Outer Dark (1968) by Cormac McCarthy

 Book Review

Outer Dark (1968)

by Cormac McCarthy

  You can divide Cormac McCarthy's bibliography into three periods.  First period- Southern Gothic with this book, his first book, The Orchard Keeper (1965) and the two books after this one, Child of God (1973) and Suttree (1979).  After that you've got the southwestern period- starting with Blood Meridian in 1985 and the Border Trilogy.   Last period is The Road, No Country For Old Men and the two books published in 2022- The Passenger and Stella Maris, call it his modern/post-modern period. 

   Anyone who reads The Orchard Keeper can see the  strong Faulknerian influence but McCarthy was already moving away from the obscure modernism of Faulknerian prose into something resembling the mythic/biblical idiom that would eventually propel him to stardom.  Outer Dark, in many ways recalls Blood Meridian- which at this point was three novels and twenty years down the road, both in terms of the language and directly in certain plot points.  Its funny, because I read Notes on Blood Meridian last month and the author didn't point either of these correspondences out in his book.

  First, there is a critical scene that takes place at a ferry crossing, directly resembling the ferry crossing action in Blood Meridian.  Second, there is an extensive scene involving the herding of hogs which go plummeting off a cliff in a scene of manic disorder- which, is something that happens in Blood Meridian as well, just not with hogs.  It suggests that the inspiration for incidents in Blood Meridian may have come from McCarthy's own books. 

    There's also a glimmering of the character of the Judge in the form of a murderous Reverend- it's a sketchy resemblance to be sure, but there are similarities.