(Note: Faster reading and heavier postings are not related to Judith Martin’s unkind comments on my reviews, but rather because the novel is really good)
There are many similarities between Gay and McCarthy in writing style, but there are some in the building of characters and the characters themselves.
The young Fleming reminds me of Suttree; there is a quiet acceptance, a loneness, a self sufficiency and quiet intelligence about these men. Fleming, soon after his father, Boyd, takes off to find his wife, goes out into the woods and because of hunger and exhaustion, comes close to Suttree’s own venture into the wilds to find himself. Or to escape, or to return to the comfort zone away from others that only raw nature offers them.
Like Suttree, Fleming appears to be the one stable and dependable force within the story, surrounded by a strange cast of characters that drift around him in all sorts of tension building episodes that interweave and grow tight like vines in attempts to ground them.
Unlike McCarthy, Gay tells us more about his characters and how they think and feel though still allowing us to judge their actions and interactions for ourselves.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology