[DiapDealer]

I find over-attribution more annoying than too little attribution in dialogue. If the author's not good enough at written dialogue to keep things clear without a a lot of "Bob said; John expounded; Alice wheedled"s being interjected, then adding them isn't likely to keep me reading either. Quite the opposite, in fact. If individual characters' voices can't be distinguished without constant prompting, then the author/book usually isn't for me.

McCormac's non-use of traditional conversational punctuation is a bit extreme for my taste, but it never really caused me any confusion. It's not the lack of punctuation that keeps me away from his books--in fact his characters' voices are quite distinct without it, in my opinion. I just can't connect with any of them.