A review by zakcebulski
Child of God by Cormac McCarthy

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5


This book was vile, repugnant, and stomach-churning time and again. But, there was something about it that made it difficult to put down in the best way possible.

Child of God is the third novel by Cormac McCarthy- my person favorite American author. The book follows Lester Ballard who is just the fucking most deplorable person, man. He is an outcast, he is needlessly volatile, angry and is also a disgusting necrophiliac rapist and serial killer.
There is not too much of a plot to speak of, rather, we the readers are sitting passenger as this man commits some truly abhorrent acts in 1960s Appalachia.

As always, I have to praise McCarthy's writing. His writing is, to me, the epitome of effortlessly gorgeous, it dances and waltzes between breathtaking descriptions of 1960s Tennessee and nearly poetic feelings. I truly think that McCarthy is one of the most enticing authors to come from America, certainly in my lifetime.

I thought that the way in which you can read this book and find so many different images and references is one of its biggest strengths. There are so many lenses which you can read this book through to give it such a re-read value it may even be like reading the book for the first time again. McCarthy's descriptions of violence are, as always, vivid and choc full of cold, near callous imagery. Thankfully, instances regarding Ballard's sickening sexual acts are left more vague- literally nobody wants to read that.
What I find most fascinating about this book's subject matter, however, comes from my studying of true crime as a genre.
The way in which McCarthy captures the degradation of a serial killer is truly terrifying when you realize that this book was published in 1974. This was before many of the most infamous serial killers of American history were caught and convicted. Putting this novel and the subject matter into the chronological context of the time it is awe inspiring to see how McCarthy was able to accurately write about the gradual allowances which serial killers give themselves. He as well captured with a spine-tingling accuracy the way in which Ballard is a product killer. That is, he kills in order to get hold of the body for his more nefarious and sinister desires.

I thought that the ending sequence in the cave was one of the most anxiety inducing passages of reading which I have experienced in a long, long time. When Ballard's light goes out and he is stuck underground- that is fucking terrifying and conjures up memories of reading stories of folks stuck in the Paris catacombs, swallowed by the earth.
I also thought that Ballard's demise was pretty well done. I liked that though he got sent to a mental hospital for his heinous acts, he still dies very quickly of pneumonia and then is dissected and studied. I have an interpretation of this end where that is Ballard's atonement- he is studied after his death to prevent the disgusting acts which he committed from occurring again.
I truly think that Cormac McCarthy is one of the greatest living American authors and is someone who we are truly lucky chose to write. Every time I read one of his works, I know that I am in for a near life changing event. Reading his books don't feel like reading- they feel like I am being transported into the time which the story is taking place in.
The stories are largely filled with deplorable people, but I will be goddamned if I said that they were not amazingly written and addicting to read. I think that his full commitment to the heinousness of the human spirit and condition is what makes the books so goddamn good. If he half assed it, it would come off as more schlocky, or less believable. In good conscience, due to the subject matter of this book, I cannot recommend everyone read it without looking at the content warnings. This book is about a serial killer. This book is about a necrophiliac. This book is essentially if Ted Bundy was the lead role of a book. Please do research beforehand, because this book can affect you in a very upsetting way. 

I thought that this book showed the abhorrent underside of humanity. I knew what I was getting from this book, and goddamn did it deliver. I cannot wait for my next foray into McCarthy's works. 
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