Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Astonishing at times, frustrating at other times, March 13, 2000
I am a big William Faulkner fan and after reading the great four (Absalom.., As I Lay Dying, Light In August, and The Sound...) tried All the Pretty Horses a few years ago. Everyone said it was great so like a good prisoner of the "you must read this syndrone", I started it. I found it incredibly beautiful in terms of prose style and language but after 100 or so pages I did not really care about the characters. I thought it was my fault and not McCarthy's so I left it and decided that I would reapproach it later on. It is now three years later and I figured I would read his first book before I started the now completed Border trilogy. This is a tremendously artful and in many ways wonderful book. Nobody since Faulkner has as dense and intense a prose style. You must have an unabridged dictionary beside you to really get everything he gives you. The reason I write this review is for those who want a deep, meaningful book and are thinking of reading this like I was. If you are such a person and do not have alot of time on your hands, I would suggest going elsewhere for one reason only. Another Amazon reader talked about the plot of this novel as being extraordinarily inconsequential. I think that this is McCarthy's point. It is a story about the land and people that personify independance. It is about an age of rural Southern life that no longer exists. It is not supposed to tie it's points up in ribbons and to keep you passionately turning pages unless your there for the art of it (of which there is a considerable amount). My frustration was that when I finished this, I got it and appreciated it but was not particularly moved in any way. I read the last three chapters again to see if I was an idiot or if this was just an erudite, muted text. I came out of it thinking that that's exactly what it was. If you haven't read the four big Faulkner's or All the Pretty Horses, start there, this is a book written by a master but it left me too lukewarm to give it more than three stars.
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great style, slow going, June 21, 2006
Having read McCarthy's last four novels I'm developing into a big fan. I don't know of anyone else with his mastery of the language and ability to write razor-sharp, spot-on colloquial dialogue. So I thought I'd give his first novel a try. The incredible descriptions of nature are there, in more or less full flower, and several characters are memorable. The problem for me was that relatively little happens. I kept waiting, and waiting, and although he tossed in a little bit towards the end, in terms of plot it's like a 250-page short story. Don't get me wrong; I wasn't looking for a beach book or Tom Clancy, but in truth it's nice to have someone do something every once in a while beyond walking through the woods. So it's fascinating as a stylistic exercise, but less than compelling as entertainment. If you're hoping for something along the lines of All The Pretty Horses, you may be disappointed. If you love fabulous use of language for its own sake, you won't be.
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not too shabby to be McCarthy's first, February 4, 2004
THE ORCHARD KEEPER, Cormac McCarthy's first novel, explores the nature of new versus old ways of life. It's a novel on nature. It deals primarily with three men: John Wesley, a young man coming of age; Marion Sylder, a bootlegger; and Uncle Ather, a hilarious, elderly man who refuses to take any crap from anyone. While these three run into each other throughout the novel, they are also connected to each other in a way through which none of them are aware--through the death of Kenneth Rattner. McCarthy's novel appears to be more of a character analysis than a plot driven story. While a plot does exist, it is not incredibly strong nor prominent. It's more like a series of anecdotes. However, the character depth and symbolism found in the pages of this book are tremendously wonderful. It's definitely a book worth reading again in order to catch all of these symbols and meanings. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy analyzing works, not someone who is just looking for something pleasurable to read. It's definitely not like reading Harry Potter : ). For example, at the beginning of this work, the narrator jumps from person to person, telling part of each one's story with little or no signal of whom is being spoken of. You have to take your time to figure out who the narrator is talking about. This can be rather frustrating at first, so beware! However, if you can tolerate this writing style and don't expect much of a plot, the piece is rather enjoyable, filled with comic elements and brilliance.
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