"This compendium of Cormac McCarthy’s sources is remarkably complete. Any student of one of the great living American novelists would benefit immensely from having this volume. I particularly admire the rich gathering of background for the masterpiece Blood Meridian."
— Harold Bloom, author of Falstaff: Give Me Life
"series editor of the Cormac McCarthy Casebook Series and editor of Myth, Legend, Dust: Critical Responses to Cormac McCarthy, as well as the two-volume Sacred Violence"
— Rick Wallach, series editor of the Cormac McCarthy Casebook Series and editor of Myth, Legend, Dust: Critical Responses to Cormac McCarthy, as well as the two-volume Sacred Violence
"A fantastic tool for McCarthy scholars. If Sepich’s Notes on “Blood Meridian” has become the compendium necessary to the scholarly study of Blood Meridian, this book is clearly pitched as the compendium to the literary influences of McCarthy. It will provide a provocative jumping-off point for much relevant and exciting future scholarship."
— Lydia R. Cooper, Creighton University, author of No More Heroes: Narrative Perspective and Morality in Cormac McCarthy
"A rich and meticulous study…Crews's depth will underline the importance of Cormac McCarthy's place in American and world literature."
— Resources for American Literary Study
"A marvelous and essential tool for McCarthy scholarship. It is remarkable for the completeness of its sources, its meticulous scholarly research, and its accessibility...Books Are Made Out of Books will facilitate exciting future scholarship on McCarthy's work."
— Western American Literature
"Comprehensive and enlightening."
— Times Literary Supplement
"Michael Crews has performed a great service in writing his thoughtful and carefully researched Books Are Made Out of Books…McCarthy scholars will certainly admire Crews's intrepidness and thoroughness and will be delighted to have found a book we have really needed."
— The Cormac McCarthy Journal
"When invited over to a friend's place for the first time, I love to browse my host's bookshelves, mainly in the hope of discovering some new or obscure author to read myself. This is a bit what reading Books Are Made Out of Books is like, and why I found it such a pleasure to read...This book was as engaging as it was informative, and I recommend Books Are Made Out of Books to anyone interested in the 'strange tomes' of such a fascinating writer."
— Publishing Research Quarterly
"Crews's highly readable and meticulously compiled reference book will prove a useful tool for McCarthy scholars—not merely in terms of mapping the sources of McCarthy's intellectual content and rhetorical procedures, but also in fostering a more nuanced view of his postmodern techniques of pastiche, pasting and appropriation."
— Forum for Modern Language Studies
"A necessary addition to any serious McCarthy scholar's library…Crews not only demonstrates the value of the McCarthy papers for opening up new lines of enquiry in literary criticism, but also uses detailed archival research to create a substantial picture of the variety of works and authors that have informed most of this major novelist's work."
— This Year's Work in English Studies