Me? I like this style - so it doesn't have quotation marks, so it uses a lot of 'double negatives', like I don't got no pen here teacher . . . but to me, it's the way people would be talking in this story. When you consider exactly where they're at, that's the way they'd be conducting their conversations.
So to me, the style's acceptable. And it works - it works just fine.
I love the conversation Moss has with the young girl he picked up on the highway . . . the humour is sensational. But it's real! That's exactly what would be going on with a guy like Moss - he's a humorous guy.
I'm discussing 'Lisey's Story' with another online group - I've noticed objections to all the made-up phrases Stephen King is using in that one . . . well, his characters, Lisey and Scott Landon are a wierd couple - they have phrases for everything. Many couples reach that point in their relationship, where they speak in words and phrases that work one to the other - even though it might not work for somebody else.
Those are the characters SK has created, and they have to speak true to form.
Some people are offended by the 'language', even though it's disguised into 'smuckin' in place of the proverbial 'f' word - well, I always figure if two tough guys are playing pool and one sinks the white ball, he ain't gonna' say 'Oh, Gee - I sunk the white ball'.
We all know what he's gonna' say and for him to say anything else, isn't going to work.
Style . . . these are CM's characters - they are the 'people of this book', and that's how they think, talk and move around. It's just one long country breeze blowin' 'cross the field.
That is what I have to say if anybody's looking for a defence on McCarthy's style.
Rock on, CM! With this book, I've become a bonafide fan. A HAWyooge fan, as SK says in LS.
Now, that calls for one of those cute little icons, methinks . . .
