Cormac McCarthy, who hadn't published a novel since 2006, has suddenly become as prolific as James Patterson. October saw the publication of The Passenger, and its companion work, Stella Maris, appeared earlier this month. Reviews of the former have been respectful but not exactly raving. Ron Charles of the Washington Post concludes, "The Passenger casts readers into a black hole of ignorance." In the New York Times, John Jeremiah Sullivan determines that McCarthy's style "teeters" into "straight badness" and pretentiousness. And on the website of record, Max Bindernagel calls it a "very good book" that "might be too cerebral for even more dedicated readers."