The Sunset Limited: A Novel in Dramatic Form Read online

  CORMAC McCARTHY

  Winner of the National Book Award

  and the National Book Critics Circle Award

  “McCarthy’s prose [is] the most laudable, his characters the most fully inhabited, his sense of place the most bloodworthy and thoroughly felt of any living writer’s.”

  —Esquire

  “McCarthy has a voice that is unmistakably his…. Its elegiac rhythm captures the badlands of Texas and northern Mexico with a passion most writers either couldn’t muster or wouldn’t dare.”

  —The Boston Globe

  “The deity that presides over Mr. McCarthy’s world has not modeled itself on humanity: its voice most resembles the one that addressed Job out of the whirlwind.”

  —The New York Times Book Review

  “McCarthy meditates on creation, stares at it. He does not look past appearances, he looks through them… The world is set before us with fever-dream clarity … and then, with simile and metaphor, he sweeps everything into profound animation… McCarthy is writing entirely against the grain of our times, against the haste and the distraction and the moral diffusion… As an old, more spacious world rises up, we experience a more vivid and consequential feeling about human destiny, about good and evil and matters of the spirit.”

  —The New Republic

  “Like the novelists he admires—Melville, Dostoyevsky, Faulkner—CORMAC McCARTHY has created an imaginative oeuvre greater and deeper than any single book. Such writers wrestle with the gods themselves.”

  —The Washington Post Book World

  This is a room in a tenement building in a black ghetto in New York City. There is a kitchen with a stove and a large refrigerator. A door to the outer hallway and another presumably to a bedroom. The hallway door is fitted with a bizarre collection of locks and bars. There is a cheap formica table in the room and two chrome and plastic chairs. There is a drawer in the table. On the table is a bible and a newspaper. A pair of glasses. A pad and pencil. A large black man is sitting in one chair (stage right) and in the other a middle-aged white man dressed in running pants and athletic shoes. He wears a T-shirt and the jacket—which matches the pants—hangs on the chair behind him.

  Black So what am I supposed to do with you, Professor?

  White Why are you supposed to do anything?

  Black I done told you. This aint none of my doin. I left out of here this mornin to go to work you wasnt no part of my plans at all. But here you is.

  White It doesnt mean anything. Everything that happens doesnt mean something else.

  Black Mm hm. It dont.

  White No. It doesnt.

  Black What’s it mean then?

  White It doesnt mean anything. You run into people and maybe some of them are in trouble or whatever but it doesnt mean that you’re responsible for them.

  Black Mm hm.

  White Anyway, people who are always looking out for perfect strangers are very often people who wont look out for the ones they’re supposed to look out for. In my opinion. If you’re just doing what you’re supposed to then you dont get to be a hero.

  Black And that would be me.

  White I dont know. Would it?

  Black Well, I can see how they might be some truth in that. But in this particular case I might say I sure didnt know what sort of person I was supposed to be on the lookout for or what I was supposed to do when I found him. In this particular case they wasnt but one thing to go by.

  White And that was?

  Black That was that there he is standin there. And I can look at him and I can say: Well, he dont look like my brother. But there he is. Maybe I better look again.

  White And that’s what you did.

  Black Well, you was kindly hard to ignore. I got to say that your approach was pretty direct.

  White I didnt approach you. I didnt even see you.

  Black Mm hm.

  White I should go. I’m beginning to get on your nerves.

  Black No you aint. Dont pay no attention to me. You seem like a sweet man, Professor. I reckon what I dont understand is how come you to get yourself in such a fix.

  White Yeah.

  Black Are you okay? Did you sleep last night?

  White No.

  Black When did you decide that today was the day? Was they somethin special about it?

  White No. Well. Today is my birthday. But I certainly dont regard that as special.

  Black Well happy birthday, Professor.

  White Thank you.

  Black So you seen your birthday was comin up and that seemed like the right day.

  White Who knows? Maybe birthdays are dangerous. Like Christmas. Ornaments hanging from the trees, wreaths from the doors, and bodies from the steampipes all over America.

  Black Mm. Dont say much for Christmas, does it?

  White Christmas is not what it used to be.

  Black I believe that to be a true statement. I surely do.

  White I’ve got to go.

  He gets up and takes his jacket off the back of the chair and lifts it over his shoulders and then puts his arms in the sleeves rather than putting his arms in first one at a time.

  Black You always put your coat on like that?

  White What’s wrong with the way I put my coat on?

  Black I didnt say they was nothin wrong with it. I just wondered if that was your regular method.

  White I dont have a regular method. I just put it on.

  Black Mm hm.

  White It’s what, effeminate?

  Black Mm.

  White What?

  Black Nothin. I’m just settin here studyin the ways of professors.

  White Yeah. Well, I’ve got to go.

  The black gets up.

  Black Well. Let me get my coat.

  White Your coat?

  Black Yeah.

  White Where are you going?

  Black Goin with you.

  White What do you mean? Going with me where?

  Black Goin with you wherever you goin.

  White No you’re not.

  Black Yeah I am.

  White I’m going home.

  Black All right.

  White All right? You’re not going home with me.

  Black Sure I am. Let me get my coat.

  White You cant go home with me.

  Black Why not?

  White You cant.

  Black What. You can go home with me but I cant go home with you?

  White No. I mean no, that’s not it. I just need to go home.

  Black You live in a apartment?

  White Yes.

  Black What. They dont let black folks in there?

  White No. I mean of course they do. Look. No more jokes. I’ve got to go. I’m very tired.

  Black Well I just hope we dont run into no hassle about you gettin me in there.

  White You’re serious.

  Black Oh I think you know I’m serious.

  White You cant be serious.

  Black I’m as serious as a heart attack.

  White Why are you doing this?

  Black Me? I aint got no choice in the matter.

  White Of course you have a choice.

  Black No I aint.

  White Who appointed you my guardian angel?

  Black Let me get my coat.

  White Answer the question.

  Black You know who appointed me. I didnt ask for you to leap into my arms down in the subway this mornin.

  White I didnt leap into your arms.

  Black You didnt?

  White No. I didnt.

  Black Well how did you get there then?

  The professor stands with his
head lowered. He looks at the chair and then turns and goes and sits down in it.

  Black What. Now we aint goin?

  White Do you really think that Jesus is in this room?

  Black No. I dont think he’s in this room.

  White You dont?

  Black I know he’s in this room.

  The professor folds his hands at the table and lowers his head. The black pulls out the other chair and sits again.

  Black Its the way you put it, Professor. Be like me askin you do you think you got your coat on. You see what I’m sayin?

  White It’s not the same thing. It’s a matter of agreement. If you and I say that I have my coat on and Cecil says that I’m naked and I have green skin and a tail then we might want to think about where we should put Cecil so that he wont hurt himself.

  Black Who’s Cecil?

  White He’s not anybody. He’s just a hypothetical… There’s not any Cecil. He’s just a person I made up to illustrate a point.

  Black Made up.

  White Yes.

  Black Mm.

  White We’re not going to get into this again are we? It’s not the same thing. The fact that I made Cecil up.

  Black But you did make him up.

  White Yes.

  Black And his view of things dont count.

  White No. That’s why I made him up. I could have changed it around. I could have made you the one that didnt think I was wearing a coat.

  Black And was green and all that shit you said.

  White Yes.

  Black But you didnt.

  White No.

  Black You loaded it off on Cecil.

  White Yes.

  Black But Cecil cant defend hisself cause the fact that he aint in agreement with everbody else makes his word no good. I mean aside from the fact that you made him up and he’s green and everthing.

  White He’s not the one who’s green. I am. Where is this going?

  Black I’m just tryin to find out about Cecil.

  White I dont think so. Can you see Jesus?

  Black No. I cant see him.

  White But you talk to him.

  Black I dont miss a day.

  White And he talks to you.

  Black He has talked to me. Yes.

  White Do you hear him? Like out loud?

  Black Not out loud. I dont hear a voice. I dont hear my own, for that matter. But I have heard him.

  White Well why couldnt Jesus just be in your head?

  Black He is in my head.

  White Well I don’t understand what it is that you’re trying to tell me.

  Black I know you dont, honey. Look. The first thing you got to understand is that I aint got a original thought in my head. If it aint got the lingerin scent of divinity to it then I aint interested.

  White The lingering scent of divinity.

  Black Yeah. You like that?

  White It’s not bad.

  Black I heard it on the radio. Black preacher. But the point is I done tried it the other way. And I dont mean chippied, neither. Runnin blindfold through the woods with the bit tween your teeth. Oh man. Didnt I try it though. If you can find a soul that give it a better shot than me I’d like to meet him. I surely would. And what do you reckon it got me?

  White I dont know. What did it get you?

  Black Death in life. That’s what it got me.

  White Death in life.

  Black Yeah. Walkin around death. Too dead to even know enough to lay down.

  White I see.

  Black I dont think so. But let me ask you this question.

  White All right.

  Black Have you ever read this book?

  White I’ve read parts of it. I’ve read in it.

  Black Have you ever read it?

  White I read The Book of Job.

  Black Have. You. Ever. Read. It.

  White No.

  Black But you is read a lot of books.

  White Yes.

  Black How many would you say you read?

  White I’ve no idea.

  Black Ball park.

  White I dont know. Two a week maybe. A hundred a year. For close to forty years.

  The black takes up his pencil and licks it and falls to squinting at his pad, adding numbers laboriously, his tongue in the corner of his mouth, one hand on his head.

  White Forty times a hundred is four thousand.

  Black (Almost laughing) I’m just messin with you, Professor. Give me a number. Any number you like. And I’ll give you forty times it back.

  White Twenty-six.

  Black A thousand and forty.

  White A hundred and eighteen.

  Black Four thousand seven hundred and twenty.

  White Four thousand seven hundred and twenty.

  Black Yeah.

  White The answer is the question.

  Black Say what?

  White That’s your new number.

  Black Four thousand seven hundred and twenty?

  White Yes.

  Black That’s a big number, Professor.

  White Yes it is.

  Black Do you know the answer?

  White No. I dont.

  Black It’s a hundred and eighty-eight thousand and eight hundred.

  They sit.

  White Let me have that.

  The black slides the pad and pencil across the table. The professor does the figures and looks at them and looks at the black. He slides the pencil and paper back across the table and sits back.

  White How do you do that?

  Black Numbers is the black man’s friend. Butter and eggs. Crap table. You quick with numbers you can put the mojo on you brother. Confiscate the contents of his pocketbook. You get a lot of time to practice that shit in the jailhouse.

  White I see.

  Black But let’s get back to all them books you done read. You think maybe you read four thousand books.

  White Probably. Maybe more than that.

  Black But you aint read this one.

  White No. Not the whole book. No.

  Black Why is that?

  White I dont know.

  Black What would you say is the best book that ever was wrote?

  White I have no idea.

  Black Take a shot.

  White There are a lot of good books.

  Black Well pick one.

  White Maybe War and Peace.

  Black All right. You think that’s a better book than this one?

  White I dont know. They’re different kinds of books.

  Black This War and Peace book. That’s a book that somebody made up, right?

  White Well, yes.

  Black So is that how it’s different from this book?

  White Not really. In my view they’re both made up.

  Black Mm. Aint neither one of em true.

  White Not in the historical sense. No.

  Black So what would be a true book?

  White I suppose maybe a history book. Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire might be one. At least the events would be actual events. They would be things that had happened.

  Black Mm hm. You think that book is as good a book as this book here?

  White The bible.

  Black The bible.

  White I dont know. Gibbon is a cornerstone. It’s a major book.

  Black And a true book. Dont forget that.

  White And a true book. Yes.

  Black But is it as good a book.

  White I dont know. I dont know as you can make a comparison. You’re talking about apples and pears.

  Black No we aint talkin bout no apples and pears, Professor. We talkin bout books. Is that Decline and Fall book as good a book as this book here. Answer the question.

  White I might have to say no.

  Black It’s more true but it aint as good.

  White If you like.

  Black It aint what I like. It’s what you said.

  White All right.

  The black lays the bi
ble back down on the table.

  Black It used to say here on the cover fore it got wore off: The greatest book ever written. You think that might be true?

  White It might.

  Black You read good books.

  White I try to. Yes.

  Black But not the best book. Why is that?

  White I need to go.

  Black You dont need to go, Professor. Stay here and visit with me.

  White You’re afraid I’ll go back to the train station.

  Black You might. Just stay with me.

  White What if I promised I wouldnt?

  Black You might anyways.

  White Dont you have to go to work?

  Black I was on my way to work.

  White A funny thing happened to you on your way to work.

  Black Yes it did.

  White Will they fire you?

  Black Naw. They aint goin fire me.

  White You could call in.

  Black Aint got a phone. Anyways, they know if I aint there I aint comin. I aint a late sort of person.

  White Why dont you have a phone?

  Black I dont need one. The junkies’d steal it anyways.

  White You could get a cheap one.

  Black You cant get too cheap for a junky. But let’s get back to you.

  White Let’s stick with you for a minute.

  Black All right.

  White Can I ask you something?

  Black Sure you can.

  White Where were you standing? I never saw you.

  Black You mean when you took your amazin leap?

  White Yes.

  Black I was on the platform.

  White On the platform.

  Black Yeah.

  White Well I didnt see you.

  Black I was just standin there on the platform. Mindin my own business. And here you come. Haulin ass.

  White I’d looked all around to make sure there was no one there. Particularly no children. There was nobody around.

  Black Nope. Just me.

  White Well I dont know where you could have been.

  Black Mm. Professor you fixin to get spooky on me now. Maybe I was behind a post or somethin.

  White There wasnt any post.