Cormac McCarthy’s Sideline: Freelance Copy Editor

When Cormac McCarthy died last month, critics, scholars, and fans alike weighed in on the qualities they found most distinctive in his books. Time and again they mentioned his style. Whether the long, sweeping passages of Blood Meridian or the staccato bursts of The Road, McCarthy’s approach was unified by an elegant minimalism most evident in, of all things, his punctuation.