I've just finished reading "The Road." I thought it was a good book. But I was thinking about his grammar the entire way through. I liked it in a sense. But I kept thinking: What if this wasn't written by McCarthy? In my opinion, it probably would have never even made it to publishers' desk. What about you? If you saw his use of sparse grammar -- done by an unknown name -- would you enjoy it as much as you had?
Yes. The name on the cover doesn't influence my feelings about the book or how it's written. I can't assume that a book is good based on the author's reputation alone. After all, great writers publish mediocre works as well as masterpieces. I disagree. Sure, it probably would have been harder to publish, but lots of writers, especially contemporary writers, write using a sparse style.
I hadn't heard of Cormac McCarthy until I read the book. Loved it so much I gobbled it down in one long sitting. While the style wasn't what I was used to I just jumped into it, accepted it and got on with it. The dialoge between father and son was just perfect and I bawled... Crap movie though
Grammar isn't a perfect construct & the beauty of prose is that you get to break the rules. The name of my website comes from a discussion I was having about prescriptivism:
He also used that style before he became reputable. He became reputable using it. If it wasn't him? It would work if the writer had as much talent for telling a story.
