Comment by marttt

Our son was about 3yo when I read it, and I couldn't put it down. To me, it is a story of the father standing by his son no matter what. A really immersive reading experience. A father-son exchange that touched me:

  What is it?
  Nothing. I had a bad dream. 
  What did you dream about?
  Nothing.
  Are you okay?
  No.
  He put his arms around him and held him. It's okay, he said.
  I was crying. But you didnt wake up.
  I'm sorry. I was just so tired.
  I meant in the dream.

I do think McCarthy's own family life felt, well, "controversial" in the light of all this. But, at least he didn't seem to justify himself about it. IIRC, on not paying child support after divorce, he has said "with what?" in one of his rare interviews.

I'm not a native English speaker, and I've had writerly ambitions myself, and his style feels like magic to me (hey, an accidental cormac-y polysyndeton here!). But... yeah. Thinking about the way many poets "manage" to put art before family life (obviously, they can't help it) is a good reflection of me myself being just a layperson.

But he is a true master, obviously. Could be that I liked "All The Pretty Horses" even more than "The Road". Unfortunately "Suttree" isn't translated to my language yet.