*The Orchard Keeper

The Orchard Keeper -Cormac McCarthy
Finished with his public works and ready for the upcoming novel, “The Road,” this fall. The Orchard Keeper was published in 1965 when McCarthy was only 32. Wonderful to see the lessons that he learned, not only about writing, but about life. Mostly it was unfocused, characters more ideas than characters. Wit precedenting depth. The writing was similarly esoteric, sesquipedalian, but without the punch of his later work. It is like a sword-swallower hesitating mid-throat. Which smarts, but is the only way to establish scar that will afford a lifetime in the trade. He took, in this novel, entire paragraphs to glean the beauty of the sunset when in his later works he does so in a few words and moves back to the character. Nonetheless, striking.