Cormac McCarthy, The Pulitzer Prize For Fiction

Speaking of books, it is worth noting that the Pulitzer committee last week announced it awards. For fiction, the best book of the year was Cormac McCarthy's, "The Road". For what it is worth, I agree. It is the finest novel I read last year.

The Times's summary of the novel says it well: "The famously reclusive Mr. McCarthy, 73, won for his devastating chronicle of a father and son walking alone across a post-apocalyptic America, cold, dark and strewn with corpses and ash. In her review in The New York Times,, Janet Maslin wrote, “ ‘The Road’ would be pure misery if not for its stunning, savage beauty.” It is Mr. McCarthy’s 10th novel." It is a dark, but very moving meditation on a possible future we should do everything in our power to avoid and the universal bonds of fathers and sons.

McCarthy's prior novel, "No Country For Old Men", has been made into a film by Joel and Ethan Coen. The story, reminiscent of their first movie, "Blood Simple", is about a chase across the southwest by a older sheriff, a drug mob enforcer, and a psychopathic bounty hunter, looking for a poor shnook who came upon a pile of money and drugs in the desert. The movie is set to open late this year and is one I am very much looking forward to.

(Photo by Derek Shapton)