Is that Blood Meridian on your shelf? Blood Meridian is really good (I hated The Road). McCarthy's writing is so hard to understand, but that story was incredible. I had to read that book 3 times to fully understand the story, haha. I don't like his writing style though. It's stupidly cryptic, but he sure does know how to write a story even still. Suttree is really funny if you ever get the chance to read that one.
Yes and no haha. Yes, that is Blood Meridian on the shelf! But not on my shelf, the shelf behind me belongs to my partner, just used it as a fun background so it's his book. I haven't read any Cormac McCarthy, I've heard his stuff can get pretty dark, and I've also heard similar complaints about him flexing his literary prowess in unnecessarily complicated ways. Interesting that you didn't like The Road, that's usually peoples favorite. Is the movie any good? I've been considering watching it first to see if I even want to try his books.
@@bookishbianca Yeah, they get really dark, and I mean REALLY dark, even Blood Meridian (that one, in my opinion, is very worth it...I've read it now 3 times because the story...very interesting but it will make you uncomfortable in many different ways), but The Road is just needlessly depressing. To give you an idea of just how dark, it talks about kidnapping and harvesting pregnant mothers to cook their unborn babies over a campfire for eating. Just really gross (I was not expecting that, lol), and I found the ending extremely rushed and poor. It does have a couple of good moments, but overall, it's really boring. Nothing really happens the whole book, except grossness and maybe two action scenes. The one thing that could be said about The Road though is it's way easier to understand than Blood Meridian. I think Suttree at least for me would've been the best opener book (it's very funny but worlds apart from his other books). I'll never understand though why McCarthy is praised as the greatest modern American writer though. Ever...he's so depressing and writes without any clarity, but he does "usually" write a hypnotic story. I'll give him that. I couldn't really understand Blood Meridian the first time, but I found myself back at it a second time to understand it better because something about that story was so weird and interesting. It's about a group of Apache scalp hunters hired by the US (or Mexican?) government who eventually go rogue and turn to scalping Mexicans. There are no good guys in that book, but there are some villains worse than others. The Road is not a great thing to read right before a potential nuclear war because it's so negative, and it'll give you fears you didn't have before, lol. I've never watched any of his movies. Suttree doesn't really get all that depressing.
sorry for the late response, TH-cam never notified me for some reason. but that is super dark... it kind of reminds me of the walking dead based on what you're saying. there are similar dark themes and actions that take place in TWD, but the characters are so realistic and lovable (not necessarily always good guys, but you still love them) so we as the viewers understand why they have to commit cruel acts, for survival. I also started watching TWD very young so its never really scared me. but for most other horror or dark media, I tend to stay away because im generally a wuss. cannibals and scalp hunters might be too much for me. but I never say never... ill tell my partner what you said about the books though because he likes dark lit so thanks for explaining and giving advice on the reading order!
Is that Blood Meridian on your shelf? Blood Meridian is really good (I hated The Road). McCarthy's writing is so hard to understand, but that story was incredible. I had to read that book 3 times to fully understand the story, haha. I don't like his writing style though. It's stupidly cryptic, but he sure does know how to write a story even still. Suttree is really funny if you ever get the chance to read that one.
Yes and no haha. Yes, that is Blood Meridian on the shelf! But not on my shelf, the shelf behind me belongs to my partner, just used it as a fun background so it's his book. I haven't read any Cormac McCarthy, I've heard his stuff can get pretty dark, and I've also heard similar complaints about him flexing his literary prowess in unnecessarily complicated ways. Interesting that you didn't like The Road, that's usually peoples favorite. Is the movie any good? I've been considering watching it first to see if I even want to try his books.
@@bookishbianca Yeah, they get really dark, and I mean REALLY dark, even Blood Meridian (that one, in my opinion, is very worth it...I've read it now 3 times because the story...very interesting but it will make you uncomfortable in many different ways), but The Road is just needlessly depressing. To give you an idea of just how dark, it talks about kidnapping and harvesting pregnant mothers to cook their unborn babies over a campfire for eating. Just really gross (I was not expecting that, lol), and I found the ending extremely rushed and poor. It does have a couple of good moments, but overall, it's really boring. Nothing really happens the whole book, except grossness and maybe two action scenes.
The one thing that could be said about The Road though is it's way easier to understand than Blood Meridian. I think Suttree at least for me would've been the best opener book (it's very funny but worlds apart from his other books). I'll never understand though why McCarthy is praised as the greatest modern American writer though. Ever...he's so depressing and writes without any clarity, but he does "usually" write a hypnotic story. I'll give him that. I couldn't really understand Blood Meridian the first time, but I found myself back at it a second time to understand it better because something about that story was so weird and interesting. It's about a group of Apache scalp hunters hired by the US (or Mexican?) government who eventually go rogue and turn to scalping Mexicans. There are no good guys in that book, but there are some villains worse than others.
The Road is not a great thing to read right before a potential nuclear war because it's so negative, and it'll give you fears you didn't have before, lol. I've never watched any of his movies. Suttree doesn't really get all that depressing.
sorry for the late response, TH-cam never notified me for some reason. but that is super dark... it kind of reminds me of the walking dead based on what you're saying. there are similar dark themes and actions that take place in TWD, but the characters are so realistic and lovable (not necessarily always good guys, but you still love them) so we as the viewers understand why they have to commit cruel acts, for survival. I also started watching TWD very young so its never really scared me. but for most other horror or dark media, I tend to stay away because im generally a wuss. cannibals and scalp hunters might be too much for me. but I never say never... ill tell my partner what you said about the books though because he likes dark lit so thanks for explaining and giving advice on the reading order!