Stella Maris, Comac McCarthy

Published in late 2022, Stella Maris serves as the final literary novel from Cormac McCarthy, released just months before his passing. The novel has an intellectual ambition and it’s a departure from Cormac’s traditional grit. Written entirely as a series of transcripts between a math prodigy, Alicia Western, and her psychiatrist, the book acts as a philosophical vessel for McCarthy’s lifelong obsessions with quantum physics, the nature of language, and the intersection of madness and genius. It’s a hauntingly intimate look at the interior life of a woman grieving an impossible love, providing essential context to its companion novel, The Passenger, which I enjoyed much more than this work.

However, I felt it lacked the blood-soaked narrative drive that defined masterpieces like Blood Meridian or The Road.  No sweeping descriptions of landscapes, the book can feel static and dry. The dialogue often feels less like a conversation between two people and more like a lecture on analysis and metaphysics, making Alicia feel less like a flesh-and-blood character and more like a mouthpiece for McCarthy’s own interests at that time of his life.