Never read any Cormac McCarthy. Where should I start, if at all?

Child of God was fucked up.

Child of God is the best starter-- it's short and sweet

The film is slightly inferior but there's nothing in it that there isn't in the novel as well and IMO the narration works better in the novel.

I would start with The Road

good introduction to his style

Agreed, Blood Meridian is really difficult to read. But once you get into a rhythm it really is something special. If you try to rush through it you're not going to understand it or enjoy it. I've never read anything quite like it.

it's difficult for like the first chapter or so.

From an actual literary perspective -- not that of a maladjusted 20-year-old looking for the most violent, nihilist edge -- Suttree is the only McCarthy book worth reading. He actually put work into the prose because he was younger and trying harder to make a name for himself. Every book after his him pushing the darker side further and half-assing the prose. Blood Meridian is overrated.

1. Blood Meridian
2. The Crossing
3. Child of God
4. No Country for Old Men
5. The Orchard Keeper
6. The Road
7. Suttree
8. All the Pretty Horses
9. Cities of the Plain
10. Outer Dark

t. 35 year old contrarian who regularly quotes Nabokov saying the only reason to read is to appreciate the aesthetics of prose

t. 21 year old who regularly says BM is his favorite book. And I called it overrated, expect no less. Prose aesthetics is really the most important aspect of a book, though.

I disagree. I think Blood Meridian is his greatest achievement and his darkest book. Bordrr trilogy is not darker than Blood nor better written.

I had to read the road in high school SNORE
They should call it 50 shades of gray cause he won’t stop talking about how gray his post-apocalyptic setting is
Nothing interesting happens either
I enjoyed no country for old men though.

I said Blood Meridian and his post-Suttree work was darker, which is why middling edgelords who care more about edge than the actual writing like it.

Are you serious? I've never read Ulysses and I won't deny that Blood Meridian isn't the easiest book in the world but that seems a bit much. I think it's supposed to feel dreamy (or probably more accurately nightmarish).
What are some other books you've read that are famous for being difficult which you would say Blood Meridian is more difficult than?

I dont get how people miss that it's a comedy

Nobody has mentioned The Crossing but it's the highlight of the border trilogy and in his 3 best alongside BM and Suttree

Wildcat. Even though it's written in an obsolete vernacular, it's pretty good.

I thought The Road sucked apart from a few passages, currently reading and loving Blood Meridian, what should I read next?

>Just know that Blood Meridian is extremely difficult. I would put it almost up there with Ulysses in terms of reading difficulty.

If English is your first language you should just kys desu, or redo middle school. Only reason for it to be a difficult read is if you are very squeamish.

He literally looks like Llewellyn Moss or whatever from the No Country movie.

All the Pretty Horses is not darker than Child of God or Outer Dark.

Honestly I just got into reading a couple years ago so still expanding my pallet, I'm sure there are more difficult books, just so far this has been the most difficult for me.

And Blood Meridian doesn't have good prose? This post is nonsense

How old is he in this pic

Nowhere near as good as Suttree.

Suttree is definitely his poetic peak, although that user is an idiot to say BM isnt worth reading. Suttree is McCarthy writing on himself, BM is more expansive in themes, less autistic

These things are not mutually exclusive.

>that user is an idiot to say BM isnt worth reading
Never said that, bro. I said it's peak edgelord lit that is stylistically inferior to Suttree.

you said exactly this, 'bro'
>Suttree is the only McCarthy book worth reading
so fuck off

Dishonest bitch.
>*From an actual literary perspective*
True statement, though. It's cool if you read for the edge, I guess. Just accept that you're a step up from Stephen King tier readers.

The responses that you've gotten are harsh, but I believe you're overstating BM's difficulty. I think it can be a smooth read if one focuses. I had a lot of trouble reading it the first time I tried because I kept falling back on speedreading and desperately looking for dialogue (bad habits from the genre-fiction of my teenage years). It's a good transition book for those looking to read thoughtfully.

I started with No Country. Was good.
Read Blood Meridian. It was fantastic.
Going to read the Road and Suttree soon enough.
McCarthy is a great author. If any of his stuff calls to you I'm sure it'll be worth reading.

The most difficult part about BM is getting over every 10th word being 'and,' the thesaurus abuse gets tiresome at times, the violence gets old quick. It has some amazing imagery, the dialog is ok, sparse enough that it will not detract even if you dislike it. It is structured much like a Sergio Leone western, which is interesting to see in novel form.

I do not see why people think it is such a great novel, but I have given up asking, never get a response beyond insults.

>never get a response beyond insults.

The McCarthy / Blood Meridian phenomenon is best understood as the go-to low-middle space 19-year-old edgelords with 110 IQs and 5-10 books under their belt gravitate towards after their depressive connection with Kafka wears off and morphs into anger.

Perhaps, but even some literary critics rate it very highly.

from wikipedia

Reception
While Blood Meridian initially received little recognition, it has since been recognized as McCarthy's masterpiece, and one of the greatest works of American literature. American literary critic Harold Bloom praised Blood Meridian as one of the 20th century's finest novels.[25] Time magazine included the novel in its "TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005".[26]

Aleksandar Hemon has called Blood Meridian "possibly the greatest American novel of the past 25 years." In 2006, The New York Times conducted a poll of writers and critics regarding the most important works in American fiction from the previous 25 years; Blood Meridian was a runner-up, along with John Updike's four novels about Rabbit Angstrom and Don DeLillo's Underworld while Toni Morrison's Beloved topped the list.[27] Novelist David Foster Wallace named Blood Meridian one of the five most underappreciated American novels since 1960[28] and described it as "[p]robably the most horrifying book of this century, at least [in] fiction."[29]

Literary significance
Academics and critics have variously suggested that Blood Meridian is nihilistic or strongly moral; a satire of the western genre, a savage indictment of Manifest Destiny. Harold Bloom called it "the ultimate western"; J. Douglas Canfield described it as "a grotesque Bildungsroman in which we are denied access to the protagonist's consciousness almost entirely."[30] Comparisons have been made to the work of Hieronymus Bosch and Sam Peckinpah, and of Dante Alighieri and Louis L'Amour. However, there is no consensus interpretation; James D. Lilley writes that the work "seems designed to elude interpretation."[9] After reading Blood Meridian, Richard Selzer declared that McCarthy "is a genius--also probably somewhat insane."[31] Critic Steven Shaviro wrote:

In the entire range of American literature, only Moby-Dick bears comparison to Blood Meridian. Both are epic in scope, cosmically resonant, obsessed with open space and with language, exploring vast uncharted distances with a fanatically patient minuteness. Both manifest a sublime visionary power that is matched only by still more ferocious irony. Both savagely explode the American dream of manifest destiny [sic] of racial domination and endless imperial expansion. But if anything, McCarthy writes with a yet more terrible clarity than does Melville.

—Steven Shaviro, "A Reading of Blood Meridian"[32]

But I have found little in the way of balanced critiques of it, just one like dust jacket reviews and obsessed fanboy ramblings. Would be very interested in hearing what DFW had to say on it if anyone has a link where he goes into some depth.

Look up the ethnic backgrounds of the critics praising it in those clips. That's the main reason it is acclaimed so highly. Some groups have an interest in pushing dark, violent nihilism on young white male readers.

Don’t worry about reading his stuff.blood meridian is a bad meme

Assuming your conspiracy theory is true, it does not affect my question and I am still seeking balanced critique of this novel and could care less about the ethnic background of the person if the critique is well done. Most of what I posted reads like standard dust jack one liners with the exception of the quote which reads like fanboy delusions, it was just an easily accessible sampling of what I am talking about plenty of others out there by people of ethnic backgrounds you would approve of, but I guess you would just say they have be brainwashed by the jew.

Not buying it
If anything jews would hate a white man writing a good book and do everything they can to shut it down

The only conspiracy is the one in your head that forces you to pretend reality and facts don't matter and that everyone has the same interests and objective view of the world that you do because you're afraid of being "racist."

This is not the diversity-infused literary world of today, it's the all-white literary world of the past generation. Jews have been promoting transgressive literature for well over a century.

You got me, my biggest feat is being called a racist on an anonymous image board.

Oh, should mention
t. jew

>t. jew
Well that explains it, doesn't it?

>Well that explains it, doesn't it?
Does not answer my question in the slightest and if you were correct, why do I discount all of those reviews by jews that I posted and seek others? Shouldn't I be using those as proof the book is great instead of hating on it and seeking out what others see in it?

>t. Still upset he will never have hot jewess wife.

it's not like its hard to get jewesses these days, you guys outbreed like crazy. let me reiterate that, you outbreed like normal minorities usually do, instead of the bizarre insular refusal to merge of the past 2000+ years

It's quite simple. 1) jews are extremely overrepresented in the publishing industry, as your own examples back up, and 2) have a collective interest, as your own examples back up as well, in promoting to young white males fiction that revolves more around certain narratives than quality, as you yourself admitted to being confused about.

You have confirmed everything I said, so what are you failing to see here?

of course someone named cormac would wear that shirt
who names their child cormac
sounds like a futuristic vacuum cleaner

Start at the beginning and read them all, Yea Forums hates McCarthy for whatever reason. I assume it's because a significant number of anons here are homosexual.

The Road and No Country For Old Men are really good and also much easier to read than others. Blood meridian is a chore to physically read while the audiobook version is the best book I have ever experienced. The audiobook is like a religious experience

cringe

It's meant to mirror the King James Bible. You get used to the prose. And I don't believe the violence gets old as (1) it's not that long a book and (2) Mccarthys imagery is so vivid and the scenes are so dark and immersive that every scene feels exciting.

As for the "thesaurus abuse", you might have touched on why people call you insults. This is the literature board. We're reading literature. Not YA.

that's his pen name, his name is Charles, and the shirt's alright for a 1970s man.

The shirt is nice, get some taste.

SARK AND CHAPPARAL MOTHERFUCKER

>you might have touched on why people call you insults
Thesaurus abuse is not having and using a large vocabulary, it is going out of your way to use different words when it adds nothing and is often used incorrectly because it was chosen based on being a synonym and not off of its definition. The captain's head was in a carboy, then a jar, they mean different things and it would be damn hard to get a head in a carboy. The book is filled with such things and the majority add nothing, misuse of words is fine and can be great, but this is just bad.

>We're reading literature. Not YA.
Assuming everyone that disagrees with your view is a moron is more the argument of a reader of YA than literature.

I will leave the biblical qualities for another time, this thread is going the same way as all the rest of the BM threads I have attempted to discourse in, pointless, just reaction, no thought.

Please whine more about your personal experiences on Yea Forums, we are all eager to read your blog.

>5. The Orchard Keeper
too high. that's his least accomplished book (makes sense being the first )

Sorry, did not realize that discussing the technical aspects of a novel and writing was considered blogging and whining.

>"book bad"
>"why you angry me discussing tekkknical aspects"
kys

don't worry user, I also never really liked that style of writing. bm is overrated on this board

Never said it was bad, just that I wanted to know why others rate it so highly, which is apparently beyond your language skills.

Not worried, just curious, every few months or so I decide to try and find out what it is that people love so much about this book. Regardless of how I approach the topic the end result is the same, a post that assumes I am a moron and then insults. Oh well.