> Extremely difficult for no reason whatsoever. Terrible book.

Many people believe this is the mythical "Great American Novel" we've been arguing about and/or anticipating forever. Strong argument for that because it's actually very Hollywood, isn't it? It's an absurdly action-packed cowboy-horror mashup that's full of gratuitous violence and manifest destiny.

I know several people that thought it was "extremely gory for no reason whatsoever" and did not finish for that reason, but none that thought it was difficult. I was surprised TFA mentioned it in that light, because I remember Child of God being more of a slog and BM being a page-turner.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_American_Novel

Last time I read it, I did not find it challenging outside of some of the more obscure words used (particularly things like names of types of buildings and similar mundane objects), and my Kindle's built-in dictionary was able to define all of those in one tap.

As far as "for no reason", I would say that McCarthy's impressionist prose that meanders, leaves out some details while focusing on others, etc., is some of the best English language prose ever written. It's beautiful and conveys affect better than almost anything else I've encountered. All the "reason" I needed.

I just finished Blood Meridian and consulted AI as-needed to cover the many, many metaphors. The funny thing was that Google AI got a lot of the book wrong, getting the fate of some characters mixed up as well as confusing some faceless deaths with others. Too much wanton violence to keep track of.

The book definitely covers evil and nihilism thoroughly, so why would you want to read something like that? Well, for every bad decision someone makes in the book, the reader has the opposite response of, "oh crap, don't do that!" So reading about nihilism doesn't make you more nihilistic. While I thought it was a great book it isn't something you should just read without consulting outside sources.