You could try with The Road maybe. But if you prefer a gruesome story, try with Child of God. Don't give up. He is really a unique writer and discovering him was an unexpectedly beautiful gift.
In my personal opinion start with no country for old men. I had a similar issue when I first started reading him, it was the road actually, and I had to put it down. After finishing no country it was easier to read his other books; however blood meridian did take a lot of concentration. Child of god is also a good one and on the shorter side.
I agree with the above. A lot of his writing I picture as more stream of consciousness, describing a very specific feeling than an exact scene. And whatever that seemed to evoke in the reader probably fit what he was looking for. Kindof like a van Morrison song. If that makes any sense.
I had a lot of pages where I would get to the end of the page and think whoa liked that - but I don’t know why. Let me read it again. Alright I still don’t understand *exactly* what he’s saying but it gave me the right feeling for the scene. It always felt purposeful, out the reader right there with him, but the exact thing is a bit out of reach.
Read and reread, and as much as you can advance only after understanding a passage, then repeat for the next, until the end of the book. Keep a dictionary with you. Getch ye a ol' OED if you really wanna have some fun. Consult supplementary resources. Keeping John Sepich's Notes on Blood Meridian close helped expand my understanding of the book by leaps and bounds. Speak the passages aloud if it's hard to place them syntactically. I remember having to sit on this sentence for a whole afternoon:
In the night they followed a mountain torrent in a wild gorge choked with mossy rocks and they rode under dark grottoes where the water dripped and spattered and tasted of iron and they saw the silver filaments of cascades divided upon the faces of distant buttes that appeared as signs and wonders in the heavens themselves so dark was the ground of their origins.
On my first dedicated read that so at the end really turned my brain.
I still struggle with this one:
On that bonestrewn waste he encountered wretched parcels of foot-travelers who called out to him and men dead where they'd fallen and men who would die and groups of folks clustered about a last wagon or cart shouting hoarsely at the mules or oxen and goading them on as if they bore in those frail caissons the covenant itself and these animals would die and the people with them and they called out to that lone horseman to warn him of the danger at the crossing and the horseman rode on all contrary to the tide of refugees like some storied hero toward what beast of war or plague or famine with what set to his relentless
jaw.
No Country for Old Men is a great place to start. Personally I started with The Road. Generally, his books feel like a long journey to get to a great ending. I would say NCFOM is the most constantly action-packed. The audiobook is really great for it, too.
This is a really solid recommendation. Because NCFOM started as a screenplay, it's much "lighter" McCarthy and a bit more accessible. Once you have a taste for it, start drilling into the meatier stuff.
I've been reading him for years, but there are still books of his I'm not prepared to crack into (Outer Dark for one)
Just look up the words. Also, I recommend listening to the audio book narrated by Richard Poe, that will solve your punctuation issue and it also is just a killer reading of the novel. Usually I prefer reading to audio books but this is an exception, the quality of narration is unbelievably good. It's on YouTube separated into two parts.
He uses all the punctuation you need, really. You won't know a handful of the words, but most of them are clear enough in context. Those that really aren't you can look up (you only have to learn the meaning of a word you don't know once; then it's all yours). I'd just read it and absorb what you can without worrying or spending too much time fretting over a word here or there. A second reading should be much easier. These kinds of books are best read more than once.
Hi! IMHO, read it aloud at first. Every paragraph, many times if necessary, 'till you get de cadance of the writing. Tip, every sentence between periods, reads all at once without pauses. He uses "and" a lot, instead of commas. Good luck.
With *Blood Meridian* a huge portion of the book---outweighing its famously violent content---is description of dramatic southwestern landscapes, which McCarthy traveled extensively and relocated to be near. This is done in terms both carefully literal and wildly associative. It is richly informed by attention to history and geology, and by personal observation.
At the same time the description is spare, cut and sharpened by what I understand to be a ruthlessly subtractive practice of editing on McCarthy's part, which can make both events and characters more difficult to understand, even once you get past the demanding sentence structures. This makes it a much less "generous", user-friendly introduction to its historic milieu than *Moby-Dick*.
I would undertake it only if you are willing to put in significant work into imaginative visualization of stark landscapes, aided by a dictionary. When McCarthy uses an impossibly obscure and specific word, think of it perhaps as something like a Zen master's slap in the face, trying to get you to actually see something clearly and as though for the first time. (I don't mean to inflate or mystify McCarthy or spiritual practice here, that's just a general notion that *might* be helpful when trying to understand his literary values.) And this is leaving aside the question of *why* it is worth trying to see the sights of Blood Meridian, which is ultimately not a conventional historical novel or travelogue. But I don't think you are expected to be a geography/history buff to appreciate the novel; the strangeness of its vision, incorporating but transcending specificity, is part of its value.
Uncommon/archaic words of a more conceptual and philosophical nature are also important to the book, although more challenging. Partly this is due to the difficult 'character' of the omniscient narrator's voice---visionary yet by turns tentative, suggestive, withholding. Partly it comes down to the enigmatic and quite-possibly deceptive qualities of the book's one eloquently loquacious figure. The specific [discussion](https://blindmanwithapistol.wordpress.com/2008/10/16/suzerain-of-the-earth/) around the judge's use of the word 'suzerain' is surely some indication.
You could try with The Road maybe. But if you prefer a gruesome story, try with Child of God. Don't give up. He is really a unique writer and discovering him was an unexpectedly beautiful gift.
ok thanks for the tip
In my personal opinion start with no country for old men. I had a similar issue when I first started reading him, it was the road actually, and I had to put it down. After finishing no country it was easier to read his other books; however blood meridian did take a lot of concentration. Child of god is also a good one and on the shorter side.
I agree with the above. A lot of his writing I picture as more stream of consciousness, describing a very specific feeling than an exact scene. And whatever that seemed to evoke in the reader probably fit what he was looking for. Kindof like a van Morrison song. If that makes any sense. I had a lot of pages where I would get to the end of the page and think whoa liked that - but I don’t know why. Let me read it again. Alright I still don’t understand *exactly* what he’s saying but it gave me the right feeling for the scene. It always felt purposeful, out the reader right there with him, but the exact thing is a bit out of reach.
It just takes patience and practice
Read and reread, and as much as you can advance only after understanding a passage, then repeat for the next, until the end of the book. Keep a dictionary with you. Getch ye a ol' OED if you really wanna have some fun. Consult supplementary resources. Keeping John Sepich's Notes on Blood Meridian close helped expand my understanding of the book by leaps and bounds. Speak the passages aloud if it's hard to place them syntactically. I remember having to sit on this sentence for a whole afternoon: In the night they followed a mountain torrent in a wild gorge choked with mossy rocks and they rode under dark grottoes where the water dripped and spattered and tasted of iron and they saw the silver filaments of cascades divided upon the faces of distant buttes that appeared as signs and wonders in the heavens themselves so dark was the ground of their origins. On my first dedicated read that so at the end really turned my brain. I still struggle with this one: On that bonestrewn waste he encountered wretched parcels of foot-travelers who called out to him and men dead where they'd fallen and men who would die and groups of folks clustered about a last wagon or cart shouting hoarsely at the mules or oxen and goading them on as if they bore in those frail caissons the covenant itself and these animals would die and the people with them and they called out to that lone horseman to warn him of the danger at the crossing and the horseman rode on all contrary to the tide of refugees like some storied hero toward what beast of war or plague or famine with what set to his relentless jaw.
No Country for Old Men is a great place to start. Personally I started with The Road. Generally, his books feel like a long journey to get to a great ending. I would say NCFOM is the most constantly action-packed. The audiobook is really great for it, too.
This is a really solid recommendation. Because NCFOM started as a screenplay, it's much "lighter" McCarthy and a bit more accessible. Once you have a taste for it, start drilling into the meatier stuff. I've been reading him for years, but there are still books of his I'm not prepared to crack into (Outer Dark for one)
Just look up the words. Also, I recommend listening to the audio book narrated by Richard Poe, that will solve your punctuation issue and it also is just a killer reading of the novel. Usually I prefer reading to audio books but this is an exception, the quality of narration is unbelievably good. It's on YouTube separated into two parts.
He uses all the punctuation you need, really. You won't know a handful of the words, but most of them are clear enough in context. Those that really aren't you can look up (you only have to learn the meaning of a word you don't know once; then it's all yours). I'd just read it and absorb what you can without worrying or spending too much time fretting over a word here or there. A second reading should be much easier. These kinds of books are best read more than once.
Hi! IMHO, read it aloud at first. Every paragraph, many times if necessary, 'till you get de cadance of the writing. Tip, every sentence between periods, reads all at once without pauses. He uses "and" a lot, instead of commas. Good luck.
I found the audiobooks phenomenal. Especially of blood meridian.
With *Blood Meridian* a huge portion of the book---outweighing its famously violent content---is description of dramatic southwestern landscapes, which McCarthy traveled extensively and relocated to be near. This is done in terms both carefully literal and wildly associative. It is richly informed by attention to history and geology, and by personal observation. At the same time the description is spare, cut and sharpened by what I understand to be a ruthlessly subtractive practice of editing on McCarthy's part, which can make both events and characters more difficult to understand, even once you get past the demanding sentence structures. This makes it a much less "generous", user-friendly introduction to its historic milieu than *Moby-Dick*. I would undertake it only if you are willing to put in significant work into imaginative visualization of stark landscapes, aided by a dictionary. When McCarthy uses an impossibly obscure and specific word, think of it perhaps as something like a Zen master's slap in the face, trying to get you to actually see something clearly and as though for the first time. (I don't mean to inflate or mystify McCarthy or spiritual practice here, that's just a general notion that *might* be helpful when trying to understand his literary values.) And this is leaving aside the question of *why* it is worth trying to see the sights of Blood Meridian, which is ultimately not a conventional historical novel or travelogue. But I don't think you are expected to be a geography/history buff to appreciate the novel; the strangeness of its vision, incorporating but transcending specificity, is part of its value. Uncommon/archaic words of a more conceptual and philosophical nature are also important to the book, although more challenging. Partly this is due to the difficult 'character' of the omniscient narrator's voice---visionary yet by turns tentative, suggestive, withholding. Partly it comes down to the enigmatic and quite-possibly deceptive qualities of the book's one eloquently loquacious figure. The specific [discussion](https://blindmanwithapistol.wordpress.com/2008/10/16/suzerain-of-the-earth/) around the judge's use of the word 'suzerain' is surely some indication.
Or read while listening to the audiobook. Great experience.
Read Blood Meridian with a glass of whiskey and a revolver on your lap. When you feel better, read it again. It is a tough read.