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?

  • coloradogirlcallie@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I DNF’d it in my 20s and then came back to it a decade later and it clicked for me. Maybe now isn’t the best time for reading it. Enjoy the prose and don’t worry as much about the plot.

    • UltraFlyingTurtle@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      Same with me. Ended up loving it years later.

      Same with One Hundred Years of Solitude, Sun Also Rises, Crime and Punishment, House of Leaves, and bunch of other books. Couldn’t finish them but they eventually became some of my favorite books.

      Sometimes it’s just not the right time in your life to read a particular book. Also having more personal life experience helps too.

      • realisticrain@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        10 months ago

        Well put! This was the same for me with Freedom by Jonathan Franzen. Read it at 25, hated it. Reread it at 30. Savored every line.