SOURCE: "The Knock at the Door," in Time, Vol. 143, No. 23, June 6, 1994, pp. 62-64.

In the following review, Jaynes comments on McCarthy's reticent nature and the author's emergence as a recognized best-seller, and touches briefly on his life and career.

When Cormac McCarthy's sixth novel, All the Pretty Horses, won the National Book Award last year, journalists naturally wanted a word with the author. McCarthy possesses a lifelong habit of refusing questions, however. As a Texas lawyer buddy says, "He solicits publicity like a man evading process." A prestigious literary honor did nothing to change his mind; for that matter, he didn't go pick up the award. It made for a good story all the same. Here was a man with a fine hand with the language and a clear scope on the darkness out there, an impoverished artist on the high rim of his middle years, a writer...