The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy: A Review

I realized in rewatching this video that I said several times that the companion novel to McCarthy's _The Passenger_ was titled "Stella Mara" the actual title is _Stella Maris_

[rbailey]

Read both books over the past couple of weeks. I like some of McCarthy's books, especially 'The Road' and 'Blood Meridian'.

However, I do not find these two new books to be of the same caliber. McCarthy writes in such a heavy-handed style, with symbolism that borders on the painful. He seems desperate to show off [especially in 'Stella Maris'] with gimmicks and theories that do not make the books more interesting or profound. And honestly, for all the talk of the heavy philosophy he brings to this book, I can't find anything in that area that is particularly new, or insights that haven't been expressed already, and more beautifully by others. I would like to know, specifically, what are some of the 'Great Questions' and 'Startling Insights' readers will find in these books. For all of his fascination with mathematics and physics and quantum mechanics, what concrete ideas or insights does he bring forth?

McCarthy seems determined to inflict vague philosophical discussions on us via the steady streams of other-wise meaningless characters in the book. These discussions are pitched at about the level which you would find with a group of grad students sharing a bottle of wine under a shade tree. His writing is like a rock band playing a great song, with some genuinely beautiful lyrical lines, that gets caught up in these long, eternity-defying and ultimately uninteresting instrumental solos, till you find yourself asking "Dang, I’ll grant the guy plays a mean guitar, but what happened to the song they were playing?"

And of course, if it's a McCarthy novel, we have to suffer with yet another of his insufferable dream scenes, contemplating the infinite. What a cheap contrivance!

[timkjazz]

Sorry, disagree, although not as great as masterpieces Blood Meridian, The Road, Suttree, Outer Dark, Child of God and All the Pretty Horses, The Passenger and Stella Maris are, taken as a whole, an indelible postmodern work on the idea of loneliness and self-annihilation in a world discontinuous with what we like to think of is reality. Bobby is a passenger lost in time ever since the suicide of his sister who he is/was in love with, the extraordinary Alicia, beautiful beyond compare, more intelligent than Bobby and most of the world's denizens, herself a passenger in her own schizoid mind to the passengers she carries like the Thalidomide Kid, who she converses with like old friends. Like the works of William Gaddis, heavy on dialogue, The Passenger engages on an intellectual level where there are no easy answers to the questions of existence and time and space, where quantum mechanics and its "answers" are theoretical asides to the principles of quantum physics and the duality of what can't be observed. Who's to say whether the conversations Alicia has with her passengers are, on a certain level, any less real than the conversations Bobby has with his smattering of passengers in his life, his friends, acquaintances and government(?) agents.The perception of reality is different for everyone, just examine the witnesses at a crime scene and the varied accounts they swear are the truth. McCarthy's novels touch on these concepts and leave it up to each individual reader to form their own opinion on the malleable nature of existence and reality and what "truth" is out there to be deciphered.

[joniheisenberg]

Thank you for your review. I read an excerpt of “Stella Maris” (a conversation between the sister and a therapist) which was featured on NPR. I was intrigued by the following lines: “The Church never tires of talking about sinners.The saved hardly get a mention.” I do enjoy dialogue heavy novels and am a fan of his previous works. Will be adding to my list. 📚

[olphartus]

Exactly! I thought I was the only one. I, too, am a fan but this mess made little sense to me. I finally finished it today. I kept thinking that he's gonna brilliantly tie all this together at the end, but no! It just kept getting more ridiculous. It's like McCarthy just threw every unpublished scene he'd ever written, every idea he's gotten from his physics companions in NM, and every note he'd ever written on an envelope into a swan song of some kind. He must think that he's about to die and wanted every last little scribble on the record. Maybe his publisher wanted to cash in one last time? Who knows?

He's a man's man; he's a very smart man, I get it; but, I already knew that by reading his much more entertaining and coherent earlier works. The dialogues between the characters, as you noted, were just plain ridiculous. Not only did you have to put up with his usual literary affectations of keeping up with who's talking; but, the conversations, for the most part, were like no conversations that have ever occurred on this planet. The worst example was the long conversation about quantum mechanics and the physicists who researched all that stuff. He was just name dropping IMO. The most tedious for me was at the end when Western was talking to the denizens of the Greek Island (?) or wherever he was (while living in a windmill for God's sake!). There were some lines that made zero sense on any level. As far as those ideas expressed there in that section about death and the universe, it seemed to be not unlike H.P. Lovecraft's vision of the howling void. If I want to hear that, I'll read the Lovecraft because he used actual plots.

Finally I found someone knowledgeable who agrees with me. I'm just a nobody, everyday Joe reader. I feel better now. Thank you.

[nolsenepping]

Thank you! I finished the novel and felt exactly how you described. I read other reviews that raved about this book and I felt like I missed something.

This was a great review/analysis:)

[bitsoflit]

I just bought this because I saw some people say some strange things about it. I'm still looking forward to it. I stopped 5 minutes in when you started to get into your issues. I'll watch this after I read it.

[barbarajohnson]

Well, I finished it yesterday. I tend to agree with you. A pastiche of tropes.many great passages, no doubt but... I have come to the observation that the problem of "composition" has been thrown aside, in painting, music, and here in the literary arts, as we race into flatland. All you need is marketing.
I read Moby Dick last year, and Don Quixote, so now my bench marks are so high I don't know where to go. Thanks for this. I did order Stella Maris, so I will march through it, and be back for your comments!

[cormyat]

I've come to suspect some of the people Bobby has lunch (and long conversations) with are his own hallucinations. Especially the PI, a character who makes no sense to me. If not hallucinatory, Bobby has this Gary Stu quality of being befriended by everyone he meets.

[jacobcoppini]

John Sheddan, in my opinion, is a poor imitation of Judge Holden from Blood Meridian. I was initially intrigued by the novel, but as time passed, very little of it aged well in my memory. There are great moments, but it is not a great novel in itself. Subtract the physics and mathematics from the story, and you're left with the same old McCarthian point of view that was portrayed more effectively in his other novels. I am also weary of the pseudo-Faulkner incest trope.

That said, the parallel Mccarthy drew between Auschwitz and Hiroshima is interesting.

[nvccru]

I just finished the book. For me, this novel works. I’ll let my grandchildren decide 59 years from now whether it is great or not. It is different from his other novels. It requires work. A little knowledge of the story of physics is essential since the issues of physics help structure the novel on many levels. The long conversations about science, the meaning of numbers and mathematics, for me, were fascinating. Those are some of the key questions of the 20th century. And, there are some very funny jokes in this book. Did you hear the one about Mickey Mouse filing for a divorce?

[mattmarkus]

Sounds fantastic! I love great dialogue and symbolism and well researched knowledge over plot. Thanks for the review. I can't wait for a manly man character too (as it appears to be quite an important part of the novel from all the reviews I read).

[pointseven]

Thanks for detailing what you don't like about McCarthy: Manly-men battling the elements, rambling philosophical speculation, nihilism, visions, revelations, etc., and not much in the way of plot. Because those are the very qualities that I enjoy about him. Did you ever see his remarkable interview with Oprah Winfrey? (Remarkable becuase he almost never does interviews.) It's very amusing. He gets peeved when talking about Marcel Proust, who most people would say was one of his betters. "This guy Proust, you ever read him?... He writes about LOVE, but he doesn't write about DEATH!... What GOOD is a book if it's not about DEATH?!?!?!?" (I'm paraphrasing him.) Very funny.

And speaking of funny, I do believe McCarthy is not entirely without humor. It's certainly not his strong suit, just as it's certainly true that he does men much better than he does women. Still, in "No Country for Old Men, " there are humorous moments between Ed Tom and Ellis, Ed Tom and Loretta, and Llewelyn and Carla Jean.

I see where you said that you like Elmore Leonard. So do I. But I think that's interesting since Leonard's whole deal was trickly plots, and to make them happen he had to sacrifice character development entirely. His characters only exist as chess pieces to make the story machinery work, and as people they are about as nuanced as Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam.

[BrandonsBookshelf]

I am so excited to get this. Love your fairness to McCarthy. So many people seem to just hate him, and I do not get that. I have not read this book yet, so I will be curious to see how my opinion aligns with your comments here.

[scottmcintosh]

Thank you! I just finished The Passenger and had many of the same thoughts as you’ve expressed. I’m glad I’m not alone. I haven’t finished Stella Maris, but I’m not hopeful it will change my mind.

[stuartmoore]

LOL fun review. Made me think of Atlas Shrugged and the annoying characters that go on and on for pages espousing the author's philosophy. I was moderately looking forward to these two books but maybe it would be best to read some of his others that I have not yet gotten to.

[BillPorter]

Thanks! Your review has kept me from feeling alone in my confusion and disappointment. I've loved several of his novels but doubt I'll be able to love this one.

[CAPyA]

McCarthy has no sense of humor? Someone did a piss poor job of reading Suttree, it seems.

[merlinfive]

Just finished the book this morning and my feeling align mostly with yours. As a McCarthy fan, I really wanted to enjoy it, but found it not a particularly engaging read, other than isolated passages of wonderful prose. I will try to increase my appreciation based on some insightful comments and analysis below from Stacy Garvey and timkjazz. Still going to read Stella Maris, but trying to temper my expectations.

[tectorgorch]

I enjoyed reading The Passenger but it didn't add up to anything. The early airplane sequence is so intriguing that it was unforgivable for CMcC to just abandon that set-up completely.

[SpringboardThought]

Dang what a weird one. I’ve got it on hold at the library. Do I waaaant to read it though… and if I do, probably I’d want to read them both back to back and treat it as one novel I guess. Huurrmm