Child of God

Child of God is a disturbing book written brilliantly by Cormac McCarthy. The main character Lester Ballard is a psychopath with homicidal tendencies and a creepy fixation with dead bodies. His necrophilia is an unsettling theme in the book and is not for casual readers. I won’t spoil the outcome of Ballard’s crimes, but I can say that it balances out the gruesome events throughout most of the story. Overall this is another great book by McCarthy that is worth reading if you have the stomach for bizarre sexual fetishes. His beautiful prose and minimalist approach to writing always keeps me engaged. McCarthy’s word usage in Child of God is particularly economical. He doesn’t waste his words and comfortably uses repetition to maintain a steady flow. Here I see where he laid the groundwork for his later books that were very economical and minimalistic. Another example of how versatile McCarthy truly was.

My biggest takeaway from reading Child of God is that it shows how dangerous seemingly ordinary people can be. While this is a cliche used often, I still think it rings true in a world where people who commit crimes and do terrible things rarely stand out from law abiding citizens. Lester Ballard represents a person who was wrongfully convicted of a crime, but isn’t innocent in the true sense. McCarthy blurs the lines between innocence and criminality by creating an environment where people behave in an animalistic way. This book is a psychological analysis of a criminal who suffers from a severe mental disorder while going about his life doing terrible things. The rawness of his behavior made reading the book feel intimate and disturbing. A reflection of how people can behave in our society.

Horrific; a car accident you can never look away from. McCarthy’s poetic words give loft and purpose to this grim fable he winds.

One of the best McCarthy books I’ve read