From critically reading the corpus of American novelist and playwright Cormac McCarthy, Cooper (English, Monmouth College, Illinois) makes the case that idealism, heroism and redemption
obliquely infuse the seeming nihilism of such novels as The Orchard Keeper (1965), All the Pretty Horses (1992), and The Road (2006). And despite criticism of his characters as amoral and
lacking an inner voice, she argues that his detached narrative style evokes empathy for their flawed morality in the face of despair ("a theology of suffering"), and is consistent with
linguistic pragmatism. Annotation 穢2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
