From: vintageapplemac@gmail.com   
      
   In article <10le240$llr$1@panix2.panix.com>, kludge@panix.com (Scott   
   Dorsey) wrote:   
      
   > Why haven't I heard of this before?   
      
   I hadn't heard of Cormac McCarthy until some time after I first watched   
   the film adaption of his No Country For Old Men. He seems to be somewhat   
   of a paradox - both obscure and universally praised for everything he ever   
   wrote.   
      
   > If you crossed Stephen King's _The Stand_ with Pirsig's _Zen and the Art of   
   > Motorcycle Maintenance_, you would get this book.  A man and his son are   
   > headed out into the wasteland after some terrible apocalypse that has burned   
   > all the land and killed many people and all of the vegetation.  Anything that   
   > could kill kudzu is serious.  There are philosophical discussions, there is   
   > a fight for survival, there are good people and bad people.  Some of the   
   > bad people are pretty bad.  I enjoyed the book and I didn't really expect to.   
   > I think it's SF.   
      
   Again, I watched the film adaption of this first - and it is so   
   exceptionally bleak that I don't think I will ever watch it again, despite   
   it being an excellent film. I did quickly hunt out the book, though, and   
   thought it was fantastic - bleaker even than the film, but tremendous   
   reading. Very philosophical and thoughtful. And, yes, certainly   
   speculative fiction (although, I don't think it's much speculation - what   
   is depicted is almost certainly what would become of us as a society were   
   the world to end.   
      
   That was my first McCarthy book, I have since read No Country For Old Men   
   (again, just as enjoyable as the film adaption, if not more), and also   
   Child Of God, which is a real gross nightmare of a horror story.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)