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Jan 04, 2012

Chris rated it:

A truly intriguing and beautifully depicted but ultimately unsatisfying debut from McCarthy which arrived draped in keen, vibrant colours, with lush, fragrant descriptions of the gorgeous Tennessee landscape, earthy watercolour portraits of its taciturn characters, and the leisured pace of an Appalachian highway that tunnels through the overhanging, rainbow-spiked autumnal woods, emerging every now and then, sun-dappled and redolent of honey and cider, into the fresh breezes of open space—and ye More...

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Aug 27, 2007

Casey rated it:

Blame it on Faulkner. You can't write a novel nowadays about the South—good country people, grotesque deviants, backwoods hollers, and wide, copper-colored rivers—without being labeled Faulkner-esque, your work derivative of Faulkner, your themes and language descended from a rich Faulknerian lineage. It's some wonder more southern writers aren't trying to flee from under daddy F's looming shadow, the evoked comparison being just as much of a complaint half the time as it is a compliment. Yet I More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Dec 21, 2007

Jeff rated it:

I recently summarized two Uncle Tupelo songs as condensed Cormac McCarthy novels. This novel is more like an expanded Silver Jews track ("Smith and Jones Forever," I'm looking in your direction).

There are a lot of descriptions of body odor in this book. Most everyone so far seems like the kind of old coot you encounter when you get to Fleet Farm a little too early on Saturday morning. Or maybe this is more like "American Graffiti" moved from Milwaukee to West Vir More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 08, 2011

Jeremy added it

As a lot of people have noticed, this partakes very heavily of the southern literary tradition. It IS a Faulknerian book, but you sort of have to cede those comparisons by default because, as his first published work, it isn't yet fully representative of the rich, dark style he really makes his own a few novels later. But even an OK Mccarthy novel is often descriptively gorgeous enough to make you not care too much. And you can definitely see flashes here of what he would go on to develop in Blo More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 18, 2008

Tamara rated it:

There's no question McCarthy is a brilliant prose writer. There are times when I stop in reading to marvel at his stunning verbal combinations. However the subject matter of this book just didn't appeal to me and I found the density of description overwhelming to the plot and actual characters. I knew exactly what everything looked like, smelled like, moved like, sounded like, etc, but for a good chunk of it i wouldn't have been able to tell you what was actually going on and how it related to a More...

0 comments like (8 people liked it)

Dec 22, 2010

Michele rated it:

Wheee! I finally finished this book! Which means that I've only started. Now I have a ton of questions... obviously I'll need to do several re-reads. I'm sorry now that I waited so long to read it... I really, truly wasn't interested in reading it at all at first. It really is a fast read, and I might have had time to do an immediate second reading before feeling threatened by my (teetering) to-be-read pile--or at least a closer read (though I don't know that I was ready for a closer read the fi More...

8 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 19, 2009

Nick rated it:

Mr. McCarthy, sir, you are taking over my life. Even the music I'm listening to...I can't get enough of that slide guitar twang. I've fallen for those outlaw country bands (even the new guys like Tim Barry or Ben Nichols). And once again, sir, you did not let me down with your first novel the Orchard Keeper.

Sure, it was a little confusing with the shifting narration, denoted with italics, that sometimes takes place in the middle of a conversation. I sometimes wasn't quite sure wh More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 26, 2007

Dustin rated it:

A difficult introduction to McCarthy to be sure, but this book shows the origins of the narrative construction he would later perfect, with gaps in time and space filled in as the sections move along. One must be on one's toes to keep characters and plotlines straight, and as the book approaches its end the long indulgent sections begin to break down into plot "tie-ups" but overall a beautiful picture of the Tennessee mountain life and of the morally corrupted.

The attentio More...

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Jan 30, 2011

Ben rated it:

The Orchard Keeper was Cormac McCarthy’s first novel. I have enjoyed several of his books, and this happens to be the last one of his that I read. First of all this one isn’t so bloody. That said, there is still a bit of darkness to his tale like all of his other books. What I love are his prose and spot on descriptions of the most fantastic aspects of life. Sometimes I felt like I was right there in the forest, or under the roof listening to the rain, or watching water of the stream. I am a suc More...

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Nov 22, 2009

Magick rated it:

I did more reading in a Webster's than I did in this actual book.

If this book had been written differently, or even by a different author, it would have been monumentally better.

Prepare yourself with a dictionary and a thesaurus hoping that either one of them will have a word that you'll be looking for.
You're going to need to machete your way through the dense foliage of grandiose verbosity being pawned off as poetic language.

Using big words that no More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 30, 2011

Nate rated it:

While reading this book I had to constantly remind myself that everyone has to start somewhere. I admire McCarthy in many ways, having read three of his publications and bits and pieces of most everything else. But if I were to give the reader a disclaimer it is: Everyone must start somewhere.

The novel centers around three independent characters all living in the same rural Tennessee hill community. It's filled with elegaic descriptions of nature, concrete actions of the characters More...

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Feb 02, 2011

Maciek rated it:

This is a difficult book to rate because it's very inconsistent. The plot follows three different people - A boy, a man and and old feller - but these characters are shown from a distance. McCarthy shows their actions, but never lets the reader into their minds, so we never really know them. He relies more on the setting than on the plot and the characters, and to his credit there are some marvelous descriptions of nature and surroundings written in deliberately constructed, sparse prose (in thi More...

10 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 25, 2007

Billy rated it:

Incredibly well written, though meandering and tiresome. There are passages of great beauty here and melancholy and a variety of wonderful descriptions and it's definitely interesting to see McCarthy for the first time working out many of the themes he'd continue to explore more thoroughly in later works. Unfortunately, it all feels more like a showcase for technique than anything else.

Maybe in a year I'll give it another read and perhaps it'll have a greater impact on me.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 21, 2009

Edwin rated it:

McCarthy's first novel and about as good a debut as one can write, other than Catch-22 (and Heller had a good deal of help in developing his characters and scenarios). I was impressed to see vintage Cormac detail in his debut and really became engrossed by some of the dialogue (especially by Uncle Ather). The passage on the intelligence of cats, the description of the turkey vulture being "flown" in the breeze on a string like a living kite, and the final paragraph (about how no one More...

5 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 26, 2009

Michael rated it:

The Orchard Keeper was Cormac McCarthy's first book, originally published back in 1965. It was interesting reading this one closely after reading his most recent book, The Road.

(I read a very early copy of the book, with the original blurbs on the jacket. Random House was very sure of the book's popularity and importance, enough so to suggest McCarthy was a writer who would inevitably be recognized as a master at some point. They clearly had no idea it would take about 30 years More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 10, 2010

Matt rated it:

I was a little worried going into this book because it is very common for a writer’s first novel to not be a good representation of that person’s entire body of work. This is often true with even the writers who go on to be canonized legends, as more often than not it takes them about two or three books to really get their literary sea legs.

While The Orchard Keeper isn’t quite at the level of Blood Meridian or Suttree, I’m still convinced that Cormac McCarthy sprang from the womb cl More...

7 comments like (15 people liked it)

Aug 17, 2010

Luke rated it:

It's hard not to be awed by what Cormac McCarthy does. His writing is so rich and deeply descriptive, there's no choice but to admire it. And the fact that this is his first novel just makes me want to quit as a writer.

In this book, he paints vast landscapes of a forgotten deep South, so lush and evocative. The characters, though, function more as fixtures of the landscape, as if he's describing a postcard and the humans in the picture are just as important as the trees and the sky More...

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Oct 02, 2007

Sundry rated it:

I enjoyed Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses, so decided to start with his first novel and work my way forward. Aarg. This was the only book I had easy access to on the plane to Indiana or I wouldn’t have gotten halfway through it.

I am a pretty astute reader, I think, but I couldn’t keep track of the characters and couldn’t find anyone or thing that I liked enough to keep going. Too bad.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 08, 2008

Abailart rated it:

McCarthy's fisrt novel, the third of his I have read. All the signs are there! Writing without borders, dimensional shifts, thick, dreamlike. The Old Testament prophetic tone, the lyrical imagery as if somehow nature is expressing itself, and somehow too the sense that in each filmic detail, each auditory beat, you've been there to know it. Of people who were not very much in a sort of boggy, muddy, place that wasn't too much - like rubbish, always there, always, but never lasting - noticed, rem More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 30, 2009

J.R. rated it:

This was McCarthy’s first novel and already the signs of his talent were present. But, be warned, it isn’t an easy novel to read and enjoy, despite its poetic beauty.

The novel is not so much about its three main characters as it is about time and place and the threat of change. Uncle Arthur Ownby, the old man; Marion Sylder, the bootlegger, and John Wesley Rattner, the boy, interact but—as McCarthy infers—their destiny is “myth, legend, dust” while the land, the place, endures.
More...

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Mar 05, 2010

Shinara rated it:

To read this book is to peer through a lattice fence, snatching at a fragmented scene and trying to make a whole. One should not feel foolish reading a 5 page scene six times; arranging the pieces so they interlock lends a sense of investment and triumph. McCarthy employees the reader's wit and perseverance, much like what is asked of his characters. His sentences are incredibly melodious and poetic, intended for thoughtful chewing. Every word is a skin surrounding tart fruit surrounding a core More...

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Aug 17, 2011

Patrick rated it:

Beautifully written but a little too jumbled for me. I got lost in the well described landscape and could not follow the story or characters. The story jumps around between three different characters but often does so without warning or introduction. Several times I would read a couple pages before I could get my bearings on what was happening to whom. I think the story is beside to point though, the main story is man/technology vs nature. The last 40 pages or so really made the point clear and More...

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Jul 24, 2009

Lee rated it:

I didn't enjoy reading this book. The narration seemed to jump around so much that it was difficult for me to really get involved with the story. In addition, the story line wasn't something that interested me all that much, because it felt like there was too much, or maybe not enough, going on.

Summary - there were some backwoods folks that did some things. Some sat around and chatted with each other about not much of anything, some tried to keep away from most everyone else, an More...

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Apr 27, 2010

Amy rated it:

I LOVE this author, and unfortunately, there is always a disappointment in every highly impressive collection. And this was such a huge disappointment, I stopped reading it about three quarters the way through. It's a about how a hitchhiker was murdered by this man giving him a ride (and I was honestly confused as to why he killed him) and the teenage son the murdered man left behind. The son and his father's killer meet up and become friends, unknowing of how they are connected. I would lov More...

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Sep 21, 2011

James rated it:

What you most notice about Cormac McCarthy's writing is how beautifully he writes. Not long ago I read a critical essay singing the values of more declarative sentences and less ornate description to create a simpler, more beautiful prose. McCarthy, though he writes declarative sentences, was one of those singled out as an example of someone who writes poorly. His fictional style, it was said, is too muscular and therefore so extravagantly expressed that it distracts from the story and charac More...

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Nov 25, 2010

Becky rated it:

This was McCarthy’s first published novel and he’s developed quite a lot. I was disappointed. I think he was trying to make his usual point that men are by nature beasts but he overdid the nature thing - the hunting scenes go on and on. He could be writing Faulkner’s The Bear which is almost entirely about hunting. McCarthy was using the broken time-line and it was kind of convoluted but that didn’t really detract. McCarthy’s style is in its foundations stage - he’s got the rhythm but More...

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Jun 29, 2011

Robert rated it:

Recognizing this book was written 45 years ago and may have been among the author's first and may have been considered a very good first try, but it doesn't cut it for a seasoned author and I feel like I was suckered into reading it by the [old?] reviews.

The story line is convoluted and I got the feeling that McCarthy was trying too hard to confuse me as some way of gaining literary kudos. Too many times he avoids using a name or place or other recognizable landmark and only makes a More...

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Aug 29, 2009

Eric rated it:

This is the second McCarthy book I read and for me it was back tracking to his earliest work. After having read The Road (before the movie came out) I wanted to see where his writing has come from. I did hear that this is one of his most lyrical books, but after reading it am not exactly sure what that is supposed to describe. I'm not sure I ever understand what people mean by that when it is used descriptively. I am, however, constantly surprised by his lucid imagination. The events he describe More...

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Nov 25, 2011

Patrdr rated it:

The Orchard Keeper is a dense, rich, interweaving book. McCarthy’s first published novel it surfaced several of the themes of the later works that I’ve read: men and boys in wild spaces; industrialization and urbanization bringing their straight-line grids to this slowly retreating free space; hunting dogs (and wampus cats); old men acting irrationally. Well, I haven’t come across cats in other books yet, but had to throw them in to this list.

The book is set in Tennessee mostly More...

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Jul 11, 2011

McNeil rated it:

Like eating a Sugar Daddy, so delicious, but each bite is always more than I can handle.

I just read this--Jhumpa Lahiri said about her writing: "I like it to be plain. It appeals to me more. There's form and there's function and I have never been a fan of just form. My husband and I always have this argument because we go shopping for furniture and he always looks at chairs that are spectacular and beautiful and unusual, and I never want to get a chair if it isn't comfortable. I More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)