On Cormac McCarthy.

Cormac McCarthy is considered one of America's most prestigious writers. His accolades include 10 best-selling books and a screenplay. Two of his novels - All the Pretty Horses and No Country for Old Men - have been made into films, with his latest, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Road, having just been made into a film for a 2009 release.

I own six of his books but I've read only two. I found No Country for Old Men gripping and I thought The Road to be pure poetry. Cormac's turn-of-phrase is succint, poignant and colourful.

There's one thing that I don't like about him, though, and that's his use (or misuse) of punctuation. He doesn't use speech marks, nor does he use semi-colons or apostrophes. He also rarely uses commas - except when absolutely necessary. One of the authors he models himself on is James Joyce, who was renowned for his peculiar writing style which saw little use of punctuation and oft convoluted passages. Cormac is similar to him, with the exception that he writes in short sentences. He usually employs the use of subjectless sentence fragments.

He explains that there is little need for speech marks as it's quite straightfoward which character is speaking. Often, when writing as illiterate characters, he uses phrases such as 'could of' and he often uses double negatives. That's a bit of an unfair comment, though, as most of his novels are Westerns of sorts - with the exception of The Road. I find that said technique of characterising characters with the use of non-standard English is brilliantly effective.

He is often labelled a 'working man's writer' as his characters are often working men facing substantial challanges with regard to the changing circumstances of the times in which his novels are depicted. He says that he finds women very mysterious - even after three marriages - which is why he tends to focus mainly on male characters. I do worry about how his style may affect potential readers who aren't clued-up about punctuation and grammar. He has no obligation to explain his style - because the onus is on the individual - but I worry that some writers may adopt his style for the worse, and may not be able to pull it off in the way Cormac does (through ignorance rather than choice).

I personally could never imagine writing like him as my style is one which is peppered with punctuation - maybe to an excessive degree which is unnecessary. Nevertheless, he's a brilliant author and there are many things to say about both his character and writing style - as well as historical matter about which he writes (such as the trade of Navaho scalps in Mexico in the 1830s - this takes place in the novel 'Blood Meridian'). I find his style riveting and, if he is the exception to the rule, I'm more than happy to entertain his prose with interest and gusto.