The Wrong Reader's Guide to Cormac McCarthy

THE WRONG READER'S GUIDE TO CORMAC McCARTHY: ALL THE PRETTY HORSES, is Josyph's book-length tribute to one of the most popular and enduring novels by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Cormac McCarthy. From his provocative, wide-ranging reflection on the impact and importance of McCarthy's dramatic poetry in prose in a chapter called "How Cormac McCarthy Saved Civilization," to close readings of seemingly small moments in the novel that for Josyph open up worlds of discovery, Josyph changes our perspective on this seminal work from one of our greatest living authors. In a work of erudition and joy, Josyph invites noted McCarthy scholars such as Marty Priola and Wesley Morgan, as well as McCarthy's award-winning Portuguese translator, Paolo Faria, to enrich his investigations with their expertise and insights. How is the hero of the novel, John Grady Cole, like Shakespeare's Hamlet? Is it possible that he's more a Comanche than a cowboy? Can a sympathetic protagonist be equally heroic and self-destructive? Exactly what sort of town is John Grady leaving, and what Fate does he hope to find in Mexico? What does it herald in McCarthy that bells ring without any source? How do film and audio renderings of McCarthy contribute to understanding his text? In answering such questions, Josyph raises others as he—a native New Yorker—walks his great city and also travels to significant locations in the novel, such as San Angelo, Texas, where the story begins. As with his two previous books on McCarthy, ADVENTURES IN READING CORMAC McCARTHY, and CORMAC McCARTHY'S HOUSE: READING McCARTHY WITHOUT WALLS, this first in a series of unconventional guides to McCarthy's work is what Josyph calls a "reader's memoir." THE WRONG READER'S GUIDE TO CORMAC McCARTHY: ALL THE PRETTY HORSES is literary criticism as devotional text, as play, and as self-discovery.