Blood Meridian

by Cormac McCarthy

Blood Meridian is an epic novel of the violence and depravity that attended America's westward expansion, brilliantly subverting the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the Wild West. Based on historical events that took place on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s, it traces the fortunes of the Kid, a fourteen-year-old Tennesseean who stumbles into a nightmarish world where Indians are being murdered and the market for their scalps is thriving.

`McCarthy's achievement is to establish a new mythology which is as potent and vivid as that of the movies, yet one which has absolutely the opposite effect . . . He is a great writer' Independent

`I have rarely encountered anything as powerful, as unsettling, or as memorable as Blood Meridian . . . A nightmare odyssey' Evening Standard

`His masterpiece . . .The book reads like a conflation of the Inferno, The Iliad and Moby Dick. I can only declare that Blood Meridian is unlike anything I have read in recent years, and seems to me an extraordinary, breathtaking achievement' John Banville

• ISBN10: 0330544586
• ISBN13: 9780330544580
• Publish Date: 1 January 2011 (first published 1 February 1985)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 21 November 2013
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Imprint: Picador
• Format: Paperback
• Language: English

Reviews

[Michael @ Knowledge Lost]

I’ve wanted to read another Cormac McCarthy book after enjoying The Road; so after a long time of sitting on my To-Read shelf, I decided it was about time to give Blood Meridian a go. This is probably McCarthy’s most known book; other than the Pulitzer winning The Road. Narrated by a runaway known as the “the kid”, Blood Meridian follows the Glanton gang scalp hunters as they massacred North American tribes. Judge Holden is the main antagonist and is an intelligent man but terrifying which his constant need for conflict and violence.

I often enjoy books aspects from history to make a compelling story; James Ellroy and Hilary Mantel come to mind when thinking of authors that do this well and now Cormac McCarthy. As an author McCarthy is rather brilliant, he knows how to spin an entertaining and intelligent story with wonderful prose’s for a book of intense violence and bleak environments. I’ve not read many Westerns but if this is anything to go on then I might have to read some more.

Blood Meridian has very environmental and characters driven and it was a real pleasure to read. But then there is an aspect of this book that I really didn’t like. The violence and horror aspects of this book is not for the faint hearted, and I tend to enjoy these elements but even for me I feel like maybe Cormac McCarthy too it a little too far; to a sickening level. This is like reading a nightmare; the acts of violence are so intense and evil that even I was disturbed.

This book is not for everyone, it’s a hellish read and Cormac McCarthy brilliance does seem to be drowned out by the blood of the Judge Holden’s victims. I couldn’t recommend this book to anyone as it is really intense, but if you think you can handle it, it’s worth reading. The book is fairly dense when comparing it to The Road, but it was still an interesting look at the disturbing nature of Judge Holden and the Glanton gang.

[jamiereadthis]

I can’t remember the last time I had to renew a book from the library to chew my way through it. For Blood Meridian to take two weeks and counting: well, there lies the beginning, and only the beginning, of my praise for it; this is just one hell of a book. I said it would take only one more novel to prove McCarthy my generational gap soulmate; it took less than that to seal for himself a top slot on my favorite authors of all time.

Grueling, gutsy; expansively dense. McCarthy doesn’t waste a spare letter, space, or excised apostrophe. Take this passage, for example, early in the book, one of the few less soaked with blood:

“They moved on and the stars jostled and arced across the firmament and died beyond the inkblack mountains. They came to know the nightskies well.”

Make it “ink black,” pull apart “night skies,” and the passage is appropriately lyrical; exorcise those two innocent spaces and you’re wrestling a beast that will knock you flat to the ground.

And my favorite, my favorite of all, what McCarthy does best: dialogue that with a one-two punch turns the passage on its head.

Books lie, he said.
God dont lie.
No, said the judge. He does not. And these are his words.
He held up a chunk of rock.
He speaks in stones and trees, the bones of things.
The squatters in their rags nodded among themselves and were soon reckoning him correct, this man of learning, in all his speculations, and this the judge encouraged until they were right proselytes of the new order whereupon he laughed at them for fools.