Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West in fiction files redux

Nov 10, 2008 Brian rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-2009

Oh my goodness... This is a western novel that doesn't sanitize the west like the television shows Gunsmoke or Bonanza did. This novel peels off it's skin and pisses in it and drags it through bloody viscera, blackened ears, and spit. It's what I imagine part of the wild west was really about in the early/mid 1800's. And I'm glad I was conceived later in life.

What I do know is I wouldn't have survived one breath with that gang of scalp harvesters. I can't sleep when I'm cold. I like to take bath ...more

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Jul 13, 2011 Christopher Swann rated it really liked it

The four-star rating is for the quality of the writing and less about how much I liked it. Some passages are breathtaking, even (and perhaps especially) the passages with horrific violence. But the lack of a sympathetic character who is an agent of his or her own change--even a failed agent--made the second half of the novel a slog. A worthy one in some respects--again, if only for the writing--but in terms of narrative, of a central character who pursues a goal, the novel meanders. The kid is a ...more

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Aug 23, 2009 Patrick rated it it was amazing

It is a spitting mean epic about the small party of indian scalpers that played a minor role in the expansion of west. Hopefully. It is a hardcore no hold barred two fists tale, along with knives, stones, lances, teeth, feet, that leave trails of scars, tattoos, mutilated torsos, decapitations on the reader's pysch, by the savages on both sides of the conflict. It has its own poetic beauty of nature devoid of compassion and wicked gleeful nastiness. It is the kind of a book that celebrates the u ...more

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Jul 14, 2009 Noreen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: books-read-in-2009

Disturbing, horrifying, exquisite. Perhaps the best American novelist alive.

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Sep 29, 2010 David rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

I don't have the energy to do justice to this book here but it is probably the book that has stayed with me the longest and most clearly since I originally read it.

The last paragraph has stuck in my head like a song and comes back to me now and then.

And they are dancing, the board floor slamming under the jackboots and the fiddlers grinning hideously over their canted pieces. Towering over them all is the judge and he is naked dancing, his small feet lively and quick and now in doubletime and b

...more

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Jul 06, 2007 Edwin Arnaudin rated it it was amazing

Loved it even more the 2nd time through. First time had a multi-month gap due to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and general intimidation of the writing. But here I was, approaching it after reading McCarthy's library in chronological publishing order, which I recommend for everyone interested in his work.

McCarthy is so close to perfection here. I mean absolute perfection. The language is grandiose but warranted considering the breadth of subject matter. Themes of good vs. evil and the mean ...more

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Feb 02, 2011 Emily rated it really liked it

Sometimes hard to get through, but that said it contains some of the most beautiful writing I've ever read. Even better that incredible prose contrasts with nearly unbearable plot circumstances. Seriously, I had to stop and reread paragraphs out loud they were so lovely. ...more

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