After seeing a bunch of comments about Blood Meridian, I wanted to put in my two cents.
First, I’m not saying this to try to convince anyone to like any book or genre, some genres just aren’t enjoyable for some people and that’s okay!
But as someone who loves this genre, it is HARD to read (even for someone who has been reading it for a long time). Every genre takes a specialty reading skill-set, some are more niche than others (e.g. Shakespeare) and this is one of them! For a lot of people first reading SGL texts, it can simultaneously seem too much (gruesome and detailed topics, opaque dialogue) and not enough (slow-paced, abstract). Every time I try to read Faulkner my head about falls off. For me, learning to read the genre has been worth it (Wise Blood and A Streetcar Named Desire are two of my all-time faves), for some it won’t be.
Ultimately, I’m just trying to say you’re not a bad reader or an outlier if Blood Meridian is tough to wade through for you.
Feel the same. When I find a great section from Faulkner, it’s some of the best writing. But getting to that scene? A slog.
Flannery O’Conner is the ruler and creator of this genre and is easy as pie to read.
That would be Faulkner, and Flannery would tell you that herself. That said, Flannery can still be difficult in her own way. Her meaning depends on a lot of biblical knowledge to fully grasp.
I really don’t understand what everybody seems to find so difficult or inaccessible about Blood Meridian. I read it a few years ago as my first McCarthy and had zero trouble with it, aside from sometimes stumbling over McCarthy’s punctuation. There was no part where I felt like I didn’t know what was going on.
Faulkner on the other hand? Absolutely. The first part of The Sound And The Fury is fiendishly hard to make sense of on a first read. But that’s just Faulkner.
There is plenty of Southern Gothic that isn’t uniquely “hard”. And there is plenty of other literature that I consider way more cryptic and inaccessible than Flannery O’Connor or Tennessee Williams. When I think “difficult” books, the first things that come to mind are Ulysses, Gravity’s Rainbow, To The Lighthouse… none of which are Southern Gothic.
I think it’s a bit absurd to make a blanket statement like “Southern Gothic is hard”.
If you’re wanting to read McCarthy and Faulkner, maybe start with Sutre (CM) and Sanctuary (WF). Faulkner’s short stories like A Rose for Emily and Barn Burning are a step up from there, then you’ll be more conditioned to get through his novel prose.
I really love Truman Capote in this genre, specifically Other Voices, Other Rooms.
Sanctuary is easy prose to read, but a strange story that largely left me wondering what the point was. It seems to be a modern, southern gothic version of the Greek myth of Persephone with a bit of Freud thrown in.
My fav one is Blackwater by Micharl McDowell
While McCarthy did write some Southern Gothic books early in his career, I wouldn’t call Blood Meridian one of them; it’s more a Western.
Well, that settles it. I’d been hearing about how good Blood Meridian is, even for people who don’t like Westerns, but As I Lay Dying made me so cranky the entire time I was reading it. Nope. I think Gothic just isn’t for me.
Hahaha cranky is great 😂
Blood Meridian is not a southern gothic. It’s an ultra violent, ultra beautiful historical novel classified as western or sometimes anti-western
Is a Streetcar Named Desire a book? I thought it was a play, and am interested in it and would probably read it if it is a book. Guess I’ll have to look it up again
The play is amazing, almost reads like novella because Williams detailed stage directions. Agree with the others it’s a great read.
Wise Blood is an easy read and one of the best great starting point
I wish I felt the same. I read it during a busy week and in short stretches at a time and I struggled to find what she meant for me to take from it. I preferred her other novel but I’ll have to read Wise Blood again at some point and try to get more from it.
Could anyone explain to the ignorant what ‘Southern Gothic’ is and how it differs from proximate genres?
Blood Meridian is not a southern gothic
You can try reading Flannery O Connor. She will be easier to get through than McCarthy at least
Try reading Truman Capote’s first book, Other Voices, Other Rooms. I don’t think it’s too hard, and it’s very Southern Gothic.
Try reading Eudora Welty’s short story “Why I Live at the P. O.”
Not everything Southern Gothic is ponderous.
Southern what? Southern hemisphere?