Any filmmaker seeking to adapt a Cormac McCarthy novel faces the significant problem that a large part of the strength of each is the pure poetry of McCarthy’s prose. In No Country for Old Men the Coen brothers provide cinematography that serves as a suitable stand-in for the poetry of McCarthy’s prose. They back that up with a sharp attention to detail.
The Orchard Keeper is about as powerful a statement on the ethos of Appalachia as can be written in fiction.
McCarthy has been compared favorably to both Faulkner and Melville; the Orchard Keeper is more Faulkner-esque, in contrast to the Border trilogy, which is more Melville-esque. It is a truly challenging read. All the payoff is at the end when you sit back and let the entirety of what you just read sink in.
Continue reading “Country Noir: The Orchard Keeper by Cormac McCarthy”
Like any self-respecting blogger, I have a TBR pile the size of a small mountain. According to Goodreads, I have 415 books across my to-read shelves. And those are only books that I own. Add the books I want to read that I don’t own, and the books I want to reread (I just cracked Friday Night Lights back open for a reread), and, yeah, small mountain. So for this week’s Top Ten Tuesday I really needed to whittle my list down somehow. I am, then, sticking to country noir.
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by Jana at The Artsy Reader Girl.
Hillbilly Highways 