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A review by lanternatomika
The Gardener's Son by Cormac McCarthy
2.0
I've only read two of Cormac McCarthy's books - The Road and The Sunset Limited - and I've already become a huge fan of his. The Road was a bleak tale of a post-apocalyptic America shot through with streaks of hope, and The Sunset Limited was one of the most deeply affecting books I've read this year. I picked up The Gardener's Son hoping that it would be another treat at CorMacdonalds
It, uh, wasn't
This flimsy volume is a screenplay that McCarthy wrote early in his writing career based on the mill enterprise of William Gregg and his sons. William Gregg and The Graniteville Manufacturing Company actually did exist in the 1800s, and the story itself was inspired by a few footnotes in William Gregg's biography. This is the story of the Robert McAvoy, an employee who quits his job at the mill and leaves town. He returns on the occasion of his mother's passing, and while he's in the neighborhood, he decides to shoot James Gregg, the current owner of the mill. Yeah, I just spoiled the ending of the book, but who cares?
Seriously, I never thought I'd say 'who cares' about characters in a Cormac McCarthy book, but no one in The Gardener's Son ever says or does anything for a reason - I guess I'd have to make an exception for the doctor who amputates Robert's leg, he would totally die if the infection in his leg spread. It's a McCarthy thing for characters not to have blatant and obvious motives, but good lord, the characters in this book are just difficult to figure out. Perhaps that's because this is a screenplay and a screenwriter can assume a lot of the work of conveying a character's thoughts will be done by the actors. In fact, one really annoying thing that keeps happening in this book is that a character will say something to another character, that character will understand the implication and the reader is just left to wonder what just happened
I suppose a lot of the criticisms of The Gardener's Son can be hand-waved by saying 'it's just a screenplay', but The Sunset Limited was also just a script and yet it was absolutely engaging and impossible to put down. It also had more detailed stage directions, maybe that's what was missing
In terms of content, this was actually more of a one star for me, but I've been struggling a bit to keep up with my reading challenge and this book, at 96 pages long with not a lot of words, was an easy boost, so I'll give it a point for that
This doesn't change the fact that I still believe Cormac McCarthy is one of the great novelists of our time - why should a screenplay change my opinion of his novels? That being said, there's really nothing to see here, just move along
It, uh, wasn't
This flimsy volume is a screenplay that McCarthy wrote early in his writing career based on the mill enterprise of William Gregg and his sons. William Gregg and The Graniteville Manufacturing Company actually did exist in the 1800s, and the story itself was inspired by a few footnotes in William Gregg's biography. This is the story of the Robert McAvoy, an employee who quits his job at the mill and leaves town. He returns on the occasion of his mother's passing, and while he's in the neighborhood, he decides to shoot James Gregg, the current owner of the mill. Yeah, I just spoiled the ending of the book, but who cares?
Seriously, I never thought I'd say 'who cares' about characters in a Cormac McCarthy book, but no one in The Gardener's Son ever says or does anything for a reason - I guess I'd have to make an exception for the doctor who amputates Robert's leg, he would totally die if the infection in his leg spread. It's a McCarthy thing for characters not to have blatant and obvious motives, but good lord, the characters in this book are just difficult to figure out. Perhaps that's because this is a screenplay and a screenwriter can assume a lot of the work of conveying a character's thoughts will be done by the actors. In fact, one really annoying thing that keeps happening in this book is that a character will say something to another character, that character will understand the implication and the reader is just left to wonder what just happened
I suppose a lot of the criticisms of The Gardener's Son can be hand-waved by saying 'it's just a screenplay', but The Sunset Limited was also just a script and yet it was absolutely engaging and impossible to put down. It also had more detailed stage directions, maybe that's what was missing
In terms of content, this was actually more of a one star for me, but I've been struggling a bit to keep up with my reading challenge and this book, at 96 pages long with not a lot of words, was an easy boost, so I'll give it a point for that
This doesn't change the fact that I still believe Cormac McCarthy is one of the great novelists of our time - why should a screenplay change my opinion of his novels? That being said, there's really nothing to see here, just move along