Me and my dogshit opinions are also on Storygraph so feel free to add me there.
<...>rank nonsense about some queer animals.
SPOILERS AHEAD: It can be argued that the racism in this book is not bad 'for its time' but I'm not a fan of that argument.
It may be accurate but whilst we still have widespread racism now it sounds like an excuse. No wonder Gomez gets fed up! That
aside it's still a great adventure book and one of my favourites. The best of the queer animals must be the toxodon, described
as a 10-foot guinea pig. I was thrilled to find out that Conan Doyle didn't invent it. Even on third reading the scene where
Malone nearly gets his head twisted off is oppressively creepy. I'm tempted to pick up some Western adventure books from my yoof.
But he was a harp with only one string, and the note it played was himself.
Liked it but didn't love it, although might have done had I not known the myths beforehand. As it was, I got a little bored
at one point, I would have liked some wild plot twists/deviations from the myths (which no doubt would have pissed off some
readers) or some more complex characterisation. Or perhaps just some new ideas? 'Woman is wronged by society, she finds solace
in nature and becomes a witch' is a heavily used trope in feminist writing for a reason, and while I generally enjoy it, I
would have liked to see something different. A good retelling, but nothing more than that.
The right dreams for a man in peril were dreams of peril and all else was the call of languor and of death.
One thing that grates me here is the pretentious writing style. Yes, improper punctuation, but also chopping
normal-length sentences into two to insert a pause and make it sound deep; also the overly-intentional stuffing of poetic
expressions into 'special' paragraphs rather than having a natural distribution. The father comes across as a psychopath
in his relationship to his wife and then proceeds to drag his child through torture for the duration of the book. That's
just grim and edge-lordy as hell. Also his quasi-religious fanaticism and leaning into the abstract idea of 'goodness'
rather than actually doing good. I liked the detailed and lovingly crafted descriptions of camping, but I guess McCarthy
thought they'd be too dull without some random atrocities, and had no imagination for anything else. That's what TV show
writers do too, but usually in season 5 once they've run out of ideas. Ugh.