Stella Maris

by Cormac McCarthy

ePub, 145 pages

German language

Published Nov. 21, 2022 by Rowohlt Verlag.

ISBN:: 978-3-644-01558-6

(14 reviews)

1972, Black River Falls, Wisconsin: Alicia Western, zwanzig Jahre alt, lässt sich mit vierzigtausend Dollar in einer Plastiktüte und einem manifesten Todeswunsch in die Psychiatrie einweisen. Die Diagnose der genialen jungen Mathematikerin und virtuosen Violinistin: paranoide Schizophrenie. Über ihren Bruder Bobby spricht sie nicht. Stattdessen denkt sie über Wahnsinn nach, über das menschliche Beharren auf einer gemeinsamen Welterfahrung, über ihre Kindheit, in der ihre Großmutter um sie fürchtete - oder sie fürchtete? Alicias Denken kreist um die Schnittstellen zwischen Physik, Philosophie, Kunst, um das Wesen der Sprache. Und sie ringt mit ihren selbstgerufenen Geistern, grotesken Chimären, die nur sie sehen und hören kann. Die Protokolle der Gespräche mit ihrem Psychiater zeigen ein Genie, das an der Unüberwindbarkeit der Erkenntnisgrenzen wahnsinnig wird, weder im Reich des Spirituellen noch in einer unmöglichen Liebe Erlösung findet und unsere Vorstellungen von Gott, Wahrheit und Existenz radikal infrage stellt.

5 editions

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.

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.