Stella Maris

ludd reviewed Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy

Review of 'Stella Maris' on 'Storygraph'

4 stars

i feel conflicted about this one. there is awe, admiration at the audacity of 190 pages of dialogue, the craft mastery. how he can develop a character so fully through the confines of that structure. then there is the tedium, the wandering attention. the sense that he is simply echoing and recycling the same themes from 'the passenger' in a different voice - mathematics, existence, reality, unrequited love. i know it's a companion piece and it gives us a specific character portrait, but i'm humbly unconvinced it needed all of that space to do it. there is some movement to the story - <spoiler> the slow momentum of what we know will be her eventual suicide </spoiler> - but it is not enough as a substitute for plot. i guess great writing and philosophical explication can only go so far for me.

Geoff reviewed Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy

Review of 'Stella Maris' on 'Storygraph'

5 stars

Is this the first time McCarthy has given us a female protagonist? I’m not sure. He’s certainly given us brilliant women—think the Dueña in All The Pretty Horses. But if I’m remembering right, every interesting woman he has written has served some story-purpose. She is an object of affection. She is a tool of exposition. While she may be deeply imagined, and even complex, we do not enter into her the way we do McCarthy’s male protagonists.

(Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge Cormac McCarthy fan. But this is a weakness.)

This is what makes Stella Maris so special. Finally, we get to see McCarthy bring us deep into the inner life of a woman. All the classic McCarthyisms are here: the language, the philosophy and science, the oppressive doubt.

This is a sad story about a remarkable woman brought down by her own brilliance. I see in …

Is this the first time McCarthy has given us a female protagonist? I’m not sure. He’s certainly given us brilliant women—think the Dueña in All The Pretty Horses. But if I’m remembering right, every interesting woman he has written has served some story-purpose. She is an object of affection. She is a tool of exposition. While she may be deeply imagined, and even complex, we do not enter into her the way we do McCarthy’s male protagonists.

(Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge Cormac McCarthy fan. But this is a weakness.)

This is what makes Stella Maris so special. Finally, we get to see McCarthy bring us deep into the inner life of a woman. All the classic McCarthyisms are here: the language, the philosophy and science, the oppressive doubt.

This is a sad story about a remarkable woman brought down by her own brilliance. I see in her a person who wants to believe in something tangible. But who, when she picks that thing up, finds only paper and ash. Her yearning and her doubt are haunting and familiar. And the mental illness that is at the root of all this, well, you can’t help but turn that question inward.
It is a brilliant sad powerful work of imagination, unencumbered by traditional plot and made better for it. McCarthy, at 90-something, has earned the right to say just exactly what he wants to say, and I’m so glad he put it in the voice of this brilliant woman.

PanaX reviewed Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy

Review of 'Stella Maris' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Certainly not as riveting as The Passenger. It's simply a dialectic journey between a traumatized woman and her psychologist in the mental ward. There is lots of interesting scientific philosophy; specifically regarding mathematics and mathematians.

Jim Brown reviewed Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy

When We Cease to Understand the World, but a novel

No rating

If you liked Labatut's When We Cease to Understand the World, then you'll like this.

I can't imagine the amount of research into mathematics and physics that McCarthy had to do in order to write both this and The Passenger.

A final note: There is significant overlap in the worldview of Alicia and No Country For Old Men's Anton Chigurh, which really has me wondering about the worldview of Cormac McCarthy...because that worldview is pretty bleak.

t o d d w a r n e r reviewed Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy

a brilliant complement to The Passenger

5 stars

Literary and very cerebral and 100% dialogue. A brilliant complementary novel to The Passenger that explores genius and the big questions of life, meaning, and purpose. The real genius here is McCarthy. A story only this author could pull off.

UPDATE: I can't stop thinking about this book. I changed my review from 4.0 to 4.75. it may be a 5-star review in another month of musing. It is just so good.

jsatk@sfba.club reviewed Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy

Review of 'Stella Maris (The Passenger, #2)' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Hugely enhances The Passenger. I maybe enjoyed this more. I certainly found this less frustrating. Some of this was over my head but it’ll be over nearly everyone’s head. That’s the point.

Still not my favorite Cormac at all. But definitely well made and worth a read for fans or people who like philosophy and math.