All The Pretty Horses Pages 1-30

Contrary to every book I have ever read in my lifetime, Cormac McCarthy refuses to insert commas or quotation marks. The lack of commas irritates me because I have no idea where to take a breath in the course of his four and five and six lined sentences. There are no emphases in the sentence, just an overwhelming amount details that tend to blur together. His lack of quotation marks do not bother me too much; at least he hits return to show the shift in the character speaking. Another stylistic aspect of the novel is McCarthy's reluctance to address characters by their name. When he switches between stories, which is quite frequent, it is hard to follow who exactly he is talking about in the story. "She brought the coffee." "She came through the lobby about nine oclock."Although they are written relatively close to each other, nether woman is given a name; one can conclude that they are different women. Every male character goes by "he" which causes a lot of confusion and guesswork on the receiving end. While I enjoy reading an author that changes things up a little from the status quo book, some of these stylistic changes are harmful to my interpretation of the novel.