03-14-2025, 07:14 AM
Lately I've noticed a touch of early onset senility, not only in myself, but also in some of my friends and neighbors. I usually try to assuage my anxieties in that direction by cracking a good book and getting distracted by some scintillating prosage. Anyways, I always thought "BLOOD MERIDIAN" was Cormac McCarthy's best effort, but I dug out and started re-reading his "SUTTREE
" and I'm not sure it's not even better. It's damned funny and full of vigor, grand elocution, and pungent irony. It reminds me a little of Nelson Algren or Frank Norris, but uses a much more baroque style seasoned with real down South dialog. It is full of novel use of language and I had to cool the pages of my dictionary from flipping the pages too fast. Some words he uses I could not even find. The upshot of all this is that by noodle was so stimulated that I swear I'm at least five phlogiston units smarter than I was last week before I started reading it, and my urinary tract seems to be working a little better. It's good medicine, try it. SvH