Child of God

De: Cormac McCarthy

Narrado por: Tom Stechschulte

In this taut, chilling audiobook, Lester Ballard - a violent, dispossessed man falsely accused of rape - haunts the hill country of East Tennessee when he is released from jail. While telling his story, Cormac McCarthy depicts the most sordid aspects of life with dignity, humor, and characteristic lyrical brilliance.

©1973 Cormac McCarthy (P)2012 Recorded Books

A remarkable admixture of horror and beauty.

With his short novella, Child of God, Cormac McCarthy again proves his writing worthy of incision in the Western Canon. Like blind Tiriseus, his vision is frighteningly clear and unsparing. He is cursed with sight free of illusions, and shows us the world with spare and exquisite prose.
Hard to take, hard to put down, and definitely not a bedtime story.

Be there

My favorite author. so love immerse myself in the characters. I think others are better though.

As good McCarthy as it gets

Dark, gritty, violent and brilliant as always. If you’re a McCarthy fan, you won’t be disappointed.

Great

It’s was not what i thought but very interesting. Read for a book club. Probably not something I would normally read.

A glimpse into future McCarthy

Evil incarnate. People underground. The river. Sexual perversion. Faulkner, Jung, Doestevsky etc influences are obvious even here. A great book for someone to cut their teeth on McCarthy. Lester Ballard ranks with judge Holden and Anton Chigur in McCarthy’s most despicable characters

The absolute worst of humanity… and that’s just the beginning!

Wow, how or why could someone write a book about a man like Lester Ballard? What is there to say about a man without an ounce of decency in his genetic make up or God given soul? The answer… plenty!

Cormac seems to be fascinated by the root of evil in mankind, or perhaps just in horrors of evil itself. And in Child of God… he does a great job of personifying the evil of man in Lester Ballard. An outcast of society, who in turn, decides to completely cast out the laws of not only society, but God himself. The story goes about how you’d except from there… but it doesn’t, it’s even worse!

As usual the story is well written with all the trademarks that have made McCarthy a treasure of our time. The vivid descriptions, the almost poetic adoration to the words themself, and… the harrowing dissection and descriptions of the absolute worst in human nature.

I always find it fascinating that in a time where gore and sadistic violence is glorified. When abominations like Leatherface, Hannibal Lecter, and Michael Myers are hailed and adored with cult icon status. You still have readers who “love this kind of stuff” that will trash writings like this as too vile and “unnecessary”. To each their own I suppose. A book like this is obviously not for everyone, and quite possibly SHOULDN’T BE for anyone. But the point he was making is crystal clear in my eyes. And that’s where the real fear and grotesqueness of a story like this stems from. Not a single, horrific atrocity in this book hasn’t been committed by a human, not some glorified monster, multiple times throughout history. Are they created or manifested and does it really matter? Because the reality is, they are here and. Walk among us.

Jesus

Cormac once again paints a portrait of believable absurd humanity. A perverse creature left alone to his own devices.

the story

liked everything, speaker, story. full of suspense. it reminded me of down home tales, spoken via fire light.

Disturbing, but engrossing

Story line is disturbing, but the prose dense & excellent. Narration was perfect. I have listened to several of Cormac McCarthy's books and enjoyed them. I had missed this & happened on it through seeing it on sale.

Meet Lester

That was freaky as freaky gets and I really liked the story and the telling of it.