Cormac McCarthy

After reading "The Road" Cormac pretty much went straight into my top 5 favourite authors. As well as being an awesome story, the prose are outstanding - not that I am claiming to be a literary critic, but I know the difference between a writing style that adds to the story and, say, Dan Brown: "Five months ago, the kaleidoscope of power had been shaken, and Aringarosa was still reeling from the blow".

I wanted to quote some of McCarthy's work for quick reference:

So what is the way of raising a child?

At a young age, said the judge, they should be put in a pit with wild dogs. They should be set to puzzle out from their proper clues the one of three doors that does not harbor wild lions. They should be made to run naked in the desert until...

Hold now, said Tobin. The question was put in all earnestness.

And the answer, said the judge. If God had meant to intervene in the degeneracy of mankind would he not have done so by now? Wolves cull themselves, man. What other creature could?

He also has quite an awesome turn of phrase - I am currently overusing "besotted bedlamites" to describe the denizens of Glasgow.

By dark the streets were filled with besotted bedlamites lurching and cursing and ringing the curchbells with pistol balls in a godless charivari, until the priest emerged bearing before him the crucified Christ and exhorting them with fragments of Latin...

Right, I am off to read some more...