Forum / It took McLaughlin 20 years to get his debut novel published...

eamon byrne
Aug 14, 06:51am

Read that interesting review of yours Matt. Odd, the 3 short excerpts you quote would be the 3 things that would MOST attract me to reading that book. The signature there is pure McCarthy -- a thing you probably intuit since you show the picture of Viggi Mortenson. I'm going to check out Bearskin on amazon.

Mathew Paust
Aug 14, 09:08am

I had the sense McLaughlin was feeling McCarthy's influence, Eamon, and I believe good editing might have smoothed out some of the rough edges. I'm curious to know what you think of Bearskin.

eamon byrne
Aug 15, 10:01pm

I just read chapter 1. As partial proof that very short excerpts (ie in your original review) can be misleading, it seems from this long enough section that the novel is written in a fairly standard manner, with easily digestible paragraphs and sentences of medium length, lots of standard "like" comparisons, and a heavy reliance on scenic description. Probably might well be ok as a story, which would be a whole different justification for it, but certainly the opening is no way as arresting as it could be. Judging is largely an intuitive thing, and I don't, for example, detect an original stylistic tone, which for me is a strong incentive to read on. The one thing that struck me was a strange word: extispicy. Nonetheless, I thank you for pointing me to a writer I'm not aware of. That is one way good writing is disseminated - words written, one might say, by word of mouth. Cheers.