Larry McMurtry vs. Cormac McCarthy

[texas_ex2000]

The Battle of the Putlizer Prize Winning Macs. Who do you got? Despite a shared love of the themes explored in a "Western" novel, these two could not stylistically be more different. These aren't exhaustive lists but just my thoughts on their highlights.

Larry McMurtry - Deep characters with reality like empathy:

Lonesome Dove - Pulitzer Prize 1986, TV adaptation received multiple Emmys

The Last Picture Show - My favorite book, Oscar winning film adaptation deemed "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant" by Congress, selected for preservation in the National Film Registry, #95 on the American Film Institute's 100 greatest American films of all time

Horseman, Pass By - Debut novel, movie adaptation (Hud staring Paul Newman) won multiple Oscars

Terms of Endearment - Acclaimed novel, movie adaptation won 5 Oscars including Best Picture

Brokeback Mountain - McMurtry won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay

I also think sequels Moving On, The Evening Star, and Comanche Moon are superb



Cormac McCarthy - Artistic prose and profound piercing examination of the human condition:

The Road - Pulitzer Prize 2006

All The Pretty Horses - My favorite McCarthy novel, National Book Award 1992

No Country for Old Men - Amazing novel, Oscar for Best Picture and probably one of the best movies in the last 10 years

Blood Meridian - Time Magazine 100 Greatest English Language Novels, Harold Bloom's greatest novels of the 20th Century

 

[Mistadobalina]

Cormac is the greatest writer of the last 100 years. One of only 4 writers whos entire catalog I've got.

Cormac
Haruki Murakami
Charles Bukowski
HST

 

[texas_ex2000]

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[UT wildcatter]

I'll go with McMurtry since he's an original Texan and Cormac only lived here about ten years

 

[pasotex]

William Faulkner managed to write a few good stories in the last 100 years. He also managed to receive a Pulitzer Prize. I take McCarthy over McMurty for sheer writing ability although I like McMurty's stories better.

 

[Whitman Mayo]

I have only read No Country by Cormac. Are all of his books written in the same style? I dont think there was a sentence longer than 5 words in the book. Everything was: The sheriff got in his truck. The sheriff turned on his radio. He heard something off in the distance. The sheriff drove off. over and over.

Larry > cormac.

 

[Bevo Incognito]

As far as I know, no Cormac McCarthey book has ever been made into a movie that exposed Cybil Shepard's breasts.

Therefore ....

 

[Austintxusa]

I've read all of McCarthy's books and most of McMurtry. I couldn't get through the Berrybender Narratives. However, since I read Horseman Pass By, The Last Picture Show and the Danny Deck books while I was young, it had more of an impact on me that McCarthy's stuff which I read in the last few years.

I'd have to put Blood Meridian and Lonesome Dove as equal yet much different. Both top my list of Texas books.

And I was as touched by The Road as I was by Terms of Endearment.

McMurtry was much more prolific and as a result some of his work is poor but he has more "masterpieces" than McCarthy.

 

[texas_ex2000]

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[TornACL]

McCarthy's style is great! Just because he uses short bursts, for effect, does not mean it's simple writing.

I love these lines:

He did close his eyes. He closed his eyes and he turned his head and he raised one hand to fend away what could not be fended away. Chigurh shot him in the face. Everything that Wells had ever known or thought or loved drained slowly down the wall behind him. His mother’s face, his First Communion, women he had known…. He lay half headless on the bed with his arms outflung, most of his right hand missing.

And the last page of The Road is pure beauty.

 

[Whitman Mayo]

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[CanaTigers]

I give the nod to McMurtry for his catalog of success. But for me McCarthy is a much better writer and goes for quality over quantity. With time he might even surpass McMurtry in number of awards and successful movie adaptations as well.

 

[mynametaken]

McMurtry writes great stories. McCarthy writes poetry. Two completely different styles. They both should be enjoyed on their own merits.

 

[buckhorn]

McCarthy

I prefer broader themes.

Blood Meridian is as good as any book I have ever read.

 

[Wild Bill]

McCarthy,

but I also question "the geatest in the last 100 years"
In addition to those authors already listed, what about Jack London?

 

[Endust]

McMurtry has come the closest depicting what growing up in small town Texas is really like. Linklater's "Dazed and Confused" is a close second.

Thus, Larry M.

 

[MaduroUTMB]

You do realize that Hemingway was a 20th century writer, correct?

 

[BigboyDan]

The opening prose to Cormac McCarthy's Suttree (1979) is absolutly beautiful. And the Border Trilogy is simply devastating to those of us who can personally identify with the setting and events portrayed.

Reading his books hurt.