The Passenger

June 27, 2022
McCarthy returns 16 years after his Pulitzer-winning The Road with a rich story of an underachieving salvage diver in 1980 New Orleans, the first in a two-volume work. Bobby Western, son of a nuclear physicist who worked on the atomic bomb, is tasked with investigating a private plane crash in the Gulf. The plane’s crew is dead, the black box is missing, and one passenger is unaccounted for. Soon, agents of the U.S. government begin to harass Western and his coworker, then this colleague turns up dead. This thriller narrative is intertwined with the story of Western’s sister, Alicia, a mathematical genius who had schizophrenia and died by suicide. In flashbacks of Alicia’s hallucinations, vaudevillian characters perform for her—most notably, a character named the Thalidomide Kid. Alicia and the Kid engage in numerous conversations about arcane philosophy, theology, and physics—staples of the philosopher-tramps, vagabonds, and sociopaths of McCarthy’s canon, though their presence doesn’t feel quite as thematically grounded as they do in his masterworks. Still, he dazzles with his descriptions of a beautifully broken New Orleans: “The rich moss and cellar smell of the city thick on the night air. A cold and skullcolored moon.... At times the city seemed older than Nineveh.” The book’s many pleasures will leave readers aching for the final installment.

Starred review from March 1, 2023

In 1980, Bobby Western, a salvage diver, travels to Christian Pass, MS, to investigate an underwater plane crash. He soon discovers that the black box, the flight pilot's bag, and an unidentified passenger are missing. Bobby does not know what happened but nonetheless becomes the target of a federal investigation. Already haunted by his father, a physicist responsible for creating the nuclear bomb, and by the death of his sister Alicia, with whom he was in love, Bobby embarks on a quest across the United States to save his body and soul. McCarthy's (The Road) much-anticipated novel is a new American epic. His elegant prose piercingly reveals the characters' pain as they wrestle with questions of morality, madness, sin, and science. The audio is narrated in alternating sections by MacLeod Andrews, who gives voice to Bobby, and Julia Whelan, who reveals Alicia's point of view. Their luminous performances lay bare the agony and hope that each character holds within, while also helping listeners to distinguish between shifting timelines. McCarthy fans may recognize the author's recurring themes, as well as astute observations about modern life. VERDICT This latest from literary giant McCarthy lives up to the hype and is a must-add to any collection.--Elyssa Everling

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