A random book from the collection looks interesting: Correction by Thomas Bernhard.
Described as “a mesmerising, claustrophobic novel about obsession, genius and the impossibility of perfection. Structured in two enormous, uninterrupted blocks of prose, it follows an unnamed narrator reconstructing the life of his dead friend Roithamer, before becoming absorbed in his manuscripts. Sentences spiral, repeat and contradict themselves, creating the sensation of being trapped inside an endlessly turning mind. Roithamer is modelled partly on Ludwig Wittgenstein, particularly his intellectual austerity and obsessive pursuit of perfection, reflected in his design of an extraordinary house for his sister. A darkly comic, exhilarating and exhausting masterpiece.”
Bernhard is fantastic. I would recommend Woodcutters as a starting point. It's shorter, funnier, and less oppressive than Correction (which is his magnum opus). Apparently he was at least somewhat as unhinged in real life as in his writing. He was notorious for either refusing literary prizes or showing up at the ceremony just to rant and insult the audience, which he wrote about in a memoir titled My Prizes. He was a big influence on W.G. Sebald, another great German language writer (my personal favorite) who makes an appearance in McCarthy's library.
McCarthy made his famous dismissal of Proust and Henry James in the NYT in 1992 and in the Oprah interview, on the grounds those writers didn't deal with deep issues of life and death. But from all that has been revealed about his personal library, including this Bernhard book, one wonders if that was a put-on.
I like Bernhard. I also recommend The Lime Works and wittgenstein’s nephew if you like correction. I found Bernhard through Thomas Ligotti. For Ligotti I recommend teatro grottesco and if you want to dive off the deep end the conspiracy against the human race.
I never made the connection between Bernhard and Ligotti, but it makes sense. Both seem to have been heavily influenced by Schopenhauer, the granddaddy of pessimism.
Side question: how grim is the the Road? I've been meaning to pick it up because I love No Country but I've heard that the Road is just bleaker than bleak.
Not all that grim, at least compared to some of his others. Grimmer than No Country for Old Men, less so than Blood Meridian or Outer Dark. There is at least one very grim scene, though, and maybe some others I'm not thinking of at the moment. Been a pretty long time since I read it.
Grimness aside, I'd rank it simpler, at the level of reading difficulty, than some of his others.
It's a good book but personally, I don't think it's among his best.
Our son was about 3yo when I read it, and I couldn't put it down. To me, it is a story of the father standing by his son no matter what. A really immersive reading experience. A father-son exchange that touched me:
What is it?
Nothing. I had a bad dream.
What did you dream about?
Nothing.
Are you okay?
No.
He put his arms around him and held him. It's okay, he said.
I was crying. But you didnt wake up.
I'm sorry. I was just so tired.
I meant in the dream.
I do think McCarthy's own family life felt, well, "controversial" in the light of all this. But, at least he didn't seem to justify himself about it. IIRC, on not paying child support after divorce, he has said "with what?" in one of his rare interviews.
I'm not a native English speaker, and I've had writerly ambitions myself, and his style feels like magic to me (hey, an accidental cormac-y polysyndeton here!). But... yeah. Thinking about the way many poets "manage" to put art before family life (obviously, they can't help it) is a good reflection of me myself being just a layperson.
But he is a true master, obviously. Could be that I liked "All The Pretty Horses" even more than "The Road". Unfortunately "Suttree" isn't translated to my language yet.
> Could be that I liked "All The Pretty Horses" even more than "The Road".
Have you read the others in the Border Trilogy, The Crossing and Cities of the Plain? If you liked Pretty Horses, you'll probably like them, too. Pretty sure I've read all three twice.
It is bleaker than bleak but incredibly rewarding. Unlike, say, Child of God where you are wallowing in filth, in The Road there is humanity and warmth and love it’s just the environment that is hostile.
It's a very grim book, but it's also fundamentally about the goodness of people. The setting and the plot are bleak, but its outlook is, in a way, hopeful.
At least that's my takeaway. If someone else found it purely depressing I would understand, but I feel differently.
Bleaker than bleak is an accurate description but it actually ends on what I would consider to be a hopeful note, a moment of true kindness. Worth the read.
A random book from the collection looks interesting: Correction by Thomas Bernhard.
Described as “a mesmerising, claustrophobic novel about obsession, genius and the impossibility of perfection. Structured in two enormous, uninterrupted blocks of prose, it follows an unnamed narrator reconstructing the life of his dead friend Roithamer, before becoming absorbed in his manuscripts. Sentences spiral, repeat and contradict themselves, creating the sensation of being trapped inside an endlessly turning mind. Roithamer is modelled partly on Ludwig Wittgenstein, particularly his intellectual austerity and obsessive pursuit of perfection, reflected in his design of an extraordinary house for his sister. A darkly comic, exhilarating and exhausting masterpiece.”
Adding to my ‘want to read’ list now …
A review: https://proletarianpolyglot.substack.com/p/correction-by-tho...
Bernhard is fantastic. I would recommend Woodcutters as a starting point. It's shorter, funnier, and less oppressive than Correction (which is his magnum opus). Apparently he was at least somewhat as unhinged in real life as in his writing. He was notorious for either refusing literary prizes or showing up at the ceremony just to rant and insult the audience, which he wrote about in a memoir titled My Prizes. He was a big influence on W.G. Sebald, another great German language writer (my personal favorite) who makes an appearance in McCarthy's library.
McCarthy made his famous dismissal of Proust and Henry James in the NYT in 1992 and in the Oprah interview, on the grounds those writers didn't deal with deep issues of life and death. But from all that has been revealed about his personal library, including this Bernhard book, one wonders if that was a put-on.
From Amazon:
Customers say
Customers have mixed reactions to the book's content, with one finding it mesmerizing while another describes it as excruciatingly tedious.
!
I like Bernhard. I also recommend The Lime Works and wittgenstein’s nephew if you like correction. I found Bernhard through Thomas Ligotti. For Ligotti I recommend teatro grottesco and if you want to dive off the deep end the conspiracy against the human race.
I never made the connection between Bernhard and Ligotti, but it makes sense. Both seem to have been heavily influenced by Schopenhauer, the granddaddy of pessimism.
Related:
Cormac McCarthy's personal library - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45444694 - Oct 2025 (138 comments)
Happy to see how many titles by Gore Vidal he owned - and annotated.
> 10 Days to Faster Reading
He's got so many books, did it work?
Side question: how grim is the the Road? I've been meaning to pick it up because I love No Country but I've heard that the Road is just bleaker than bleak.
> how grim is the the Road?
Not all that grim, at least compared to some of his others. Grimmer than No Country for Old Men, less so than Blood Meridian or Outer Dark. There is at least one very grim scene, though, and maybe some others I'm not thinking of at the moment. Been a pretty long time since I read it.
Grimness aside, I'd rank it simpler, at the level of reading difficulty, than some of his others.
It's a good book but personally, I don't think it's among his best.
I read it when it came out in a day or two.
Then I tried to read it again a few years later but my boy was about that age and I could not put myself through what reading it was taking out of me.
Our son was about 3yo when I read it, and I couldn't put it down. To me, it is a story of the father standing by his son no matter what. A really immersive reading experience. A father-son exchange that touched me:
I do think McCarthy's own family life felt, well, "controversial" in the light of all this. But, at least he didn't seem to justify himself about it. IIRC, on not paying child support after divorce, he has said "with what?" in one of his rare interviews.I'm not a native English speaker, and I've had writerly ambitions myself, and his style feels like magic to me (hey, an accidental cormac-y polysyndeton here!). But... yeah. Thinking about the way many poets "manage" to put art before family life (obviously, they can't help it) is a good reflection of me myself being just a layperson.
But he is a true master, obviously. Could be that I liked "All The Pretty Horses" even more than "The Road". Unfortunately "Suttree" isn't translated to my language yet.
> Could be that I liked "All The Pretty Horses" even more than "The Road".
Have you read the others in the Border Trilogy, The Crossing and Cities of the Plain? If you liked Pretty Horses, you'll probably like them, too. Pretty sure I've read all three twice.
Very bleak, but nonetheless a must read. Wouldn't recommend reading it during a depressive episode or existential crisis though.
Personally, the opposite: suddenly my own world looks bright and inviting by comparison.
It is bleaker than bleak but incredibly rewarding. Unlike, say, Child of God where you are wallowing in filth, in The Road there is humanity and warmth and love it’s just the environment that is hostile.
I didn't like No Country for old men. It started off great but lost me toward the middle.
The Road, however, is a classic.
It's a very grim book, but it's also fundamentally about the goodness of people. The setting and the plot are bleak, but its outlook is, in a way, hopeful.
At least that's my takeaway. If someone else found it purely depressing I would understand, but I feel differently.
Not that grim. As a dad it brought me to tears. It’s so good.
Bleaker than bleak is an accurate description but it actually ends on what I would consider to be a hopeful note, a moment of true kindness. Worth the read.
It’s been a decade but from what I remember, it is very dark. It was my first McCarthy book and have been hooked since.
As grim as it gets, with rare glimpses of light.