The Orchard Keeper

Cormac McCarthy

Save:

Find on Amazon

impoverished landscapes

poetic writing style

dreamlike narrative

loss and self discovery

interconnected characters

slow meandering pacing

mythology influence

historical fiction debut

coming of age elements

nature's influence on humans

The Orchard Keeper by Cormac McCarthy is a novel set in rural Tennessee during the 1930s and 40s, focusing on characters like bootlegger Marion Sylder, 14-year-old John Wesley Rattner, and Uncle Arther Ownby. The story revolves around themes of loss, friendship, and the collision of different ways of life in a haunting and eternal landscape. McCarthy's writing style in this early work is described as dense, poetic, and dreamlike, with a focus on rendering landscapes and the influence of nature on human actions.

Characters:

The characters are complex representations of different life stages and themes but lack extensive development.

Writing/Prose:

The writing is dense and descriptive, focusing on landscapes with a minimalist and sometimes poetic style that might come across as pretentious.

Plot/Storyline:

The plot is straightforward and interweaves themes of mythology, loss, and self-discovery through the lives of interconnected characters.

Setting:

The setting is rural eastern Tennessee during the 1930s and 1940s, characterized by impoverished landscapes and a strong connection to nature.

Pacing:

The pacing is slow and meandering, focusing more on atmosphere than on plot progression, resulting in a disjointed narrative.

For some time now the road had been deserted, white and scorching yet, though the sun was already reddening the western sky. He walked along slowly in the dust, stopping from time to time and hobbling...

Notes:

The Orchard Keeper is Cormac McCarthy's first novel, published in 1965.

It won the William Faulkner Foundation Award for Notable First Novel in 1966.

The story is set in impoverished eastern Tennessee during the 1930s and 1940s, around the time of Prohibition.

The book features themes of loss, myth, and the transition from past to future.

It follows the lives of three characters representing different generations: John Wesley Rattner, Marion Sylder, and Ather Ownby.

McCarthy's writing style in this novel is often described as poetic and descriptive, focusing on language and atmosphere rather than plot.

Nature plays a significant role in the story, with a strong emphasis on the natural environment surrounding the characters.

The novel is noted for its minimal dialogue, particularly among female characters, highlighting their isolation.

McCarthy's prose has been compared to Faulkner, especially in its heavy description and narrative style.

The story lacks the narrative drive found in McCarthy's later works, leading to a more disjointed perception among readers.

Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings

Content warnings include themes of violence, death, and existential despair, which may be intense for some readers.

From The Publisher:

An American classic, The Orchard Keeper is the first novel by one of America's finest, most celebrated novelists. Set is a small, remote community in rural Tennessee in the years between the two world wars, it tells of John Wesley Rattner, a young boy, and Marion Sylder, an outlaw and bootlegger who, unbeknownst to either of them, has killed the boy's father. Together with Rattner's Uncle Ather, who belongs to a former age in his communion with nature and his stoic independence, they enact a drama that seems born of the land itself. All three are heroes of an intense and compelling celebration of values lost to time and industrialization.

Ratings (6)

Loved It (3)
Liked It (1)
It Was OK (2)

Reader Stats (13):

Read It (7)
Currently Reading (1)
Want To Read (5)

1 comment(s)

grithic

It Was OK

8 months

Pretty tough to finish. It was unpolished, with some moments of brilliance that only hints of what Cormac had in store for the reader in his later work, but you can tell he hadn't quite figured out his style yet. Incredibly fragmented, which is a common thing for his later books as well, but this lacked the cohesion that he grew to master.

What can you read after
The Orchard Keeper?

See the list (100 books)

About the Author:

Cormac McCarthy is an American novelist, screenwriter, and playwright who has won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. A number of his works have been adapted into films, including All the Pretty…

Meet New Books is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a way for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to products and services on amazon.com and its subsidiaries.
When you click the Amazon link and make a purchase, we may receive a small commision, at no cost to you.