Child of God (Vintage International)
From the bestselling author of The Passenger and the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel The Road • In this taut, chilling story, Lester Ballard—a violent, dispossessed man falsely accused of rape—haunts the hill country of East Tennessee when he is released from jail.
While telling his story, Cormac McCarthy depicts the most sordid aspects of life with dignity, humor, and characteristic lyrical brilliance.
"Like the novelists he admires-Melville, Dostoyevsky, Faulkner-Cormac McCarthy has created an imaginative oeuvre greater and deeper than any single book. Such writers wrestle with the gods themselves." —Washington Post
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Community Reviews
Lester Ballard, a young outcast, is falsely accused of rape and, when released from jail, returns to the hills of East Tennessee where his violent, disturbed nature and sexual perversions fester, aiding his descent into unspeakably sordid crimes. As the story progresses, we witness Ballard's ever-growing isolation from society; we witness cruelty, moral degradation, and sexual deviancy as the main themes within the narrative. A dark, brooding book, aided by Cormac McCarthy's unique writing style makes Child of God well worth reading if you enjoy challenging literary fiction.
Definitely not his best. If Suttree had the most McCarthy-mode heightened prose, this probably has the least. It's very close to a straight ahead thriller / semi-horror sort of story with only a bare minimum of reflection - that even he is a child of god, that a certain amount of circumstance and commonly held human condition leads to his crimes. But it doesn't really spend a very satisfying amount of time on these ideas
While it may not be McCarthy’s best novel, “Child of God” is still a haunting portrait of a man with no regard for anybody but himself, depicting the heinous things that people are capable of. It’s a lyrical piece, common for McCarthy, and is as dark as the night sky. It’s an interesting and captivating story, but doesn’t quite hit the highs that his other work has touched. Regardless, even a “weaker” novel from McCarthy is astounding in its own right, proving yet again why he was as renowned of an author as he was.
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