Child of God, Cormac McCarthySet in mountainous Sevier County, Tennessee, in the 1960's, Child of God tells the story of Lester Ballard, a dispossessed, violent man whom the narrator describes as "a child of God much like yourself perhaps." Ballard's life is a disastrous attempt to exist outside the social order. Successively deprived of parents and homes and with few other ties, Ballard descends literally and figuratively to the level of a cave-dweller as he falls into crime and degradation.The...

There is something inherently wrong with Lester Ballard. As he skulks through the backwoods of Eastern Tennessee, a hunting rifle is his only companion. Ballard's skewed thinking, awkward ways, and repugnant proclivities render him unfit to be around other people. Darkly disturbing, fascinating and repellent. Another walk in the dark with Cormac McCarthy. This is his territory.

How far can one book go? How objectionable can the subject matter be? What hellish level can a lead character descend to and still garner some sympathy from readers?Well, take a southern degenerate raised in an abysmal state of affairs and trace his downward spiral into serial murder and necrophilia… that’s what McCarthy did in ‘Child of God’. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. This novel is a descent into the darkness that can befall an uneducated and amoral man when left to his own device...

I have no words to describe this, except to say the title should have been Spawn of Satan. The horrifying thing about this novel is that I know there are real people like this walking around among us. It is a testament to McCarthy's talent that I kept reading till the end. Not one I will ever read again.

film-of-the-book update :None other than James (I'm handsome and I can do anything) Franco directed a version of this last year & I just saw it; and - damn, James, I hate to say this but - it was really good! And faithful! Really great performance by Scott Haze as Lester. You probably shouldn't watch it while you eat your tea nor should you be watching it with any elderly relatives but if you know what the story is about you probably would not do that. Unless you want to kill them off with shock...

Great day in the morning! He is making me homesick! Just the speech patterns which McCarthy nails. It reminded me of River's Edge although the movie seems mild by comparison. Maybe, I'm just grateful that it used an inflatable doll. Dennis Hopper as Feck and Daniel Roebuck as Samson "John" Tollet from River's Edge (1987)

HE SEEZ DEAD PEOPLE. THEN FUCKS THEM.

Creeeeepy!!! I couldn’t help but think of Ed Gein while reading this book. Yuck!! Very morbidly entertaining. Lol.

”The dumpkeeper had spawned nine daughters and named them out of an old medical dictionary gleaned from the rubbish he picked. Uretha, Cerebella, Hernia Sue.They moved like cats and like cats in heat attracted surrounding swains to their midden until the old man used to go out at night and fire a shotgun at random just to clear the air. He couldn’t tell which was the oldest or what age and he didn’t know whether they should go out with boys or not. Like cats they sensed his lack of resolution. T...

‘Were there darker provinces of night he would have found them.’There is a quote by David Foster Wallace that ‘good fiction's job is to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.’ Cormac McCarthy’s trim third novel, Child of God, is an optimal example of this sentiment, as it manages to provide the counterparts of the both comfortable and disturbed elements within the reader by offering them an unflinching portrait of baseness and demanding reaction. The short novel chronicles the hellis...

“He is small, unclean, unshaven. He moves in the dry chaff among the dust and slats of sunlight with a constrained truculence. Saxon and Celtic bloods. A child of God much like yourself perhaps.”If someone were crazed enough to breed a descendant of Fenton Breece with that of Granville Sutter from William Gay’s Twilight, I’m pretty sure you’d end up with Lester Ballard. Except McCarthy’s Ballard was hatched more than three decades before Gay’s book. Still, it’s kind of fun to ponder. But before

“He did not know how hawks mated but he knew that all things fought.”― Cormac McCarthy, Child of GodAnd HE has sent me here?*Look, I've read a lot (ok all) of Cormac McCarthy and this is not your mother's McCarthy. I think this novel was the final pupa-state before McCarthy emerged as THE absolute dark monster of American fiction and heir to Faulkner's title of ambassador to the strange malevolence of America's soul. It wasn't as absurdly redeeming as Suttree or as coldly beautiful as Blood Meri...

Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/3.5 StarsAllow me to introduce you to my new boyfriend, Lester Ballard . . . . Ha! Just kidding. There’s apparently even a limit to how weird I like ‘em. However, just in case you think Mitchell and I are slipping, please note that this title was added to the TBR once we discovered it was about a necrophile, which is basically our literary equivalent to . . . . As I said before, the story here is about a man named Lester Ballar...

Well, that will certainly not be making my top 10 list this year or ever, but Cormac McCarthy is a genius writer who knew what he was doing when he wrote this. It’s not for the faint of heart with some very graphic horrors happening. Lester Ballard is depraved and perverted. Just know that if you’re squeamish, you might want to try something else by McCarthy. The Road is fantastic!

'Child of God' is the third McCarthy book that I have read over the past few weeks. I usually try to stay away from any kind of review or description of a book just prior to reading, but I had recently come across the fact that this was supposed to be McCarthy's darkest work.Boy, I'll say.This book will make you feel like you need a long shower afterwards. I believe that this was the same affect that Ellis was going for in 'American Psycho', but I think that McCarthy out-Batemaned him on this on...

“Were there darker provinces of night he would have found them.” It feels a bit strange to rave about a book that is this twisted and disturbing, but Cormac McCarthy is a true master at depicting the darkest sides of human nature with the most beautiful of poetry and captivating methods of storytelling. This book contains many moments that are incredibly hard to read due to the level of sheer repulsion they stir within us. However, in true McCarthy form, this book is one that contains the gift

Lester Ballard is one sick puppy.This is so sick you almost hate to like it. But it is masterfully written and you cannot deny the skill and genius behind it. It is Cormac McCarthy. Don't read it with a full stomach. Enough said.

An intense and downright repulsive character study. Beautiful writing as always from McCarthy.