A few months ago I watched this video and saw that Blood Meridian was his fourth favorite of all time. The book seemed really up my alley and I purchased it immediately…
Wow, this book feels like deciphering hieroglyphics.
The story itself is intriguing but I feel as though it’s hidden under layers and layers of dense verbiage that I can’t comprehend. I find myself reading a sentence, thinking that the subject is going in one direction, but then new verbiage is added and I’ve completely lost the direction of the passage. The book feels like a jigsaw puzzle with infinite pieces.
It’s definitely the least-direct book I’ve ever read.
I’ve gotten halfway through the book in the course of three months but I couldn’t honestly tell you where the characters are, their strengths and weaknesses, or any overall theme I’m getting. How do you understand this book?
I just DNF’d it. I love McCarthy and I love dark books. But this one was just too much, like the brutal violence is literally the point.
I don’t find the language any more difficult than his other books. His use of precise technical language is one of the things I admire about his writing. He expects a lot of his readers - not a ton of explanation about words or phrases you can just look up - and I always learn a lot from him. The Road was particularly good this way.
One idea is to read on a Kindle or similar where you can click on a word to get its definition.