NY Observer > Cormac McCarthy http://www.observer.com/taxonomy/term/28428/feed Articles from Observer.com en Charlize Hits The Road With Viggo http://www.observer.com/2008/charlize-hits-road-viggo

Charlize Theron might have to draw on some of her previous Aeon Flux talents to fight the cannibals with Viggo Mortensen in the bigscreen adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's bestselling novel The Road. Her part is small and mostly played in flashback, but Ms. Theron is apparently a big fan of the book and wanted to work with producer Nick Wechsler on the project. They were paired in 2000 for The Yard.  read more »

]]> http://www.observer.com/2008/charlize-hits-road-viggo#comments Arts & Culture Movies Charlize Theron Cormac McCarthy Viggo Mortensen Tue, 15 Jan 2008 13:20:10 -0500 Gillian Reagan 63439 at http://www.observer.com I Am George Jetson http://www.observer.com/node/36809 Meet George Jetson; Jane, his wife.    read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/node/36809#comments Media Apple PowerBook Cormac McCarthy Manhattan The Walt Disney Company Sun, 25 Feb 2007 19:00:00 -0500 Mark Lotto 36809 at http://www.observer.com A White-Line Nightmare, After the End of the World http://www.observer.com/node/39550 It looks like Cormac McCarthy is wasting away.  read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/node/39550#comments Arts & Culture Cormac McCarthy Melville Sun, 08 Oct 2006 20:00:00 -0400 Adam Begley 39550 at http://www.observer.com A Taut, Bloody Thriller, Philosophically Inflected http://www.observer.com/node/51088 No Country for Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy. Alfred A.  read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/node/51088#comments Arts & Culture Cormac McCarthy Cormac McCarthys Harold Bloom Texas Sun, 24 Jul 2005 20:00:00 -0400 Adam Begley 51088 at http://www.observer.com A Taut, Bloody Thriller, Philosophically Inflected http://www.observer.com/node/37339 No Country for Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy. Alfred A. Knopf, 309 pages, $24.95.    read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/node/37339#comments Arts & Culture Cormac McCarthy Harold Bloom Mexico Texas Sun, 24 Jul 2005 20:00:00 -0400 Adam Begley 37339 at http://www.observer.com Lugubrious and Repetitive http://www.observer.com/node/32618
Reviewing Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men in today's New York Times, reviewer Michiko Kakutani laments that the novel's "lugubrious passages...gain ascendency as the book progresses."

And Kakutani knows from ascendant lugubriousness. Six days earlier, the Pulitzer-winning critic labeled John Irving's latest work, Until I Find You, "bloated and lugubrious." Media Mob reader Peter Van Allen writes in to point out the recurring pattern: Besides McCarthy and Irving, Kakutani has applied the "lugubrious" label to Graham Swift, Don DeLillo, Mark Helprin, J.M. Coetzee and many more.

"Who will point out to Kakutani that she's overused 'lugubrious'?" Van Allen writes.

Consider it done. A quick search turns up 41 instances of "lugubrious," "lugubriously," or "lugubriousness" in Kakutani's work--about two a year, on average. At her peak, in 1998, she was using it approximately every two months. Other targets of the term have included Philip Roth, A.S. Byatt, Zola and John Kerry.

Her favorite victim appears to be Tim O'Brien. In 1994, criticizing his Lake of the Woods, Kakutani declared that it "it devolves into a painful collection of portentous clichés reminiscent of his lugubrious 1985 novel, The Nuclear Age." Four years later, she declared that the narrator of O'Brien's Tomcat in Love was "reminiscent of the tedious, long-winded hero of Mr. O'Brien's lugubrious 1985 novel The Nuclear Age." Four more years, and it was Mr. O'Brien's July, July claiming its own "lugubrious."

It's not Kakutani's only lexical rut--nor even her first in the L's. In a widely read 2002 New York magazine piece, Matt Gross noted her overreliance on "limn."

Kakutani also describes those "lugubrious" McCarthy passages as "reminiscent of the most pretentious sections of earlier McCarthy novels." That's the third time she's called something "pretentious" since June 14. --Gabriel Sherman
]]> http://www.observer.com/node/32618#comments Media Cormac McCarthy John Irving Michiko Kakutani Tim O'Brien Mon, 18 Jul 2005 13:47:00 -0400 Observer Staff 32618 at http://www.observer.com DeLillo Pretentious? Stupid? Literary Pugilists Throw Punches http://www.observer.com/node/46395 A Reader's Manifesto: An Attack on the Growing Pretentiousness in AmericanLiterary Prose , by B. R.  read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/node/46395#comments Arts & Culture B.R. Myers Cormac McCarthy Dale Peck Don DeLillo Sun, 25 Aug 2002 20:00:00 -0400 Adam Begley 46395 at http://www.observer.com Burn, Brunch, Burn! http://www.observer.com/node/43804 Increasingly, it seems, New Yorkers try to get out of throwing a New Year's Eve party-yet still rece  read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/node/43804#comments Media Billy Bob Thornton Cliffs Notes Cormac McCarthy Miramax Film Corp. Sun, 24 Dec 2000 19:00:00 -0500 NYO Staff 43804 at http://www.observer.com McCarthy Continues to Dazzle Without Delivering a Big Yarn http://www.observer.com/node/40584 Cities of the Plain , by Cormac McCarthy. Alfred A.  read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/node/40584#comments Arts & Culture Albert Erskine Cormac McCarthy John Banville The Knopf Publishing Group Sun, 31 May 1998 20:00:00 -0400 Michael Coffey 40584 at http://www.observer.com Tom Wolfe's Magnum Opus Is Ready! Farrar Hopes to Make Serial Killing http://www.observer.com/node/40463 For a little over a week now, the most coveted invitation in the Manhattan magazine world has been f  read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/node/40463#comments Anita Leclerc Art Cooper Cormac McCarthy David Granger Mon, 27 Apr 1998 20:00:00 -0400 Warren St. John 40463 at http://www.observer.com