CHILD OF GOD BOOK REVIEW.

   


 “Good fiction’s job is to comfort the disturbed, and disturb the comfortable.”- David Foster Wallace 

Cormac McCarthy does just that in Child of God in the most Faulnkeresque, clandestine way possible; this book is so dark and real. We follow Lester Ballard (our protagonist), a 27 year old outcast of society in Eastern Tennessee in the 1960’s. The story starts out with the town holding an auction for Ballard’s family property, where upon you come to see that Ballard lives alone, no family and friends. He is the epitome of forlorn. Throughout the pages you come to discover the true disposition that is realism within the mind and actions of Ballard. This is by far the most disturbing book I have ever read to date.  It seems Cormac McCarthy always makes me feel so uncomfortable, and yet, I am drawn to his elegant prose time and again.

Good vs Evil: Philip Zimbardo said, “The line between good and evil is permeable and almost anyone can be induced to cross it when pressured by situational forces.”

This is the case of our protagonist: We have learned that he, as an outcast of society is in need of love, a certain yearning for acceptance. His father committed suicide and Lester - it seems to me - has never fully gotten over the fact he is alone, isolated from his home, family, and inevitably his town of which he is made fun of and rebuked for being the isolate. Of which during these times you begin to feel empathy for a man whose actions and ferocity has predisposed him to be without human connection; outside the definite ardor for the victims that lie at his mercy, he is with none other who breaths the same air as he.

 It is amazing to me that McCarthy can make you feel for this young man in most vulnerable of times through his crisp turn of the pages – the sympathy you wish you didn't have for him.

While following this man Ballard (and McCarthy always does this to me) I oft times found myself questioning my thoughts, actions, and whether I have done anything to cause one to feel like a pariah of my own flesh and blood?

Overall I recommend this book because it will make you feel something; albeit, it wasn't comfortable, I felt awkward, uneasy, sadness, and pure disgust throughout the 197 pages. It is brutally dark, but with the poetic exposition of this book it brings a density to it that I personally love. Just a fair warning once again. This is the darkest book I have ever read. Cormac McCarthy’s Child of God. Four out of Five stars.