I’ve got two of these for me. Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon, and Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.
Gravity’s Rainbow is somewhat of a gatekeeper’s book, because it’s infamous for it’s complexity, hundreds of characters, and prose being a mix between rocket science and lowlife buffoonery.
For me, I thought the entire book was a blast, and I read it with no problem. Sure, some sections *are* incredibly dense with scientific lingo and discussions of philosophy, *but*, it balances it with probably the funniest writing I’ve ever read. Seriously, the only other book to make me laugh this hard was probably “Harris and Me” by Gary Paulson.
For me, Gravity’s Rainbow was just FUN. Because of my ADHD monkey brain, I get bored very easily, and every few pages either the subject, narrator or even writing style/prose changes. I read this book very easily, and I can’t wait to re-read it because I know I only maybe grasped 25% of it on my first read.
#Blood Meridian.
Blood Meridian, on the other hand, took me by surprise. From what I gathered online about it’s reputation, it’s one of the hardest books in the English language to get all the way though mostly because of the Sadistic and pointless violence. What I wasn’t told, however, is that this violence is written in the most beautiful, poetic and euphoric way.
I think it’s this dissonant dynamic that kept me reading. Say what you want about the works of McCarthy, but the guy was Faulkner’s greatest disciple and has some of the best writing the world ever saw, period.
Yes, the violence is as hardcore as you’ve heard about it, but if you can stomach it, this is a DAMN good book.
by tmfult
11 Comments
Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco
The Silmarillion. As a young teen I had this idea that it was unreadable, but it’s pretty straightforward. Once you realise you’re reading myths rather than a continuous story, it goes down a treat.
Moby Dick. I don’t remember too much about it now, since I read it in high school, but I remember I read it fairly quickly
Some people either had a hard time with or hated Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys for the way it bounced between viewpoints and was hard to follow, but I didn’t really see that.
The Malazan series is maybe infamous for its huge cast of characters (new characters are always coming in), huge temporal jumps, two hard to follow magic systems, and a lot of lore to keep track of, but if you just read through it, it all comes together. That’s one that I think people just don’t trust themselves to get by the time it’s all done.
I would echo Blood Meridian. The story and atmosphere are just too compelling. I didn’t think Infinite Jest was that difficult.
House of Leaves. Loved the book. Can understand why people would struggle though. Like… footnotes.
This is a great post, and different people will find different things challenging.
I just finished **Blood Meridian** last week, and likewise I was daunted by the reputation that it’s incomprehensible at times, but honestly it was a pleasure to read. One needs only to take time with the sentence structures.
On the topic of taking time, Faulkner’s **The Sound and the Fury** is notorious not only for Benjy’s disjointed narrative, but also Quentin’s chapter-long sentences in stream of consciousness. However, Faulkner maintains dialogue tags in this rambling stream, and it’s really not that hard to follow if you mentally insert your own sentence breaks.
It seems that most books where naming conventions are confusing, either characters with numerous names and patronyms like in **War and Peace** or many characters with the same name such as **One Hundred Years of Solitude**, I don’t have any issue with.
I’ve only read **Swann’s Way** from **In Search of Lost Time**, but when you fall into the rhythm of the language, and just let the sentences flow on, rather than trying to impose your own structure on them, they become much easier to follow.
I will say, that I do sometimes stuggle with Dickens’ elaborate sentence structure.
It was interesting to see your take on Gravity’s Rainbow. I read the **Crying of Lot 49** as a warm-up and decided that I was not prepared for Pynchon, and need to work my way up with his easier works.
Why does it smell so good in this thread?
Oh, it’s because I farted.
I think the “McCarthy is so hard to read because of *lack of punctuation*” is generally way overblown.
War and Peace… it has much more of a soap opera vibe than I expected, as well as a good but of humor. I later read that Tolstoy wrote for the masses and was never considered difficult reading, I guess it’s the length that scares most people into thinking it’ll be hard to read.
Infinite Jest