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what Cormac McCarthy book should you read first?
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- Опубліковано 17 сер 2024
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Figuring out a reading order for Cormac McCarthy can be hard. Some of McCarthy's works are inaccessible to beginner readers, and other books may not be exciting or dynamic enough for more fluff readers. So today I'll be outlining three different reader archetypes and providing a Cormac McCarthy reading order for them! Comment your thoughts down below to help create some data for a future video where I create a 1-12 reading order for these reader archetypes.
The three archetypes are
Fluff Reader 0:45 - 3:24
Intelligent Reader 3:25 - 6:12
Literary Bro 6:13 - 8:55
Cormac McCarthy is an American writer who we consider one of the greatest authors of all time. He was born in Rhode Island but was raised and wrote his initial works in Tennessee. However, his most famous (and best) works were written in the Southwestern United States. Below are some links and my opinion on all his books!
Book Name: Stella Maris
Author: Cormac McCarthy
Publication Date: December 6th, 2022
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Rating: 8/10
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Book Name: The Passenger
Author: Cormac McCarthy
Publication Date: October 2022
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Rating: 8.5/10
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Book Name: The Road
Author: Cormac McCarthy
Publication Date: September 2006
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Rating: 7/10
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Book Name: No Country For Old Men
Author: Cormac McCarthy
Publication Date: July 2005
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Rating: 7/10
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Book Name: Cities of the Plain
Author: Cormac McCarthy
Publication Date: May 1998
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Rating: 8/10
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Book Name: The Crossing
Author: Cormac McCarthy
Publication Date: June 1994
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Rating: 10/10
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Book Name: All the Pretty Horses
Author: Cormac McCarthy
Publication Date: May 1992
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Rating: 9/10
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Book Name: Blood Meridian
Author: Cormac McCarthy
Publication Date: April 1985
Publisher: Random House
Rating: 10/10
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Book Name: Suttree
Author: Cormac McCarthy
Publication Date: May 1979
Publisher: Random House
Rating: 9.5/10
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Book Name: Child of God
Author: Cormac McCarthy
Publication Date: 1973
Publisher: Random House
Rating: 6.5
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Man... I remember being 17 and reading NCFOM. I was blown away at how much a straight up copy-paste notepad document to paper with such threadbare words and no punctuation could make me care so much. Just goes to show writing is playing chess with another's unconscious and it don't matter how fancy or sparkly the pieces.
I wouldn’t introduce causal readers to McCarthy. The folk who like Patterson are going to go for any of McMarty’s novels. For the middle tier The Border Trilogy. If someone like horror, then Child of God. Blood Meridian for the rest. I think No County for Old Men and The Road are his weakest novels. I haven’t read the Orchard Keeper.
Yooo! What's up. Saw your comment about my "Passenger" review on "Bookish." Don't worry. I am preparing a 5+ hour of "The Passenger" that won't be light with the details lmao :P - DON'T CANCEL YOUR BOX SET! I tend to agree about No Country For Old Men and the Road, but I've tricked some lay-readers with my movie to book approach lol.
those two were written for the screen so a bit different
No Country for Old Men was my gate way drug into McCarthy. After that I borrowed Suttree from my local public library and basically lost my mind over how beautiful the prose was. From there I read everything I could get my hands on, although I got hardcover editions of The Passenger and Stella Maris still on my TBR pile, I got some McEwan, Arnott and others to plough through and I’m kind of saving them for a rainy day when I need my final fix. I’ve always been a big reader but more into genre fiction, sci-fi fantasy kind of guy. Now I read more ‘lit’ although with authors like Mieville I think the line gets pretty blurred in as much as his writing is as intellectually satisfying as it is imaginatively. Still McCarthy was special man, just one of the greatest of all time IMO, and everybody should at least try to read him.
So you are telling me I have only read his worse books.
@@AllenFreemanMediaGuruIt not doubt varies from reader to reader but I personally think No Country for Old Men and The Road are some of his best. Big caveat though, I haven’t yet read his other books.
Thank you so much for this video! I consider myself part of the second, middle of the road group, so I am looking forward to seeing you map out the reading order for each group in a future video!
Thanks for all the support! Will be releasing those videos this month sometime!
As an avid reader I was recommended blood meridian I do remember the road in high school coming out and never read it. It was my cup of tea but a friend recommended blood meridian as my first book and it was amazing! Good god what an amazing book and this is right after reading snow crash! I ordered all the pretty horses and no country for old men as I watched that movie. What my friends have recommended if your skipped the road don't bother with it. Cormac has so many other great reads!
In terms of accessibility, my order would be:
1. No Country For Old Men. Very accessible, sharp prose, tense, thrilling, and violent. Best starting point.
2. The Border Trilogy. I adore The Crossing, but the whole trilogy is deeply human and contains some of the most moving passages I've read.
3. The Road. Sparse and haunting, anchored by the love a father has for his son in a world where humanity has all but disappeared. This is one of his most optimistic books, in my opinion.
4. Blood Meridian. The greatest book he authored and, as far as I'm concerned, the finest piece of American literature I've ever read. Having said that, its emphasis on regional languages, as well as a detailed but highly technical taxonomy of flora and fauna can make for an imposing read. It is also terribly (but necessarily) violent.
5. Suttree. It just puts a big smile on my face and I don't know why. I hope it does the same for others.
6. The Passenger. Intimate portrait of the things that haunt us, of the lives we dream of and could have had. I think it's a beautiful piece of work, but the bizarre interludes (which I won't spoil here) can be a little jarring. Having said that, I haven't read Stella Maris yet.
6. Child of God. A very unpleasant story, but McCarthy's writing shines.
7. Outer Dark. This is the one book of his I couldn't finish; it was just too much.
I typically start by suggesting No Country For Old Men, but I find that most people who would actually be interested in books like Blood Meridian, have already heard of it or read it by the time I'm having that discussion with them(maybe I've reached the point in my life where I'm not interacting with many new literary fiction readers.) Unlike a lot of others though, I really enjoy No Country and think it's a solid piece of work, and absolutely love the movie as well, but I feel the book was written with a film adaptation in mind and is structured much more as a film overall. The few people who I've suggested his other titles as first reads, almost never continue, but I've got a few hooked with No Country for Old Men.
Thank for your recommendation, I’ve been reading classic epic poems lately like Dante and Homer so I am excited for a change! Definitely will read Blood Meridian! Super excited! Thank you again!!!
You are the mccarthy's guy!!!I started reading mccarthy in 2010 with suttree that I adored. I read it two times in a row. Then after watching no country for old men, I read the book. And then I was in mccarthy's world and I wanted to read all his books. At last I have read the passenger. Now I have only to read stella maris but I want to get into it as late as possible because it's the last mccarthy's book i will be able to read. Thanks for your great job!!
I am the guy!
I actually read All the Pretty Horses first for my Texas Literature course at UT-Austin. On my own, I read Outer Dark first then The Sunset Limited. Great video! Just submitted to the newsletter👍🏻
Damn! UT-Austin throwing out hammers in their program! My professors just shoved post-modern theory and fiction down my throat for eight years lol. Nature and individuality didn't exist to them 🤣 Excited to have you on the newsletter. Hopefully preparing some exclusive content from some McCarthy scholars for the list soon!
"Blood meridian is a very bizarre book" me - "sold"
Lol. Is there any other way to describe it???
Love this man. Such wise guidance here. I started with The Road, then Blood Meridian, then The Border Trilogy. and lastly No Country For Old Men after seeing the movie.
Oh, yes, NCFOM is a great place to start for a newbie. That’d be my choice, for sure. I think over all your suggestions are spot on. I subscribed so that I can hear you talk a lot more about Cormac in the future!
Thanks, Brandon! You literally commented on this video while I was watching yours LOL. I actually watched your bookshelf tour and trusted you like 10x more when I saw McCarthy in the fiction section :P Not that I didn't before with the other 200 similar books on our shelves lmao.
@@WriteConscious lol! thats amazing.
I started reading the road this weekend and now I wish I didn’t start reading this in the winter. Im in desperate need of sunshine and a day at the lake with my kids 🫨
I read the road in my senior year high school class and loved it. It was my favorite book I read in high school. Many years later I want to jump back into his books and this video was great for that
Let me know about your progress!
I finished The Road first because I loathed the idea of reading it until I really understood what it was. Now I think it's one of the most beautiful things I've read, atmosphere/interactions notwithstanding. I think a lot of people miss the heart of it because they don't know it was dedicated to his son. That really contextualizes it and makes you look for what he's trying to say about the love and anxiety of being a parent. It definitely fails as a dystopian novel because it's not dystopian - it's post-apocalyptic. As a post-apocalyptic novel that focuses on a kernel of hope, it succeeds.
Hi mate. looking forward to more talk on The Passenger. - I really like McCarthy's early work. it has its own charm. Nothing beats Blood Meridian, to good to recommend even. i think the novel that is a good first read, but still is honest to his work is probably All the pretty horses. but now, having read The Passenger im surprised how a fast read it was. english being my second language i usually take my time on his novels. i think that also is good to recommend. have you read any Knut Hamsun?
It does have it's own charm! A lot more talk is coming soon though! Today I am dropping a chapter by chapter breakdown with discussions about The Passenger. Tune in! I love Knut Hamsun. It's actually a SYNC that you mention. On this channel right now we are running a Robert Bly course. He is my favorite poet. Well, he did the 1967 English translation of Hamsun's "Hunger." When I read it when I was 18 I didn't even know about Bly yet and I loved the book. Was shook when I figured out it was him!
I am listening to the audiobook, My Confession: Recollections Of A Rogue, by Richard Chamberlain. I heard about it on this channel and wanted to know how much of it appears to have inspired Blood Meridian. I’m curious if you would recommend that book to someone to dive into before Blood Meridian? I’m doing so because I’m curious about the history. Haven’t gotten to Judge Holden yet.
I think your first recommendation is a smart one, (No Country . . .) because of the film, as you said, and because it’s a reasonably close adaptation. But also because it has a more conventional structure than many of McCarthy’s other books. It makes sense on first reading. And there is the character of the hitcher who offers us some insights into Lewellyn Moss’s character, by his interactions with her. When realise that you know from third hand, a witness’s account of what happened in a shootout, exactly what was going through that character’s mind and why they reacted the way they did, from tiny snippets of information, that’s truly great writing. And that’s what that character adds to the novel, absent from the movie. So it has a lot to offer fans of the Cohen brothers.
To that last hypothetical reader, naturally, start with Blood Meridian. Personally, I would recommend Richard Poe as narrator for the audiobook, for all the dyslexics out there, like me. But I cannot imagine your hungry, well read and interested reader not falling in love with what is arguably the longest poem in American novel form. His evocative pros style will hook any intelligent reader, on the page or in the ear bud. Just don’t sell it as a poem.
As an Englishman, I feel I almost know the region from West Texas through New Mexico and south of the Rio Grande, as well as Tennessee, especially Knoxville, from McCarthy’s vivid words.
read the road years ago. loved it. now I am reading Outer Dark, so far it seems like a good first one because its short
It's a great book!
Blood Meridian is my fav book of all time. I don't think anyone should just jump into BM.. at least not without doing a tiny bit of research first to know what you're getting into.
The Road and NCFOM are perfect entry points I think. Great suggestions.
For sure, if someone reads Empire of the Summer Moon or my confession it would really help.
I’m 17 not really a avid reader and i read blood meridian just fine. I think anybody who appreciates a good villain, deep philosophy, and beautiful language will like it
You gonna make a tier list soon of cormac mcarthy
I will soon! Try to up some of the production brotha! Hope you're doing well! This channel kind of just blew up a little lol. Crazy!!
How are you doing on Blood Meridian??
@@WriteConscious I’m not on that book yet still on the brothers Karamazov
I read the road first because a waitress was reading it for class and she was like it’s so good and I read the first couple pages and I thought ‘this is exactly how I want to write’ and so I read that first. Then I read Blood Meridian because someone said it was the smartest book ever written and so I read that and was shocked to see the judge and the idiot and a little girl in a shack when the Yumas attack and then the idiot on a leash and then the scariest portrayal of hell when the kid has a dream after surgery of the judge standing over someone in the dark who was trying to make money with no fire in the dark by hammering random rocks in search of random metal to make money to buy his way out of hell. Then I started at the Orchard Keeper and read all his fiction except Suttree and his new one. Child of God was fun, orchard Keeper was good. Outer dark was very smart and depicted random violence the best. Border trilogy was good. No country was literally a screen play made into a novel so it was the movie verbatim.
I read the The Road with my girlfriend and she really liked it. But then we read All The Pretty Horses and she liked that one less and then she really didn’t like The Crossing. McCarthy just isn’t for everyone no matter where they start.
1-2 bro. You're just getting going! The incest in Outer Dark and The Passenger will be a make or break though 😂😂
Idk which Murakami book to get first I have the wind up bird chronicle so could you do a tier list of the Murakami books so I know which ones to get first
finish the brothers karamazov and blood meridian before you get any other BOOKS!!!!
@@WriteConscious based
I suppose the most easier way to introduce into McCarthy is watching “No country for old men”. It was my way and then I started read his books
agreed. Most people love the movie, so if you tell them the book is wayyyy better you have a good shot
Nice. I started with Blood Meridian and then read Child of God, and will continue on from here.
Keep going!
I started with Blood Meredian in 2018/2019, then read The Passenger and Stella Maris (Stella broke me) what would you recommend next?
The Border Triology! Start with The Crossing, then go All the Pretty Horses, and close it off with Cities of the Plains. You can read The Crossing first with zero spoilers for ATPH. Based off your comments you'll like The Crossing as it will break you even worse...
I started with the road, I’m about halfway but I have to take a break from it because it felt way to real. It’s so terrifying knowing that a meteor or volcanic eruption could end all living things and leaving us nothing but each other to eat. I might have been traumatized by it if I’m being honest. Can literature traumatize you?
Lol, it can 100% traumatize you. I just re-read "The Road" and watched the movie this week. We are honestly a couple steps away from eating each other at all times... It wouldn't even take a super volcano going off. I've had books that still haunt me and mess with me. If books can help you grow they can also destroy you also!
Absolutely! The ending to A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway had this effect on me.
First CM? It depends. For readers with strongish stomaches, Outer Dark (brief) or The Road. Both very readable. I like this guy because he likes McCarthy, but it’s bullshit that The Road “fails” when compared to other dystopian works-wha? Who th fuck said it is dystopian? It’s great writing, and that’s all that matters. Blood Meridian is a different matter because of its hyperbolic violence, but it’s probably M’s greatest novel. Dark, dark. For those without taste for blood n guts, All the Pretty Horses is a fine novel, as are the others in that trilogy. No Country would also be a good starter. Middling blood. The Coens filmed it pretty faithfully.
Great insight! Thanks!
No Country for Old Men is probably the weakest or least impressive out of a completely impressive catalog. It isn't bad, just the weakest in relative terms.
Agreed. Some of his plays and screenplays were weaker imo though
So far I think Child of God…a mini blood meridian….longing
Somebody that isn’t a serious book reader but likes Stephen King could perhaps enjoy NCFOM.
For sure, that's McCarthy's most accessible work.
I will read blood meridian first.
Good luck. lmk what you think
The Road is not meant to be about a dystopian society. It’s about survival and fathers love for his son. The backstory to how America went to hell isn’t what the books about. That’s the beauty of it. The people are the most important subjects here not the cause of the dystopian society.
🍁
So..... the answer to your little question is Blood Meridian?
Nope
5:00 Or you could've just studied Spanish at school, the second language most spoken in the world 🤣