Child of God by Cormac McCarthy

Child of God follows a backwoods hillbilly by the name of Lester Ballard. It starts off with Lester’s family home being auctioned off to the bank. Destitute and furious, Lester attacks the auctioneer and is sent to jail for a few days.

When he leaves, he sets up in a small cabin in the woods. Lester is antisocial and perhaps mentally disabled. He does nothing except hang out in his cabin and wander the woods with his rifle, friendless.

He has an obsession with sex and always tries to flirt with young girls, but it never works. He eventually finds a dead couple in a car on the side of the road and carts the woman back to his cabin and does disgusting things to her.

After his cabin burns down, Lester takes his few belongings and the dead girl into a cave in the woods. This starts a sick and disgusting spiral for Lester as he goes on the hunt for more bodies.

There is really no point to Child of God. The entire story follows Lester on his descent into complete and utter madness. His fascination for dead bodies is the focal point of all Lester’s activities.

Despite Lester’s foulness, Cormac writes the story in such a beautiful way that you end up feeling sorry for this insane hillbilly. His childhood was miserable, and he has nothing. He’s quite unhinged. And through McCarthy’s world-class prose, we get a deep look at the psychology of a madman.

It never shies away from the ugly truth, and McCarthy doesn’t write in a gratuitous way. He tells the story and the events up to their sad conclusion with perfection. It’s a master storyteller at his best. The saga of Lester Ballard is a disturbing look into backwoods America.