Book Review: Child of God by Cormac McCarthy

Summary

The story follows the tragic descent of Lester Ballard, a man who lives in the mountains of eastern Tennessee in the middle of the twentieth century. Lester is falsely accused of rape early in the story and many commentators point to that as the catalyst for all that follows. However, it’s actually earlier in the tale, on page one in fact, when Lester’s demise is sealed.

The first scene in the story depicts an auction at which Lester loses his home and land, which are sold to another man. This is a striking foreshadowing of what McCarthy intends to do throughout the remainder of the book in which he documents Lester’s progressive alienation from and hostility towards society.

From that point on, Lester stands on the outside looking in – spying on people at first, attempting to maintain contact with some of them and then, ultimately, resorting to murder and necrophilia.

Theme

The theme is, of course, in the title, Child of God. And his point could not be any more jarring as we watch Lester, a despicable and disgusting man prone to violence, voyeurism, rape and murder descend to an irredeemable point. McCarthy tells us that Lester is “a child of God much like yourself perhaps.”

The two most prominent applications of these in the book are first, that we are all capable of the evils that Lester, a fellow child of God, commits; and second, that Lester’s isolation from society cuts him off from his own humanity, leaving to an unavoidable, monstrous fate. Both of these are Gothic themes – those that are irrational, steeped in the spiritual and psychological state of the protagonist.

It may seem that McCarthy is placing part of the blame on society for not trying harder to retain one of its members, but I don’t believe that this is the case. Rather, while he portrays the lesser monstrosity of most of the characters, he makes it abundantly clear that Lester’s alienation and evil inclinations are his own doing.

I particularly enjoy the words of Sheriff Fate Turner – a fitting name – when he tells Lester, “You are either going to have to find some other way to live or some other place in the world to do it in.”

Style

I don’t always comment on the author’s writing style in a book review, but when it comes to McCarthy, his style is both unique and effective in conveying his intent. Thus, it deserves mention.

As I said before, he eschews punctuation such as quotation marks. I doubt that this is simply a matter of preference. Because there are no breaks that delineate the action from the commentary, this has the effect of immersing the reader very deeply into the story.

It also fits the voice as well. McCarthy alternates between following Lester on his journey and watching seemingly disparate scenes (which aren’t) between other individuals who are discussing their experiences with Lester. He writes all of these in mountain Tennessee slang.

When you put these together – the lack of punctuation and the regional authenticity – readers come away with a sense that they’ve been transported to the place and time and are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the boys in the general store discussing Lester’s pawned watches or rowing up the flooded streets to the county courthouse. The action is very close. The dialogue closer.

McCarthy also has a brilliant ability to portray a people and a place with only the sparsest of language – using only the most pertinent details to marry setting and theme with razor sharp precision. Every sentence does double duty. For example, at one point in the book, spring has arrived. Lester is walking along the face of the mountain “to review the country he’d once inhabited.” (p.169) He makes the following observation:

He watched the diminutive progress of all things in the valley, the gray fields coming up black and corded under the plow, the slow green occlusion that the trees were spreading. Squatting there he let his head drop between his knees and began to cry. (p. 170)

In that one paragraph, we feel Lester bound to his fate with cords like the black rows of earth in the fields. We feel his isolation and exclusion from society like the occlusion that the trees were spreading. McCarthy causes us to both see the theme and to feel Lester’s sorrow all while presenting a vivid picture of his surroundings.

Whether our own writing style is like McCarthy’s or not, this linguistic precision is a lesson in quality writing.

Conclusion

This is a dark book. Not McCarthy’s darkest, but dark nonetheless. It’s not necessarily a book that any of us would love. Though we feel for Lester on one level, we hate him on another. He’s a repulsive, evil man. And yet, we can take much away from watching how easily Lester, a fellow child of God, falls from one state to another until his end is a foregone conclusion.

Furthermore, Child of God is a book that most of us can respect. And as a writer, it’s a book from which we can learn a great deal. The language is precise. Cold and blunt when it needs to cut the reader. Fluid and languid when McCarthy asks us to empathize with Lester or to feel the weight of his choices building to his doom. And always imbued with meaning.

It’s a book worth reading.