The Orchid Keeper review

To say that Cormac McCarthy’s first novel The Orchard Keeper is an interesting novel, is to say the least. It is also a so-called literary novel and could be quite hard going for some. It encompasses the lives of several interlinked characters who each serve to show us the life and wildness of the southern west of America presumably between the two world wars.

The basic plot involves a bootlegger and alcohol smuggler fostering a young boy whose father he has killed previously, unknown to either of them. Cormac’s prose is really beautiful in it’s descriptions of nature and events, and he seems to pull his vocabulary out of everywhere, and some words he used weren’t even in my Oxford dictionary. Yet there are many parts of the novel which are bleak and almost empty, with conversations and seemingly important events being very plainly told. In fact, when referring to characters and in conversations Cormac uses vernacular language, which seems in stark contrast to the elaboration of the other parts of the text. He doesn't use quotation marks, and likes to start a paragraph with little context, and lets the sentence lead you into the next scene.

There are many sudden events, sudden violence, and these are intertwined with dreamlike observations of different characters. I just don’t know what other way to put it. There was one section describing the boy John Wesley Rattner ‘s time spent sleeping on the porch of his house after his father’s disappearance, his wanders at night after his mother has gone to sleep and observations of the world around him, which was so calm and beautiful that I immediately reread it, and later went back to read it again.

In all honesty I read this book out of curiosity, having no idea it was McCarthy’s first book, or having any idea what it would be like. I recommend this novel. But be ready for something a little more sublime, subtle and careful than your typical impulse read.