Damn, that man can write.

I'm reading Blood Meridian now. It's amazing. His language is so strange and still familiar. And he does this amazing thing where the writing style slowly evolves as the book goes on, roughly in step with the progression of the protagonist. It's wild and beautiful.

Check it out:

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When their eyes lost their blindness they could make out figures crouched along the wall. Stirrings in beds of hay like nesting mice disturbed. A light snoring. Outside the rattle of a cart and the dull clop of hooves in the street and through the stones a dim clank of hammers from a smith's shop in another part of the dungeon. The kid looked about. Blackened bits of candlewick lay here and there in pools of dirty grease on the stone floor and strings of dried spittle hung from the walls. A few names scratched where the light could find them out. He squatted and rubbed his eyes. Someone in underwear crossed before him to a pail in the center of the room and stood and pissed. This man then turned and came his way. He was tall and wore his hair to his shoulders. He shuffled through the straw and stood looking down at him. You dont know me, do ye? he said.

The kid spat and squinted up at him. I know ye, he said. I'd know your hide in a tanyard.

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Anyone else read him? I have No Country for Old Men, too. What else is good?

Funny, I've planned a trip to the bookstore to buy Blood Meridian tomorrow. I've read The Road. It felt like it could be the last book written, and I wouldn't mind. Strange and familiar, yeah that's it. Many years ago (like 12, or so) I started to read All those Pretty Horses, but it was a Swedish translation and didn't really grab me then. I'm pretty sure I'd like The Border Trilogy now, though.

I read this one a few months ago after watching the Coen's Brother adaptation of No country for Old Men (great movie imho). I'd like to know about his other books too...

But if you liked it, I can't recommend Tristan Egolf 's Lord of the Barnayard : Killing the Fatted Calf and Arming the Aware in the  Corn Belt enough.