A Voice & Vibe Book Review
Outer Dark. Cormac McCarthy. 1968.
Literary fiction. Southern Gothic.
After her brother abandons their newborn in the woods and lies about its death, a desperate young Appalachian woman sets out to find her baby while her guilt-ridden brother flees across a bleak, violent landscape.
Two main characters, a brother and a sister, are narrated in third person limited. Both perspectives are characterized by McCarthy’s famously sparse interiority. Where a novelist today might give readers access to thoughts and feelings that explain their choices and ensuing actions, McCarthy withholds that information almost entirely.
This deliberate narrative distance creates a mysterious, alien vibe that is further elevated by Old Testament biblical allusions and allegorical structures, which are set in a world from which the Christian God seems to have withdrawn. The end result is a dark, surreal world with a decidedly antihuman atmosphere.
Modern readers with little or no previous exposure to the Old Testament are likely to struggle with some of this story’s moral themes. (For those, an annotated version of the story might be advisable—if one exists.) But even without that background, there is enough story here to make it a fascinating read.
AUTHORS – I write short book reviews that focus on voice and vibe. They are useful to querying authors searching for comp titles. There are more like this on my website.
REMINDER – If you follow my reviews, you already know this. I have a policy about reviewing debut novels. Provided I finish them, I always rate debut novels with maximum stars, regardless. When I don’t finish a debut novel, I don’t review it. No exceptions. And I don’t review books I don’t pay full price for.