Reviews

The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy

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heyfarahey's review

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challenging mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

thelateauthor's review against another edition

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5.0

10/10 - mind-blown. Not that I had any doubts going in that McCarthy wouldn’t do anything great here, but I wasn’t expecting this level of ambitiousness from him.
The novel is stunning in every way; on the prose level and in all the layers and ideas that work within it.
Parts of it are reminiscent and close to other great American storytellers; Pynchon, DeLillo, Lynch,… but it’s definitely its own construct in the McCarthy-verse that’s blown wide open with this one.
Really looking forward to reading the “sister” novel once it comes out to see what else is out there in this story.

mengel923's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

swivelhead's review against another edition

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challenging dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

jburkhead's review against another edition

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5.0

Alicia: The schizophrenic discussions are conversations with the unconscious.
She’s a mathematical genius. She can’t explain why. She knows math but doesn’t know what math is or where it comes from in the mind. The thalidomide kid and the others can’t communicate fully to her in the same way as Kekule dream supposedly gifted him the structure of a benzene ring.

Bobby: a man growing up in the atomic age. He’s grappling with everything that entails and his own struggles with purpose. He lost his sister and the love of his life. He’s lost, confused, shut off from love, has abandoned science. He can’t live without Alicia and not living means no more Alicia.
There’s something about quantum entanglement here.