Albert Camus uses the myth of Sisyphus to deliberate on the theme of suicide, which he considers the only “truly philosophical problem” whether or not life is worth the living (26). The meaningless penalty involved rolling a boulder up a slope only for the rock to roll back down as soon as Sisyphus had reached the summit. It is aimed at a more general readership than lots of philosophy it does not seem to require a lot of technical preliminaries: and so on.The mythical Sisyphus was given an arduous punishment that was to continue for eternity. That said and very broadly speaking, and compared especially to other existentialists, perhaps we can say the Myth is not particularly challenging at a conceptual level necessarily - but rather at an emotional and intellectual level, and maybe a spiritual or aesthetic one. (We could produce a bunch of meta-level commentary about the work but I’m not sure how enlightening that might really be. Perhaps the text is a rock you have to push up a hill endlessly, and each time the groove is worn in a little deeper. Reading strategies are ultimately going to be singular yet share this recursive-progressive structure of gradually elaborating the semantic content through a dynamic between thinking and “moving”. Possibly reread where necessary, take notes or draw pictures, and ask yourself questions about what you’re reading. Really these two strategies are fused: you are moving just quick enough to keep momentum going and also just slow enough to permit things to cohere.
Alternatively go slow and allow yourself to process and understand every beat. Reading comes in revisions and drafts, too: gradual approaches that recursively construct a model of the text. (Maybe try to actively evaluate what “level” the material is - are you completely lost, or is it just a little elusive or is it “just challenging enough” etc.)
You can make a note to look something up later of course, but especially on a first pass and first encounter with a work that might be or seem challenging, maybe just focus on the broad structure of the work, trying to understand as much as possible very quickly. Human culture belongs to everyone, and you don’t need to understand every reference to get most of the value out of a work. I would really suggest that in general don’t be worried about not being ready for a work, especially one as important and broadly relevant as The Myth of Sisyphus. It’s one of the great works of literature as well as philosophy, a cultural monument and apex and touchstone in its own right and it is as open to you as it is for anyone for an immediate encounter. Try reading it and see! There’s probably not a really satisfying answer for the general case.
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