Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy

Oct 22, 2011 Josh rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: NOT the faint of heart

Shelves: blood-meridian

Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian is unquestionably the most violent novel I’ve ever read. It’s also one of the best.

For those who would consider that a turn-off, I offer this caveat:
For the overwhelming majority of fiction that involves a lot of violence, the violence itself is an act of masturbation representing either the author’s dark impulse or, perhaps worse, pandering to the reader’s similar revenge fantasies (this might explain why the majority of Blood Meridian fans I know personally are...more Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian is unquestionably the most violent novel I’ve ever read. It’s also one of the best.

For those who would consider that a turn-off, I offer this caveat:
For the overwhelming majority of fiction that involves a lot of violence, the violence itself is an act of masturbation representing either the author’s dark impulse or, perhaps worse, pandering to the reader’s similar revenge fantasies (this might explain why the majority of Blood Meridian fans I know personally are men, where as the majority of those who’ve told me they were unable to finish it are women).

Don’t get me wrong, the violence in Blood Meridian is gratuitous. It’s both mentally and emotionally exhausting, even in a day and age where television and movies have numbed us to such things. But unlike, say, the movie 300, the violence serves a purpose – in fact the gratuitousness itself serves a purpose. Like how the long, drawn out bulk of Moby Dick exists to make the reader feel the numbingly eventless life of a whaling vessel before it reaches its climactic destination (McCarthy is frequently compared to Melville, btw), Blood Meridian exists to break the reader’s spirit. Like the mercenaries the narrative follows, the nonstop onslaught of cruelty after cruelty makes us jaded. The story brings us to what we think is a peak of inhumanity that seems impossible to exceed, and just as we stop to lick our wounds, an even more perverse cruelty emerges. The bile that reaches the tip of our tongue at reading of a tree strewn with dead infants hung by their jaws at the beginning of the book (a scene often sited to me as the point many readers stop) becomes almost a casual passiveness when a character is beheaded later on. We become one of these dead-eyed cowboys riding into town covered head-to-toe in dried blood and gristle.

The story is based on My Confession, the questionably authentic autobiography of Civil War Commander Samuel Chamberlain, which recounts his youth with the notorious Glanton Gang – a group of American mercenaries hired by the Mexican government to slaughter Native Americans. Whether or not Chamberlain’s tale is true only adds to the mythic quality – exemplified by the character of Judge Holden.

Blood Meridian is really The Judge’s story. He is larger than life. Over seven feet tall, corpulent, hairless, albino, described as having an infant-like face and preternaturally intelligent. He is a murderer, child killer, pedophile and genocidal sociopath. But the question that plagues anyone who reads the book is – who is he really?

The easiest conclusion is that he is the devil, or some other demon. His joyous evil and fiddle-playing are enough clues to come to that, but more controversial (and less popular) is the idea that he is actually the wrathful God of an uncaring universe. He’s called THE Judge, after all.

He spends a great deal of time illustrating new discoveries – be it an Indian vase or petroglyph – only to destroy it when finished. It’s commented that he seems intent on “cataloging all creation”. When a fellow mercenary asks why he does it, he smiles and cryptically replies “That which exists without my knowledge exists without my consent.”

The fact that the book is rife with biblical imagery implies that he is more than a mere symbol of man’s inhumanity to man (which is not to say that the devil isn’t), but when the book ends ( SPOILER ALERT ) and our protagonist’s body is found shoved into a commode, the townsfolk stand staring into the darkened doorway of the latrine, eerily mirroring the apostles staring into empty crypt after the resurrection. But here, there is no ascension; no salvation offered. Only the Judge, who dances to the closing lines, “He is dancing, dancing. He says that he will never die."
(less)

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May 30, 2012 Stephen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: ebooks, historical-fiction, audiobook, 1980-1989, 6-star-books, all-time-favorites, classics, life-changers, classics-americas, psychos, literary-fiction, favorite-villains

Spilled...emptied...wrung out…soul-ripped...that pretty accurately sums up my emotional composition after finishing this singular work of art. Ironically, I’m sure I only absorbed about 10% of the “message” McCarthy was conveying in this epic exposition on war, violence and man’s affinity for both. Still, even with my imperfect comprehension, I was shaken enough by the experience that, though I finished the book days ago, I’m just now at the point where I can revisit the jumble in my head enoug...more

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Jan 09, 2012 ·Karen· rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: usa, mttbr-2012

This is Jane Austen antimatter.

Trying to convey how this was so different to anything I've ever read, it occurred to me that it was like a huge black vortex that would suck early nineteenth century marriage plot novels into the void. It's the complete obverse of sweet girlie stuff: no lurve, no irony (I wonder if Cormac McCarthy has a humour mode? If he does, he certainly wasn't in it writing this), no insightful self-discovery or examination of the human heart. No, this is bleak and bloody, go...more This is Jane Austen antimatter.

Trying to convey how this was so different to anything I've ever read, it occurred to me that it was like a huge black vortex that would suck early nineteenth century marriage plot novels into the void. It's the complete obverse of sweet girlie stuff: no lurve, no irony (I wonder if Cormac McCarthy has a humour mode? If he does, he certainly wasn't in it writing this), no insightful self-discovery or examination of the human heart. No, this is bleak and bloody, gory and grisly, there are bludgeonings and beheadings, shootings and stabbings and skewerings and scalpings, and piles and piles and piles of corpses - as a film, I wouldn't have been able to stand it. How could I stand it here? Well, it was usually over pretty quickly. He doesn't dwell long and lovingly on every detail: radical and dramatic images burn on the mind's eye, but no prurient poking and puddling. Nasty, brutish and short. Stomach churning, but not for too long.
Then there is little in the way of plot. Characters? Bad, worse, or imbecile. So what pleasures does it afford, pleasures that can compensate for the horror? Or is it the horror that becomes pleasurable? Yes, that is the worrying thing - obviously the language is a wonder and can make up for much, but there is a very troubling phenomenon. The reader begins to take on the reasoning of the charismatic, satanic Judge Holden: this is a game in which the stake is life itself. There is only life or death, nothing else. And the Glanton gang is so evil that we can take joy in their annihilation, and the kid is the only one who has shown the slightest faint scruple when it came to slaughtering, so we hope for his survival and follow keenly his fight for life. And did I mention the language? Majestic, portentous, weighty, reminiscent of Milton and Blake and the Bible. Sparse, terse dialogue. Sumptuous description. A fearless novel that shocks and troubles, especially when you realise that this is based on real events on the Texas borderlands in 1848-51. "... and not again in all the world's turning will there be terrains so wild and barbarous to try whether the stuff of creation may be shaped to man's will or whether his own heart is not another kind of clay."(less)

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Jan 10, 2013 Bart rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Fans of westerns

In Cormac McCarthy's novel The Crossing, McCarthy proves he can write about about the travels of a wolf in a poetic and engaging way. In Blood Meridian McCarthy writes about three or four wolves, calls them humans - those characters he bothers to name at all - and shows that with enough talent and powerful prose, a writer and his work can be called "great" without having to develop a single character in 330 pages.

Among those who would be unsatisfied with the mere word "great" and have to go furt...more

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Aug 23, 2010 Hamish rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: re-read-lit, lit

The man finished the book. He closed the pages tightly together then put one foot on the floor then the other then used his hands to push himself up out of the chair and then put one foot in front of the other until he had walked all the way to the book shelf and then put the book on the book shelf. The deer walked in. The man whirled around and fired once with his pistol and the brains of the deer went flying out the back of its head and painted the wall a color dark red like blood. The man sat...more The man finished the book. He closed the pages tightly together then put one foot on the floor then the other then used his hands to push himself up out of the chair and then put one foot in front of the other until he had walked all the way to the book shelf and then put the book on the book shelf. The deer walked in. The man whirled around and fired once with his pistol and the brains of the deer went flying out the back of its head and painted the wall a color dark red like blood. The man sat down again like a man sitting down.

I didn't really like the book, said the dead deer.

I reckon I was pretty conflicted, replied the man grimly.

His writing style is pretty problematic.

I reckon his style is perty silly, he just strings a bunch of them declarative statements together, like 'the man did this then the man did that etc", but they don't paint no picture, they're done totally unevocative of anything. I reckon it don't take no skill to just state in excessive detail what someone is doing. It takes artistic skill to say it in a way that done bring it to life for the reader, and he don't done really do that. I reckon it's some sub-Hemingway shit he's doing.

It's not all bad though.

I reckon some some of the images t'were pretty powerful.

And the judge is a memorable character.

I reckon he's the only one though. All the rest of them there charac'ers ain't real memorable, like he done put no effort into 'em 'cause he spent all his time on the judge. And that there whole novel was all...whatdjacallit, structureless and stuff. And real repetitiv' too.

I read that he doesn't see why people like Proust and James because he thinks all novels should be about life and death things.

I reckon that's 'cause he's too obsessed with subject matter and not enough with style and art.

The dead deer nodded and walked out. The man slowly got up again by putting one foot then the other on the floor and then used his hands to push himself up out of the chair. He fixed himself a drink and resolved not to take anymore book recommendations from Harold Bloom.(less)

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Dec 16, 2010 Nick Black rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: likely-reread

the last thing i read in 2009, and the best fiction i'd read since Infinite Jest in 2007. all through early new years day, i gabbled at any number of people about how this book had, for a short and beautiful period, changed my life. i thanked rob for recommending it. as the night went on, i spoke of judge holden less, instead assuming his persona (and o! judge holden surely is one of the great creations of all American literature -- the kind of guy you want to read and reread, maybe type out lon...more

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Oct 06, 2010 Architeuthis rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: literature, goodest-reads-2009, 1980s, meta-reviews, cormac-mccarthy

*Updated, now with an additional McCarthyized section of the Bible, moved up from the comment section.*

Here's what I'm thinkin.

THE CORMAC MCCARTHY PROJECT

Ever since reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, I've been considering the possibilities of revisiting the classics and, um, reinterpreting them. Butchering? Yes, you're probably right. Butchering them. That's the right word.

Anyway, since Cormac McCarthy has the most distinctive and powerful voice of any modern writer (that I've read recent...more

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Feb 19, 2009 Natalie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: general-unpleasantry, favorites, southern-gothic

I'll be frank right up front: I loved this book. It's a poetic, metaphor-and-symbolism-rich wonder of a novel, and every bit as violent as its reputation states. McCarthy has such a seemingly effortless ability to render forth horrific and beautiful descriptions of everything from sunrises to Indian attacks that it's enough to make one weep with envy.

McCarthy certainly gives the lie to the nostalgic romanticizing of the Old West enshrined in American culture; these cowboys 'n Indians aren't fil...more

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Sep 17, 2007 Eric rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who want to believe in the inherent evil of mankind

Shelves: literature

There are two ways to evaluate a book, as far as my unlearned mind can concoct at the moment. Stylish literary flourishes sometimes cloud our judgment when it comes to evaluating the plot itself, which is, after all, the reason why the book exists.

This book is well written. If I'm a 11th grader, and I need to do a book report, I'm drooling over the blatant symbolism dripping from each page. The scene is set admirably, though the repetitive nature of our brave hero's wanderings (at least it's wit...more There are two ways to evaluate a book, as far as my unlearned mind can concoct at the moment. Stylish literary flourishes sometimes cloud our judgment when it comes to evaluating the plot itself, which is, after all, the reason why the book exists.

This book is well written. If I'm a 11th grader, and I need to do a book report, I'm drooling over the blatant symbolism dripping from each page. The scene is set admirably, though the repetitive nature of our brave hero's wanderings (at least it's with symbolic reason) lead to a paucity in novel adjectives by the 13th desert crossing. There are only so many ways one can say that it's hot, dry and empty. And dry. Boy, that sun sure is strong. I'm there, I'm with you, all right, it sucks around here, phew, the sun's really beating down today. And there are a lot of bones. Dead things abound, OK, I get it.

Then there's the story line. Explain to me again why I'm interested in the wanton marauding of a band of depraved demons? So, we enjoy the dashing of infants into rocks because of the supposed literary merits of the work? We can bash/splatter/expose brains of whatever, happen upon crucified corpses, and ignore any modicum of human decency because the book is about something deeper? But, you say (and without quotes you say it), that's what it was like. Oh yeah? It was like that? Says who? Why do you want to believe that it was like that? As bad as humankind is, our reality is not that despicable, though our souls may be. Why do we have to play follow the leader behind our impish pied piper, pretending an enlightened understanding of some grandiose truth, while all we really do is sate our own personal blood lusts? I wonder.

By the way, if neglecting quotation marks somehow makes the book classier, why not just go all out and remove spaces between words. You better believe I won't be speed reading the repetitive descriptions of how tired everyone is if there aren't any spaces. Why stop there, periods are for two bit hacks too. You're not a real author until you slaughter a few hundred non-innocents (nay, no one is innocent) while neglecting a basic courtesy to the reader.

Who knows, I don't speak Spanish, maybe I'm just missing the point entirely. How do you say "flayed skin" in Spanish?(less)

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Apr 02, 2012 Dan Schwent rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, homework-from-the-ladies

In the old west, a young man falls in with a bad crowd, scalphunters, and the worst of them all, the judge.

It's not often when I can't figure out how to summarize a book. Not only does Blood Meridian fall into this category, I'm also struggling with trying to formulate my thoughts about it. I'm sure it's one of those big important books that has themes and things of that nature. It seems apocalyptic at times, with the judge showing the kid the horrors of the world, kind of like the devil and Jes...more

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Jan 21, 2011 Eric rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, lurid, massacres, shouldreread, westward-ho, historiophantasmagoria

Fuck yeah. This is great. I felt fully absorbed and enclosed in the nightmare. I was scared. McCarthy at his very best—to chose from so many scenes: Judge Holden under a ribcage parasol holding the halfwit by a leash, the two shuffling though the sun-bleached desert Golgotha bellowing threats and promises to Kid and Expriest who are hidden, cowering, “prone in the lees of those sour bones like sated scavengers” awaiting “the arrival of the judge and the passing of the judge if he would so pass”—...more

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Apr 07, 2013 [P] rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: bitchin

'Where you goin' riding, boy?' once sang Will Oldham [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl2loq...]; to which Blood Meridian would reply 'Oh, you know, all over. Gonna massacre and dismember a bunch of people. Shit.'

I’ve written before about how my two years at college were an important period of my life. I guess the ages 16-18 are important in everyone’s life. There are a number of reasons why those two years were particularly significant, but perhaps the most important thing that happened to me at...more

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Nov 07, 2009 Chris rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It seems that almost everybody raves about Blood Meridian and rates it the best novel written by Cormac McCarthy. I had already read three of his books prior to taking on Meridian; I was a fan, and regarded the book with a mixture of excitement and trepidation: excitement, because I had heard so many superlatives about it from other reviews - trepidation, for the exact same reason. It was with such conflicting expectations that I began; from word one the prose wasn't holding me for some reason,...more It seems that almost everybody raves about Blood Meridian and rates it the best novel written by Cormac McCarthy. I had already read three of his books prior to taking on Meridian; I was a fan, and regarded the book with a mixture of excitement and trepidation: excitement, because I had heard so many superlatives about it from other reviews - trepidation, for the exact same reason. It was with such conflicting expectations that I began; from word one the prose wasn't holding me for some reason, and I foolishly began to steel myself for a disappointment...up until about half a dozen pages in, when I beheld the first appearance of the magnetic Judge Holden: and then I knew that all those other enthusiasts were right on the money!

Blood Meridian is a dark, debased, death-riddled and bone-dry reworking of the frontier myths of the American Dream into the American Nightmare. Whatever honour and nobility may have existed there has long fled to brighter realms, or been corrupted into an all-encompassing savagery, cruelty and greed; into the domain of the irrational, the lust for violence that endlessly threatens to assert its suzerainty. The Christian God does not reign over McCarthy's deserts and scrubland; this is the world of El Diablo, a place where magic works and the twinkle of the raven's eye forbodes of more death.

The protagonist is a young drifter, known as the Kid, a cipher and everyman, who shows no real traces of pleasure or disgust, eagerness or reluctance at the depravities undertaken by the gang of Indian scalp-hunters that he ends up joining after a prior military expedition into Mexico - led by the naïve and glory-hungry Captain White - comes to disaster against a savage band of Comanches. This gang is led by the ruthless and taciturn Glanton, and guided by the aforementioned Judge Holden - surely the most intriguing and disturbing character in this novel of wretched humanity - as they routinely set about collecting Apache scalps for bounties offered by the Mexican authorities. After making themselves unwanted by their excesses, the gang heads into the Sonora desert to make for the Pacific Coast - and to scourge the land they pass through like locusts sent by a vengeful Deity.

McCarthy is a master at describing stark and areolated wildernesses, the amoral majesty of nature, the quick bite of violence, and at depicting conversation between hard-bitten men; and he delivers it all in spades in Meridian. Other than a few tumbleweeds at the beginning, and spots here and there at the ferry crossing, the book is flawless, reaching its greatest level during a surreal telling of how the gang found (or were found by) the Judge. The ending seems utterly apropos, considering all that had gone before it. Dantesque and infernal, full of sound and fury, a five-star masterpiece from one of America's greatest living writers.(less)

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Sep 08, 2010 Brad rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: doing-the-dishes, x-acto-knives-are-nice-and-shiny, in-the-shower, madness, one-of-the-greats, serial-killer, western, to-read-again

Blood Meridian Or the Evening Redness in the West is so much bigger than what my brain has been able to process so far, but it will stick with me, and I will return to this text repeatedly and try to make sense of its nuances.

Cormac McCarthy is talking about big things in Blood Meridian, and he is doing them extremely well. But what are those big things? Is he talking about violence? The sacred? Violence and the sacred? Is it war, as the judge says? Is McCarthy talking about ineluctability of hu...more Blood Meridian Or the Evening Redness in the West is so much bigger than what my brain has been able to process so far, but it will stick with me, and I will return to this text repeatedly and try to make sense of its nuances.

Cormac McCarthy is talking about big things in Blood Meridian, and he is doing them extremely well. But what are those big things? Is he talking about violence? The sacred? Violence and the sacred? Is it war, as the judge says? Is McCarthy talking about ineluctability of humanity and humanism? Is he talking about hubris? The divine in man? The divine itself? Is he talking about the cost of living? The cost of being conscious? The cost of being a killer species that pretends to avoid its murderousness? The cost of conscience? The worth of conscience? Or is it all of these and more at once?

And then I wonder whose story this is. Is it the kid's? The judge's? The U.S.A.'s? Everyone's? Is it our story? Is this the story of mankind? Is this a gospel of man?

And just who is the judge? Is he a nation? Is he the devil? Is he an immortal? Is he merely a man? Is he mankind itself? A mirror held up to make us shudder? Is he the übermensch while the kid is man? Is the judge Yahweh the vengeful? Is his violence born of love? Of hate? Of necessity? Of desire? Of fulfillment? Of being human?

And how does this book slip under the radar of those who would ban books (though, perhaps it doesn't; I haven't researched that yet)? It is the single most violent text I have ever read (except The Bible). It's far more violent than American Psycho or A Clockwork Orange and just as graphic. Is it that the bulk of the violence -- though nowhere near all -- takes place amongst men engaged in a pseudo-war (I say "pseudo" because it is a personal, paid, roving genocide perpetrated by Glanton and his men, and while what they do is what warriors everywhere and always do, to call it war feels like ennobling their acts)? Is it that the violence is so beyond anything we're familiar with (apart from a couple of Tarantino movies) that we are quickly desensitized and can't help accepting what's put before us? Or is it that violence on that scale and of that much detached cruelty is so deeply a part of what humanity is that we are enervated by its familiarity?

My answer is that "I don't know. I'm not sure." And the contemplation of these questions (I am positive I have missed a few that I will remember later) is far from over.

Blood Meridian Or the Evening Redness in the West is as exhausting as it is sublime. It's going to be with me forever, I think. The only question left is "When will I read it again?" Not soon, I can tell you that. It took an awful lot out of me. But someday not too soon.(less)

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Jun 11, 2007 Tedb0t rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: those who love true literature

Shelves: modernfiction, literature

Blood Meridian is an astonishing work. It was recommended to me by the same person who got me into Moby Dick, and now I believe I understand why.

There are two major aspects I'd like to touch on with this book:

1) Prose. McCarthy is one of those rare literary magicians who, like Melville, is capable of sustained and continuous flows of poetry, often jaw-dropping in their scale and scope. Blood Meridian tends to oscillate from narrative action to descriptive passage. The narrative scenes tend towar...more Blood Meridian is an astonishing work. It was recommended to me by the same person who got me into Moby Dick, and now I believe I understand why.

There are two major aspects I'd like to touch on with this book:

1) Prose. McCarthy is one of those rare literary magicians who, like Melville, is capable of sustained and continuous flows of poetry, often jaw-dropping in their scale and scope. Blood Meridian tends to oscillate from narrative action to descriptive passage. The narrative scenes tend towards a blunt delivery, commensurate with the utterly brutal violence that makes up most of the book. The between-passages, however, which are almost always describing the unearthly beauty of the desert landscape they travel in, spiral out into incredible poetical and lyrical digressions that often defy any kind of conscious comprehension. And McCarthy delivers them effortlessly, in long rambling sentences that genuinely evoke a kind of incorporeal desert mystic contemplating the universe.

2) Nihilism. The above being said, the narrative world of the story is as ugly as the prose is beautiful. In Blood Meridian's 1850's Wild West, human life is absolutely without value. Scores upon scores of innocents (and a few guilties) are slaughtered in cold blood: indians, mexican peasants, old ladies, dogs, children, the cowering and the proud. The agents of these massacres are the principal characters of the book: Glanton and the Judge, two different manifestations of total and all-consuming malevolence. The Judge lives by a code that goes beyond mere "might making right"--he is a lodestone of chaos and death, while remaining seemingly invincible and perpetually calm. Some of the book's most amazing passages come from the mouth of this gnostic archon, who delivers sermons on art, nature, mankind, murder and ceaseless violence. The story's overall effect is one of total nihilism, a world in which no life or object has value, only the annihiliation thereof.

Lastly, I must remark that the breadth of McCarthy's scholarship and research for this book is astounding. I cannot fathom how he wrote this without having lived in the 1850's southwest, though I understand much of it is informed by the confessions of one of the real-life members of the story's central gang.(less)

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Mar 23, 2011 Mariel rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: mexican radio

Recommended to Mariel by: far side of crazy

Blood Meridian: or the Evening Redness in the West made me feel insane. Mariel, nothing makes you feel anything. I know that. What I really mean is that reading it reminded me of those times when I feel really insane. The things I can't explain to myself. The things that I feel uncomfortable and not normal about. Not just displacement parts but also the part of me that gets too ready to sink into the shit with them and would never leave.

Before I start rambling and make absolutely no sense at all...more Blood Meridian: or the Evening Redness in the West made me feel insane. Mariel, nothing makes you feel anything. I know that. What I really mean is that reading it reminded me of those times when I feel really insane. The things I can't explain to myself. The things that I feel uncomfortable and not normal about. Not just displacement parts but also the part of me that gets too ready to sink into the shit with them and would never leave.

Before I start rambling and make absolutely no sense at all: I think anyone who reads lots of screenplays will love it. Or just anyone who forgets that they are reading at all. It's the best kind of movie. Everything else stops and there's wreckage that you can't look away from. Like the INSIDE the action as if you are outside your own body and watching yourself. I'm worried that the 2011 film is directed by Todd Field. Maybe it's the fault of also screenwriter Tom Perrotta (based on his novel) that Little Children was "Dude, cut SOME of the text out! You're over narrating everything!" (I did really like Field's first film A Ruby in Paradise when I saw it as a teenager.) In the Bedroom was tries too hard to be Grief! all can relate, to me. Blood Meridian: or the Evening Redness in the West is what Robert Bresson said about going personal beyond what everybody else feels as your mood ring spectrum of emotions stuff. By not mind reading, those inner mind wheels turned like parts of this great big machine you can plug into yourself. You shouldn't have to TRY for that. If you did the rest right... Anyway, I hope it is going to be a good movie. I think this is already such a great movie as a book that it would suck more than usual to fuck it up.
Quit stalling. Usually I do my "movie time" towards the end of a review. (More on that later.)
I have a lot of ways to explain my psyche to myself. Sometimes I take other definitions and appropriate them for my own (wrong) uses. Such as Tourettes syndrome. I even have more than one "kind" of my own. Things that I think like "What would be the worst thing I could say or do right now?" and I'd think of something really bad and then I would have to concentrate really hard on not doing that thing that I hadn't wanted to do in the first place. Just because I was afraid of doing something bad. I'm not sure why I started calling it that to myself in the first place. Probably because I couldn't seem to stop myself from thinking of the bad thing in the first place. (Sometimes I have said the thing. Yes, I'm a crazy idiot who makes things really hard for herself.)
I found myself kinda wishing that I was inside this novel. What the fuck? Why? It's a shitty place to be! I've had this feeling about books before, usually if the protagonist is even worse off than me (I wanted to befriend Fuchsia in Gormenghast), or if everyone is in it together at least. It's really hard thing to feel, like people are "in it" together with you. No one is like that in Blood Meridian: or the Evening Redness in the West. I don't get it. I woke up in the middle of the night afraid that I was going to really be in there. Then I'd pick it up to read it again and I'm dorkier than The Neverending Story kid. Eating a cheese sandwich and feeling thristier than I've ever felt in my life and cold inside and "It's all gone to hell anyway".

I couldn't look away. Would I be like them? I have a mental fear now that I would be like that. (I've never reassured myself that I'd be the hero. Like how in stories EVERYBODY in France was a member of the resistance.) This is really hard to write about without getting creepy.
As a side note, we were fascinated with scalping stories when I was young. I'm one of the many that are part some tribe (Cherokee, for me). My father's family are from the mountains in Tennessee, same as the Kid. Of all the family stories I've heard (none were good as in kid-friendly), those were the ones we begged to hear. (When visiting, I didn't have to ask who not to sleep with although many felt they had to tell 11-year-old Mariel not to sleep with anyone 'cause they were all related. Wait, who wouldn't want to hear the scalping, war drafting and fight stories instead?)
Movie time! I haven't seen the film version of The Road yet. I did see No Country for Old Men (really good) and All the Pretty Horses (teen me didn't like it).
Josh Brolin is a tricky bastard. So my twin and I thought up this great money-making theory when we were twenty or so. It's called "The Josh Brolin Sucks in Thrillers Theory". It came about after we saw him really suck in some thrillers. He wasn't so bad in films that were not thrillers. Someone must've told him about this 'cause he started appearing in films with thriller qualities that were not labelled as such. I want my money. Brolin claims he stopped doing bad movies after he gave up his money guzzling ranch. I'll now channel John Malkovich in the televised production of the western True West about a potential career in screenwriting: "I could get me a ranch?" (Nevermind that I'm terrified of horses. My ranch will be filled of Eeyores.) I blame 'No Country' for his newfound respect. Get the ranch back and go back to sucking. Then I'll buy the ranch off you when you can't afford to keep it up anymore.
I should read more westerns that are not the usual westerns. Those are all my favorites. I hardly ever read or watch westerns. Still, some of my all-time favorites are westerns. The key might be 'not usual westerns'...
P.s. I should've just made a list of baddest ass villains connected to something about Judge Holden. Why did I have to go and mention the Brolin theory? Someone will steal it and all my money. At least I didn't mention the "Matthew Lillards of the World" theory. D'oh!
(less)

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Aug 02, 2007 Annette rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone

This is the best book ever written. Ever. It is my favorite book. Ever. It is a piece of art. I want to wallpaper my walls with its pages it is so amazing.

Cormac McCarthy has a way with words that is inimitable and majestic. It seems as though every word is chosen with a purpose. You read this book and get chills once you stumble upon a word that has definition in triplicate...all the definitions are appropriate and progressively creepier.

This is a story of Manifest Destiny meets Native American...more

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Jun 26, 2007 Katie rated it 5 of 5 stars

I found this really hard to get into; 100 pages through, all that carried me were the sentences themselves, which might have been enough -- they're consistently amazing: precise, gorgeous, experimental in their use of language (to the point where I had to lol on the Greyhound)... but certain images began to stick with me, and not even the most violent, but those that occurred alongside the ritual slaughters and scalpings (the mule dropping off the side of the canyon, the bear swiping the Delawar...more

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Dec 13, 2012 Ginny rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: romanzi, riletti, america

“Meridiano di sangue” è un romanzo inconsueto e terribile, crudo, brutale e al tempo stesso poetico.
Soltanto un grande scrittore avrebbe potuto trattare argomenti di questo genere senza scadere nel grottesco o nel sensazionalistico compiaciuto; e McCarthy lo è, senza ombra di dubbio.
La vicenda, notoriamente ispirata a fatti realmente accaduti ai confini tra Stati Uniti e Messico intorno alla metà dell’Ottocento, si articola e si anima grazie alla sconfinata fantasia dell’autore, che inventa epis...more “Meridiano di sangue” è un romanzo inconsueto e terribile, crudo, brutale e al tempo stesso poetico.
Soltanto un grande scrittore avrebbe potuto trattare argomenti di questo genere senza scadere nel grottesco o nel sensazionalistico compiaciuto; e McCarthy lo è, senza ombra di dubbio.
La vicenda, notoriamente ispirata a fatti realmente accaduti ai confini tra Stati Uniti e Messico intorno alla metà dell’Ottocento, si articola e si anima grazie alla sconfinata fantasia dell’autore, che inventa episodi significativi e caratterizza i personaggi principali in modo da renderli funzionali allo sviluppo di un nucleo tematico atto a conferire coesione e colore alla storia.
Innegabile, e peraltro annunciata dallo stesso titolo, è la presenza massiccia di azioni cruente in questo libro, tuttavia l’autore ne stempera la crudeltà e l’orrore grazie ad uno stile elevato ed oggettivo, che ha quasi l’asetticità del registro cronachistico, esente com’è da ogni indagine psicologica o giudizio morale.
La perizia del grande scrittore è tuttavia sempre manifesta, perché l’impersonalità del racconto è di frequente tradita da immagini vivide e abbacinanti, o da scelte lessicali particolari e inattese, che accentrano l’attenzione del lettore su una visione folle e disperata della vita e sull’accettazione del male come destino ineluttabile per l’uomo.
Anche le descrizioni paesaggistiche, alle quali viene riservato ampio spazio, allargano l’obbiettivo su una natura imponente e magnifica, ma insidiosa e mai amica, che vive di vita propria per lo più in conflitto con ogni altra forma vivente.
Presenza costante del romanzo è un ragazzo non meglio identificato, che progredendo dall’adolescenza all’età adulta svolge quasi la funzione di testimone degli episodi narrati e di un mondo spietato e sanguinario, dove l’unica alternativa è adeguarsi o soccombere.
L’autentico protagonista è comunque il giudice Holden, enigmatica e affascinante figura di uomo geniale, raffinato e coltissimo, ma anche raccapricciante presenza di diabolico manipolatore e ripugnante assassino.
La sua filosofia di vita si basa sulla prevaricazione e sull’esaltazione della guerra come condizione privilegiata per l’essere umano, nonché unica soluzione atta a garantirgli la perversa illusione dell’immortalità.(less)

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Apr 26, 2012 Ellie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011groupchallenge, fiction, disturbing, 2011ind-chal200bks

Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy is an absolutely mesmerizing read. How do I review this book? It seemed more like a phenomenon of nature than a text. It has all the qualities the hype proclaims: mythic, intense, an upending of the American western. It is based on a true story, the Glanton gang who rode ostensibly to protect towns from the indigenous population but who became more feared and bloodthirsty than any of supposed "savages" living in the southwest...more Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy is an absolutely mesmerizing read. How do I review this book? It seemed more like a phenomenon of nature than a text. It has all the qualities the hype proclaims: mythic, intense, an upending of the American western. It is based on a true story, the Glanton gang who rode ostensibly to protect towns from the indigenous population but who became more feared and bloodthirsty than any of supposed "savages" living in the southwest in the 1830.
The story follows a character called throughout most of the book "the kid" (at the end of the book, the character is called "the man"). who runs away from home at 14 and ends up a part of Glanton's gang. Although less violent than those surrounding him, the kid is no stranger to violent impulses. This is a world ruled by violence and bloodshed. A major character, who emerges ultimately as the major antagonist, is a giant albino man known as "The Judge", proclaims the philosophy that "war is man's natural state." According to him, men need war to proclaim their dominance, war was in some way created before man's appearance, waiting for him.

I generally avoid books about or containing extreme violence but I'm glad I read this book, despite the fact there is an overwhelming amount of both. It's a difficult book to describe: the most amazing, lush prose, terrifying images and emotional power I have ever come across in my reading.

It seems to me that McCarthy's historically-based fiction occurs in virtually the same emotional and even physical landscape as his post-apocalyptic fiction. Humanity in his fictional world is the apocalypse, carrying death and violence wherever they go.

Recommended: I feel that this is a must-read as one of the most powerful works of fiction I have ever read. It goes beyond a star-rated system or adjectives such as "like" or "dislike." It is McCarthy's most powerful work, frightening but a force that must be reckoned with by all who read.

Maybe even by all of us living in 21st century USA.(less)

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Mar 06, 2012 Marco Tamborrino rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

La guerra è il gioco per eccellezza perché la guerra è in ultima analisi un'effrazione dell'unità dell'esistenza. La guerra è dio. [...] Se la guerra non è sacra, l'uomo non è altro che fango antico.

Ho letto il mio quarto libro di McCarthy a bocca aperta. Letteralmente. La rappresentazione del Male, della violenza, che è poi la guerra, traspare da ogni riga, da ogni parola. Vengono utilizzate tantissime metafore, metafore disarmanti e impensabili che rendono chiara l'assenza totale di speranza n...more

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Jun 10, 2010 Marcus rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: american

I started hating this book early on. Just coming off reading Hemingway's sparse and beautiful prose, McCarthy's heavily metaphorical style, obscure vocabulary and dense sentences were maddening. I wanted to be able to just read the story without having to re-read it, without guessing who was saying what and without looking up words. I didn't start the book expecting Faulkner and as such, it was frustrating. Eventually though, I resigned myself to the style of the book and began to appreciate it....more I started hating this book early on. Just coming off reading Hemingway's sparse and beautiful prose, McCarthy's heavily metaphorical style, obscure vocabulary and dense sentences were maddening. I wanted to be able to just read the story without having to re-read it, without guessing who was saying what and without looking up words. I didn't start the book expecting Faulkner and as such, it was frustrating. Eventually though, I resigned myself to the style of the book and began to appreciate it.

Blood Meridian is apocalyptic, as is The Road, the only other book by McCarthy that I've read. BM (ha) isn't, however, set after a fictional apocalyptic event. It's the Southwest and Mexico 150 years ago. It almost has a historical feeling to it that is hard and uncomfortable, it has you constantly questioning "is this really how it was?" I don't know the answer to that, but for the sake of humanity, I hope it's that BM is far, far from the truth. I prefer the old West of Gus and Call from Lonesome Dove; rough, dangerous and perverse but not undistilled evil. The characters of are all thoroughly depraved, each in their own special way. At times they're insightful, but never lovable. Seeing them all hung by their necks would be a relief, and the sooner the better.

What's to like about the book? It has no good guys, it shatters the romanticism of the West, it is gory and violent and hard to read. All that doesn't leave much, but still I found that at times I was blown away. Some of the insights; the judge's transhuman-like abilities, his commentaries on war, power and the human condition alone make it worth reading.

The romantic in me wants to say that it's the very bleakness that makes Blood Meridian so compelling. It's this unflinching look at the dark potential of humanity that triggers such a strong disgust reaction that it makes the latent evil in each of us feel foreign and remote, and as a result, reinforces a love for life, for beauty and preservation over destruction. Is that what McCarthy intended? Probably not.(less)

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Seth I have read the first 15 pages (just picked it up from the library yesterday) it is gory! This book is much more difficult than The Road or No Country...more
updated Jun 10, 2010 01:59pm

Marcus Here's a quote from it that you might appreciate:

The man who believes that the secrets of the world are forever hidden lives in mystery and fear. Supe

...more
Jun 10, 2010 02:02pm

Jennika Nevala I have found this book to be very difficult to read from the beginning. Not knowing who is saying what made things even harder to comprehend. But, I a...more
Dec 02, 2011 08:28am

Feb 11, 2008 Robert Beveridge rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian: or, the Evening Redness in the West (Vintage, 1983)

The whole idea of "the great american novel" really kind of misses the point because we have taken the original meaning of it and twisted it. The "great american novel" should probably today be caleld "the quintessential american novel," because the word great, in this context, refers to the novel that will encompass what we have been, why, how we got there, and where we were going. And because of the story, by d...more

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Aug 22, 2007 Aaron rated it 2 of 5 stars

I don't get people's love affair with this book. It's like if Kill Bill, Vol. 1 was consistently trumpeted as the greatest movie of all time. They both are cartoonish exercises in violence. They both are a pastiches of high and low art. They both have one stunning scene that wins over the critics (the Indian attack in Blood Meridian, the snow duel in Kill Bill) and then feel pretty flat for the remainder. And yet, Blood Meridian has become a darling of critics and now, with McCarthy's Oprah-appr...more

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Jul 30, 2007 Meredith rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: moderngreats

Wow, what a gut-wrencher.
This book is so difficult to describe. Bare? Dismal? Hopeless? no, because those words imply ineffectiveness, which McCarthy's writing most certainly does not radiate.
The characters are at the same time distant and fully formed - we never see their thoughts, yet their personalities and their intentions in life are clear. There is such a lack of emotion, even fear, in this horrific Western world... even the most violent, repugnant, terrible actions are dealt with and de...more Wow, what a gut-wrencher.
This book is so difficult to describe. Bare? Dismal? Hopeless? no, because those words imply ineffectiveness, which McCarthy's writing most certainly does not radiate.
The characters are at the same time distant and fully formed - we never see their thoughts, yet their personalities and their intentions in life are clear. There is such a lack of emotion, even fear, in this horrific Western world... even the most violent, repugnant, terrible actions are dealt with and described without a blink. An old squaw gets her brains blown out and then she's scalped; two infants are picked up by their feet and swung through the air only to have their heads smashed together, like some sadistic acrobatic murder. The worst scene was the damn snake-bitten horse, suffering with an infected, bloated snout, and the idiot-soldiers won't kill it b/c they don't want it to rot. Something about that scene - of it running around the corral looking for solace or assistance or any sort of pity from the other horses, and they just run away in horror; the men making faces at it, etc; "why don't you just shoot that thing?" one says in annoyance....it's all just so emotionally disturbing, yet you get the image/feeling of the Western lifestyle so clearly and seemingly so effortlessly by McCarthy.

The ending is, in particular, vomit-inducing. I won't give it away, but let's just say that at the climactic meeting of protagonist and antagonist, McCarthy leaves all violence and brutality to the imagination (other than one repulsing comment about the judge's flesh... UGHHHHHHH), which after thinking about how graphic the rest of the book is, made my spine shiver - SPOILER WARNING!!! - ...... we're left only with the two peeing onlookers peering into the outhouse saying "great god almighty" or whatever it is they exactly say? HOLY SHIT! and then the judge dancing... evil wins... i think i lost control of my insides for a few minutes after putting the book down. you know, the whole "Meredith with her hand over her heart trying to organize her thoughts and insides' reactions to such a moving piece of literature" stance (I've struck that pose before, you know it, don't lie) The judge dancing dancing dancing, he will never die, he says he will never die

MCCARTHY, YOU'RE A GENIUS. A SCARY FUCKIN' GENIUS(less)

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Dec 26, 2011 David rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Dead men walking

Shelves: western, american-literature, literary, violent-and-gory, dude-lit, historical, american-southwest, funky-writing-style, 19th-century, old-west

Cormac McCarthy conflicts me like no other author save Haruki Murakami. McCarthy's prose stylings sometimes make me go "Whoa!" and sometimes "WTF man could you just please use punctuation like a normal person?!" His style is very much part of the "experience" of reading this book. I kept wondering how long he spent crafting each sentence, whether he just belts them out like that or if each and every one is a finely-crafted piece of word-smithing that he lingers over and works and reworks. Gads,...more

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Dec 21, 2012 Elisabetta rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: usa

Finalmente è finito!
Non ne potevo più, è stata una vera tortura leggerlo!

Iniziamo dalla trama, che è un inutile insieme di violenza a dir poco gratuita, senza alcuno scopo. Si passa dall'uccisione degli Apache, con relativo taglio di scalpo (che schifo!!) allo sterminio di interi villaggi, così per capriccio, solo perchè qualcuno aveva alzato un sopracciglio di troppo... Ma andiamo!
Immagini troppo crude che mi imponevano di leggere lontano dai pasti, mi ricordo ancora la frase di un personaggi...more Finalmente è finito!
Non ne potevo più, è stata una vera tortura leggerlo!

Iniziamo dalla trama, che è un inutile insieme di violenza a dir poco gratuita, senza alcuno scopo. Si passa dall'uccisione degli Apache, con relativo taglio di scalpo (che schifo!!) allo sterminio di interi villaggi, così per capriccio, solo perchè qualcuno aveva alzato un sopracciglio di troppo... Ma andiamo!
Immagini troppo crude che mi imponevano di leggere lontano dai pasti, mi ricordo ancora la frase di un personaggio "mi puzza il braccio" e tutte le immagini che ne sono conseguite.
Valori positivi che vengono calpestati per sottolineare la crudeltà degli uomini

Anche lo stile non mi ha consentito una lettura veloce, anzi l'ho trovato pesante e ripetitivo. Ho letto di qualcuno che ha definito lo stile biblico, per me è un esagerazione, infatti l'ho trovato noioso, scontato e ripetitivo, oltre che inutilmente crudo. L'uso continuo di "e" piazzate in ogni dove all'interno del romanzo mi hanno terribilmente infastidito. Diciamo le cose come stanno, se lo scrittore avesse mai scritto un tema utilizzando lo stile di questo libro avrebbe sicuramente preso un 3, ma, come si sa, i più bravi prendono sempre brutti voti a scuola..
Sarà come sarà, lo stile comunque non mi è piaciuto.

Continuiamo con i personaggi.
Il protagonista è il ragazzo. (Era così difficile inventarsi un nome per questo protagonista? Eppure ce ne sono così tanti!!!) Lui è l'ignaro testimone delle vicende violente che questo gruppo di persone così diverse condivide. A volte sembra che lo scrittore si dimentichi di lui e più volte mi sono chiesta se non avevo perso un passaggio in cui "il ragazzo" moriva, invece eccolo riapparire qualche pagina più avanti, ancora lui, ancora senza nome.
Se possiamo definire il ragazzo il protagonista, l'antagonista è decisamente il giudice, figura enigmatica, che soffre evidentemente di una grave alopecia universale, dotato di una crudeltà disarmante e di una parlantina capace di confondere anche il più colto degli uomini.
Figura interessante in un contesto dove la furbizia vince e lui è il più furbo di tutti.

Se lo scopo dello scrittore era quello di sfatare il mito del Far West, dei pistoleri dotati di onore, per descrivere eventi probabilmente realmente esistiti, e quello che definisce vero west, mi dispiace, ma a mio modesto parere c'è modo e modo!! Non solo, ha eliminato tutti i valori positivi con una pallottola ben piazzata..

Detto questo, ho finito il libro solamente perchè non mi piace lasciare un libro a metà, assolutamente una scelta sbagliata, avrei fatto meglio a riporlo dopo le prime righe.(less)

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Jan 04, 2011 Maciek rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Western Fans; those who favor the language over that what it says

Shelves: read-in-2011, reviewed, journeys-and-quests, western

Blood Meridian is a novel that deromanticizes the West and strips off its John Wayne antics - here there's absolutely no place for the moral and the good, where murder is a fact of life comitted without a blink and discarded from thought later. The desert rewards the worst scoundrels and spits on the bodies of the innocent and old who are unable to defend themselves.

The novel begins with an introduction of a young teenager who's simply named "The Kid", though in fact there's no universal protago...more

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Jan 04, 2013 Tanuj Solanki rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: america, e-book, mexico, favorites, western

Seven stars out of five.

The best American novel I've ever read and one I don't see being dethroned by any of the current lot.

Those who have read the book should skip the first two sections of this review.

Introduction (no spoilers here)

The year is 1848-49. A band of White Americans have been commissioned by the Mexican city of Chihuahua to get Indian scalps (yes, the skin on the top of the head). The payment is 100$ for each scalp. Everything happens in what is today's North Mexico and South-Wes...more

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Apr 25, 2011 Caitlin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: all-time-favorites

As I waited outside for my next class, a guy asked me what this book was about. In all honesty, I couldn't tell him. There is no plot. There isn't really a point A to point B feel either. More like a, just survive tone throughout the entire book. There wasn't one chapter where I could predict what would happen next. No goals or final destinations. This isn't that type of book.

Okay, back to the guy asking me a question. So instead of saying, "There's no plot" I said, "It's about violence." I paus...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
Blood Meridian	11	47	4 hours, 44 min ago
CORMAC MCCARTHY ...: Blood Meridian (aka POKE)	10	42	May 07, 2013 06:12am
Challenge: 50 Books: Group Read: Blood Meridian	73	93	Apr 28, 2013 04:59am
Q&A with Keal...: Latest Book Purchases	166	51	Apr 24, 2013 04:04am
Blood Meridian	3	23	Apr 23, 2013 07:30pm
Blood Meridian-violent, powerful, thought provoking	1	18	Apr 23, 2013 07:15pm
Blood Meridian	2	20	Apr 23, 2013 05:02pm

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