Books, Arts & Manners: A Cowboy on Olympus

Cities of the Plain, by Cormac McCarthy (Knopf, 292 pp., $24)

LIKE every writer of the first rank, with each book Cormac McCarthy sets himself unreachable standards and impossible tasks. All the great themes in American literature are his, and he bravely accepts every risk in order to tackle them. He is not simply the finest American prose artist of his generation, but among the best in his tradition as well.

CW

About the Author

Chilton Williamson Jr.

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Cities of the Plain, by Cormac McCarthy (Knopf, 292 pp., $24)

LIKE every writer of the first rank, with each book Cormac McCarthy sets himself unreachable standards and impossible tasks. All the great themes in American literature are his, and he bravely accepts every risk in order to tackle them. He is not simply the finest American prose artist of his generation, but among the best in his tradition as well.