First Novels #1 - Cormac McCarthy's 'The Orchard Keeper' (1965) [Age: 32]
This is the first in a series that looks at the first novels of authors who would go on to publish usually more accomplished work. Sometimes the reviews might seem overly critical but it is important to treat each work without hindsight and see how a writer learns from early mistakes and hones his or her craft. For context, the square brackets after the title give the age of the author at publication although a book might have been germinating from a much earlier age. Such works should not be neglected even when it is clear that an author may cringe later at their own early efforts (even in a few cases try to suppress it). These put 'genius' into perspective as a hard learned craft (even if some authors manage to come out with masterpieces at their first attempt), remind us that persistence can pay if the right publisher is there to support the writer and that themes found in later work might sometimes be uncovered early - and so give insights into an author's psychological