The plot is simple, but the narration of the novel is remarkable. Carey’s prose recreates the style of a man with little formal schooling and it foregoes many standard grammatical features, such as commas. The effect is impressive. Thoughts and actions are yoked together in a single sentence so as to create a tremendous sense of narrative urgency. Every sentence has so much material squeezed into it that it seems ready to burst apart at the seams.
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