Child of God
Description
In the desolate hill country of East Tennessee, Lester Ballard—a violent, dispossessed man falsely accused of rape—is released from jail to wander a landscape as barren and unforgiving as his own fractured psyche. McCarthy's unflinching portrait follows this solitary, introverted backwoodsman as he descends into increasingly dark and disturbing behavior, stripped of family, home, and any meaningful connection to society. Haunted by his dispossession and driven by base impulses, Ballard becomes a figure of profound alienation and moral degradation in a world that has cast him out. This brutal, spare novel stands as one of McCarthy's most challenging works, a meditation on violence, desperation, and the human capacity for depravity when civilization's restraints are removed. McCarthy's prose cuts like flint, rendering a bleak vision of survival and the abyss that opens when a man has nothing left to lose.
Available Editions
paperback
Vintage Books
Published Jan 1, 1993
197 pages
ISBN: 9780679728740
paperback
Picador
Published Jan 1, 2011
185 pages
ISBN: 9781447212478
Reviews
1 rating
Community Reviews(1)
Lester Ballard, a young outcast, is falsely accused of rape and, when released from jail, returns to the hills of East Tennessee where his violent, disturbed nature and sexual perversions fester, aiding his descent into unspeakably sordid crimes. As the story progresses, we witness Ballard's ever-growing isolation from society; we witness cruelty, moral degradation, and sexual deviancy as the main themes within the narrative. A dark, brooding book, aided by Cormac McCarthy's unique writing style makes <i><a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Child-God-Cormac-McCarthy/9780330510950/?a_aid=theprivategirl" target="new">Child of God</a></i> well worth reading if you enjoy challenging literary fiction.
Details
First Published
1973
Language
eng
Content Warnings
Content and trigger warnings for Child of God by Cormac McCarthy.