Lee Hunts

I just finished reading No Country for Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy. I also watched the movie adaptation of the book made by the Coen brothers, and I think the movie did an excellent job adapting the story for what it was, with some interesting choices made. I'll touch upon the movie in places, though this review will primarily be about the book. This book is most aptly described by relating to you the author; it is rather similar to Stephen King—just mention the author, and you can get the general idea and sell the book on that alone. McCarthy is known for his neo-western/anti-western novels that are characterized by their violence, their brutal realism, and distinctive prose style. The neo-western/anti-western description alone is seemingly contradictory, yet I've found that it describes this book perfectly (I'm not the one who came up with it). Along a similar train of thought, McCarthy's books have been described as both highly nihilistic and highly moralistic by peo...

I just finished reading Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes. This is an epistolary novel written about a retarded man; he receives an experimental surgery that increases his intellectual capacity. The story is a character study, exploring how the main character, Charlie Gordon, develops emotionally in response. He deals with the problem of increased awareness of how people treat him, alienation from others as he outpaces all those around him, sexual frustration, and troubling memories that come to mind. I enjoyed the book, finding its devastating ending to be particularly hard-hitting—even terrifying. Overall (No Spoilers) This book was published all the way back in 1966. This fact alone is a fascinating detail, that makes me view it in an entirely different light. There were some funny quirks about the story, showing that it was a product of its time, like the legitimacy of Rorschach tests, psychanalysis, and other more subtle things that influence how the story proceeds, like the f...