New and Old

Sorry, I will not be able to elaborate much on his earlier writing. I read Blood Meridian many years ago when I read not for enjoyment, but because it marked you as an intelligent person. But from what I remember, it is a much more challenging read and certainly would have given Opera's book some trouble. The Road seems to be a redacted version of his old style; still has the raw landscapes and senseless human cruelty, but in Blood Meridian he takes his time. Let's you know exactly where you are and carefully describes the cold hearted bastards who are killing each other off. His scene setting in The Road is the pair standing on a ridge in front of some black trees, every time. A lot of ash too, but he never actually talks about the ash in the air. Just kind of forms on surfaces. And then there are the masks that everyone is wearing, leaving us to assume that they live in an incessant ash storm; a scene designed for poetic imagery that he does nothing with.