If you haven’t read Cormac McCarthy, that needs to change. His prose simply has no equal. The man was an actual, honest-to-god, national treasure. He was so formative for me as an author, and I’m just gutted by his death.
Be warned: if you’re going to attempt to read one of his books, you need to make sure that you have the time and space to give it proper attention. His work is heavy, like a slab of lead, and you need to be sure to give yourself extra time to digest things. But it’s so, so rewarding.
I read The Road and it just didn’t click with me, I finished it feeling like it was just “ok.” I think part of the problem was how much it had been hyped up by other readers and how famous it was and I went into it expecting to be changed when I came out, though I wasn’t. I’ll give McCarthy another try though, I have both No County for Old Men and Blood Meridian sitting on my bookshelf and I’ll get to them eventually.
The Road was definitely an outlier of his, but one that I still think is a good book. You’re right though, I feel like it got overhyped a bit, but I hope that doesn’t shadow his other work for you. No Country and Blood Meridian are both juggernauts and incredible pieces of fiction. If you haven’t seen the movie adaptation of No Country either I highly recommend it.