If you just shrugged at the legion of horribles passage, there’s probably not much point continuing. Consider returning to it in a few years or after reading other McCarthy books.

My go to advice is to try the audiobook if you are struggling. I think it’s the perfect voice for the book and hearing the words pronounced can really help with clarity. It never occurred to me that McCarthy was so focused on how a word sounds and how that can be used to convey specific emotions until i listened. A lot of the poetry of the writing stood out once I heard it.

Also to help with your investment, what helped me was viewing this book as not just a narrative but also as a work of philosophy. The books is very much about ideas. I would suggest while youre reading or listening to ask questions about what the book is actually telling you. As the book progresses you will get long dialogues or monologues, what ideas are being conveyed here? What do they tell us or what are they asking us?

The book is not really about a gripping plot that is structured in a way to keep you engaged and the characters are not written to be endearing or rich with inner-life to the point they seem real. BM is extremely biblical, there is rarely any interiority to biblical characters. The first words are “See the child.” You are witnessing this story, you are an observer but you do not have direct access to them.

Lastly I would say to read the epigraphs at the beginning, they are extremely important for telling you what this book is about. Why do you think these are there? What sort if story are they setting up for? When reading think about how any given scene could relate to them.

Please post ‘Should I keep reading’ questions, in our Weekly Recommendation Thread.