[1] McCarthy began writing the novel on December 15, 1962, in Asheville, North Carolina, and finished the first draft in New Orleans, in 1964.

During this time, McCarthy submitted The Orchard Keeper for review to Random House Books, subsequently receiving a lengthy list of suggested changes from his editor Larry Bensky, interrupting his work on the novel.

His first job is with a local squire, who puts him to work chopping wood, for which he is paid half a dollar.

Further on his journey Culla finds an old man who gives him a drink of water and shows off his gun and hunting trophies.

Near dawn, Culla is helped ashore by the trio that was following him, who suspect him of murdering the two men aboard the ferry.

Culla is obliged to eat some of the strange, unknown meat from their fire and, threatening him, the men take his boots.

In the morning, he is welcomed by an armed man who takes him to the squire, again accused of a crime, this time of trespassing.

After accusing Culla of fathering and abandoning the child, the leader of the trio slays the baby, after which a companion appears to begin to eat it.

Travelling further she stays briefly with two families, where she finds out she is still lactating and retains hope for the child's well-being.

A number of writing conventions which were present in his first novel are here lacking: a distinct chronology, allusions to the modern world beyond the mountain culture, or forays into frontier and absurdist comedy.

The forces of retribution are present in the trio of murderous men, McCarthy's grotesque equivalent of the Erinyes (or Furies, or Eumenides) of Greek myth.

[3] Ethical considerations do not seem to exist in the world of Outer Dark, while the fates of characters are not determined by the morality of their lives.

The last scene of the novel, in which a blind man walks off into the mire of a bog, is a paradigm for a dead-end, paradigmless world.

[4] Thomas Lask gave the novel a positive review, complimenting McCarthy's ability to combine the mythic and the actual in a perfect work of imagination.

[5] Walter Sullivan, one of McCarthy's most demanding critics, noted the power, literary virtuosity, and universality of his characters.

He further highlights McCarthy's ability to find devices and characters that grasp us in their strangeness and force us to grapple with the reality surrounding us.