falsely accused of a variety of crimes, and is pursued by a mob trying to kill him. The culmination of his troubles is when he runs into an evil trio of killers. They are a murderous lot, terrorizing the countryside, and seem bent on extracting retribution for Culla's sins. Some critics think the novel has a distinct Gnostic overtone, where humans are entraped in an evil world ruled by malevolent demigods or archons. The true, benevolent, God is hidden, but tries to keep a spark of knowledge about him alive in the hearts of men. In this respect, the evil trio may represents archons who persecute Culla. In terms of responding to the proffered interior light, the hapless Culla seems to miss the invitation completely, while Rinthy is responsive to it and maintains her hope and optimism throughout her ordeal. The dramatic culmination of the novel will be left for the reader to discover. The meaning or moral point of this story is somewhat obscure and Cormac leaves it to the reader to figure out. However, as is usual with Cormac, the writing is brilliant with many graphic and penetrating scenes that grip the reader. This is a very significant work. It begs for a re-reading, which I hope to do in the future.

I recently read The Road which was a great and mesmerising book. This book started out with many of the same qualities - bleak hopeless lifestyle, random characters, extreme poverty and desperate survival. But about 3/4 through the book I started to get a sneaking suspicion that nothing was ever going to develop or wrap up. I found myself stuck in a loop of characters wandering around, bungling and not really accomplishing anything. A lot of the scenes seemed pointless and the timeline was confusing. And then the book just ends very abruptly, leaving me wondering why I had just devoted a week to reading it. Don't get me wrong, the book does have redeeming qualities in the writing style, etc. Hence the 3 stars. It was not the worst book I ever read. But the distinct lack of a plot, any character development, or the sense of anything coming full circle is very dissapointing for a reader. Unless the point of this book was just to be a slice of life depicting these impoverished, uneducated characters wandering their way through their bleak and pointless lives. There are 3 villans in the book, but they seem purposeless. The Road was also about characters wandering a bleak landscape with no real purpose other than survival, but the story was more cohesive and the theme of survival more poignant. The villans were more varied and their violence more understandable. Another senseless annoyance in this book was the lack of quotation marks when a character spoke, as well as all characters being referred to with the same "he" or "she" at the beginning of every new scene. You find yourself straining to realize which character is being discussed. Perhaps this technique has some "purpose" or symbolism but as a reader I just found it annoying and felt that it detracted from the book. All in all, as I said, the book was not terrible. I definately did find myself sucked into this world, with very vivid visuals of all the characters and landscapes. I feel that the descriptions of how life in this area in this time must have been seemed very realistic. And something about the writer's style really appeals to me. As I said, I loved The Road, did not love this book and though the movie for "No Country For Old Men" was downright unwatchable (I realize it is unfair to judge the author on a movie adaptation, but I will NEVER read that book). So Cormac McCarthy is only 1 for 2 with me, but something keeps me coming back. I just finished Outer Dark and I am about to purchase Child of God on my Kindle. I would say, don't let this be your first introduction to Cormac McCarthy. You may find it confusing and off-putting. Try The Road first, it is overall a much better book.

I often read the reviews on Amazon both before and after I read a book. For anyone who wrote that the book was too dark for them I have to ask didn't you read the title first. It's really not hard to do some research on a book before you spend the money and buy it. But for those who liked the book and still found it dark I think your missing the humor and the entertaining characters. Yes there were some dark interludes and definitely a dark and brutal ending but I found the book in its entirety to be humorous. For example, how can you not find humor in the pig herding scene. If you really want dark turn on the evening news. As I'm writing this the cable stations are reporting on a mass shooting at a 'Madden' video game tournament. Someone was apparently a sore loser. Now that's dark. For anyone who couldn't understand the symbolism it's not hard to find some interesting articles that will give you some good ideas and explanations. But like any great writer it's probably hard to find an explanation by McCarthy himself because he likes to leave that to the reader because it ultimately is up to the reader. For those who gave it a bad review because of the lack of punctuation and quotation marks all I can say is give me a break. It's not a difficult book to read or understand if you try. If you don't want to make the effort then skip this one. I thought the book was excellent. If you buy it and get ready to read it please turn off all outside distractions and read and enjoy every word. However, if your looking for an escape to a wonderful, magical or exciting world full of enchantment, mysteries or thrills - this book is not for you.

Outer Dark will perplex you, amaze you, confound you, and impress you. In his second novel, McCarthy has fashioned a tale both deceptively simple and profoundly complex. The story, propelled by the disappearance of a baby--the product of incest, manages to examine grand questions of good and evil, luck and spirituality, destiny and free will, and ultimately, the very core of human nature. McCarthy delights in ambiguity (at times, I doubted whether some of the characters were even human) and understatement--what is left unsaid in this novel is probably more important than what is said--and what is said is sparse, lyrical, and poetic. Although the book runs a mere 242 pages, McCarthy packs his carefully chosen words with enough profundity and complexity to fill up a book twice this size--he is a master of narrative economy. The reader must work, must focus, must contribute to the creation of this piece of literary art. McCarthy does not (purposely, one presumes) describe some of the major events in this story. McCarthy does not tell this tale completely chronologically. McCarthy does not spell everything out for his reader. McCarthy does, however, trust his readers to co-create this story. Any description of the plot would be insufficient, because ultimately it's the themes, the ideas that matter. If you allow him to, McCarthy will simply take your breath away.

This story is both heartbreaking and brutally terrifying all throughout..It’s not for the faint of heart…in fact it shockingly reveals the desperation and consequences of self shame and the fear of it being discovered..The prose is almost poetic in its simplicity of language of the isolated, ignorant and uneducated masses ..A good read if you’re open to violence being a part of the hardscrabble landscape of early American culture..

What did I just read? Wow, what a tale. I devoured this story from start to finish. Very dark and intense. The writing was absolutely amazing! It surely was a treat and unlike any story I’ve read before!

This is more a review of all Cormac Mcarthy's work. I found Outer Dark a very shocking book,on a parallel with the awful Child of God and,probably,the extremely violent Blood Meridian. None of the above is meant to say that these books are not great....they are. Like many,I got into Cormac after the films No Country For Old Men and The Road.I should have got into him a lot earlier. His writing style is majestic and poetic,maybe even hypnotic. I have just completed the Border Trilogy and can only praise that also.A bit exhausting,though.But worthwhile.More than....sorry,trying unsuccessfully to write like him. Back to Outer Dark. I cried at the end of this.I have never done that before. I cried at the storyline,I cried for the sister and brother,I cried at how much better a writer he is than I will ever be.

Very dark. Pure Cormac McCarthy.

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Another great read from this author. Even though this novel is one of his earlier one it is classic McCarthy with amazing descriptions of the landscape and full characters you can love and loath. Highly recommend.

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