Cormac McCarthy is one of the greatest living American authors, winner of the National Book Award for All the Pretty Horses, and, just recently the Pulitzer Prize for The Road. His masterpiece Blood Meridian is one of the most intensely beautiful books ever written.
He has never been interviewed on television. He has only given two print interviews in his enitre 40 year career.
He finally breaks his silence, and agrees to be interviewed . . . by OPRAH!
Even though I knew better, I taped the show. I love his writing, I was fascinated to see where this brutal, visious, yet beautiful world view came from. I was hoping for some insight into his new novel - was the boy Jesus, come again to judge the living and the dead? - was the crazy wanderer a prophet sent by God to show them the way? Or some insight into his process - what kind of research did you do with respect to Blood Meridian? What made you want to tell that story?
Instead, we got questions like, “why do you like to hang out at the Santa Fe Institute?”, and “Is it true you used to be really, really poor?”
Over all, I am hugely disappointed at the wasted opportunity. Cormac made some interesting comments, in particular about how the idea for The Road came on a dark night in Santa Fe, and that it would never have been written but for his 8 year old son. But at 20 minutes it was much too short, and she wasted 15 of those minutes talking about inanities.
Maybe he agreed to the interview because he knew (a) he’d sell several hundred thousand more units as a result, and (b) she’d throw only softballs, making the whole business easier to handle…?
How did this interview compare with Oprah’s other author interviews? This is the first one I’ve seen. It wasn’t very deep, that’s for sure.
Oprah kept repeating that it was his first TV interview ever. Maybe she was afraid that he’d bolt if she went too deep, and she was more concerned with keeping him comfortable. He sure was comfortable, slouching in that chair, head on his hand, quietly smiling all through it.
Or maybe he should have been interviewed by a writer or a critic.
Sounds interesting, I wonder if the interview is on the internets?
Having Oprah interview the great man is actually a pretty good idea IMO. Too many literary critic interviews turn into awful reverential pseud-fests, where the author either buys in and looks like a twat, (Can you comment on the semantic flux inherent to ‘Suttree’, Mr McCarthy? That is an excellent question, Julian, I’m glad you asked me it); or gets very defensive and doesn’t open up. Oprah could get some insight I would have thought. Saying that, I have never actually seen Oprah on the TV, just heard about her as an institution.
By a curious happenstance (the cat decided that if he was up at 1 AM, everyone needed to be up), I saw a rerun of the episode on which the interview ran a couple of nights ago. I couldn’t decide who was more uncomfortable during the interview: McCarthy or Oprah. McCarthy looked relaxed enough, I suppose, but the interview definitely took him out of his element. Oprah’s pre- and post-commercial breaks touting that this was McCarthy’s first TV interview were, collectively, as long as McCarthy’s first TV interview.
I imagine McCarthy is still as surprised as any of us that Oprah chose one of his books (albeit one of his least violent) to join the ranks of her book club.
There’s a column by Troy Patterson on slate.com that addresses the interview – pretty interesting reading. Patterson, by the way, writes in the column that McCarthy’s “last really good book was Blood Meridian.” Take that for what you will.
I’ve never finished one of McCarthy’s books because I hate his prose style, but I’m told he spins a good yarn. I wish he’d been on “Fresh Air” on NPR; Terry Gross asks much better questions.
Yes, I had trouble getting into the one I tried, I think it was The Crossing. But I am intrigued anytime someone mentions a “masterpiece”; Blood Meridian, eh?
As bloody and violent as anything you’ll ever read (largely based on historical fact). It is definitely not for everyone. But yes, IMHO, a masterpiece.
The Road is actaully the first novel I read in years. The premise sounded like it was written just for me (Road Warrior and Water World are two movies I love). To say it’s unlike Road Warrior is an understatment but I did finish it in one sitting. Anything post-apocalyptic fasinates me.
As far as Oprah goes, I really dislike the woman, but McCarthy really does owe it to her. Her book club logo on a book jacket is like a liceanse to print money. Thanks to her he can now afford that island I’m sure he’d like to escape to.
She could have at least asked him what happened in the shitter at the end of Blood Meridian (I doubt she’s actually ever read anything he’s written, though).
Roger Ebert writes about the Coen brothers adaptation here. (It’s not a review but he telegraphs that he loved it).
It’s also been getting a lot of good buzz on AICN, particularly for Javier Bardem as Chigurrh (the most fascinating character in the book). I’m looking forward to this one.
No country for old men is the closest Cormac has come to putting out a cold turd, IMHO. Really stands out like a sore thumb in his body of work. That being said, it could make a great film, looking forward to it. I never did get round to watching all the pretty horses, it looked like one of those films that got a bit of a panning on release, but was actually not bad?