By Cormac McCarthy Blood Meridian: Or, the Evening Redness in the West (Modern Library) (New edition)

Magnifico

I hate to give a five star review. Not only do I find it hard because I always tell myself that surely something can’t be “perfect”, and I know the reviewer will think I’m biased. I don’t think I am. I could be. But I really think this book is worth it. This is a really hard book to handle. Everyone I’ve spoke to has told me they’ve had to take a break or straight up just stop reading it because of how awful everything that happens is. Go into it knowing that there are some very matter of fact scenes involving rape, civilian massacre, child murder, and of course, scalping. I could not put it down. There has never been, and I doubt ever will be, another book quite like Blood Meridian. It’s told in such a way that the scale almost feels cosmic. The earth that these people walk on is as much a character as the actual scalpers themselves. We’re forced to sit and watch as even the most highly “moral” characters fade into a faceless crowd of rape, murder, and debauchery. The landscapes of the American west are described in ways so vivid, it sometimes feels like poetry. Theres really a love for these places that no man will ever see again. This directly contrasts with how violence is depicted and described. Very matter of fact. To the point. There’s no beauty in it to be gleaned, no hidden meaning or special prose, just like violence itself. It is an act carried out by one being onto another. It’s how you would describe a bear attack. No one dies in a beautiful blaze of glory, no death is treated with any real weight. He was shot through the chest with an arrow, and his body defiled by the attackers. That’s how it happened, that’s how it’s described. It’s how God would relate these things happening. This is part of what makes the book so incredible. It’s ability to talk about some of the most depraved events known to man, many of which based on real happenings, and be completely impartial towards these acts the entire time, while still allowing you to walk away from the book thinking about how awful these people are. They are murderers, rapists, thieves, they are horrible, awful humans, and yet, they are human. And that’s the point of the book. These are humans, this is nature, and this is human nature. To destroy. That is ultimately what the book is about. Life, death, beginnings and ends, and most of all, the human nature to destroy, and our vein attempts to justify it. I’ve not said much of anything about the plot or the actual characters, because that’s something I feel is best discovered reading the book. Discovering these things for yourself for the first time is the most interesting thing you could be doing with your time. There are characters in this book, one in particular, so large in his presence, who leaves such a massive mark on the readers mind that I can very confidently say that there will never, EVER be another character so grand or intriguing ever again. It’s a really good book. For anyone who loves to dig deep and analyze, for anyone who doesn’t mind not being given answers, and most importantly, for anyone who can stomach it. It’s not something I recommend lightly, but it is something I want as many people to experience as possible.

This probably goes without saying, but MAJOR trigger warnings for readers who can’t handle extreme gore, racism, sexism, and CSAM. The Cormac McCarthy 1985 classic Blood Meridian is a pioneer of the “anti-western” genre. There are no attempts to romanticize or glamorize the Wild West. Every foul nook and cranny of this particular era in American history is explored to an almost gratuitous extent. Despite it’s explicit nature, the flowery prose and non-pretentious allegories and analogies to manifest destiny conjured by McCarthy evoke an understanding that this book’s intention is not simply to shock and awe, but to inform us about why we should never let past atrocities be forgotten. Lest we repeat the same mistakes as our ancestors.

If you want to read well written and accurate old west literature. Look no further than Cormac Mcarthies Blood Meridian. There is many mentions of the following so TW. Rape, child rape, death, torture, etc. All of that is heavily implied not detailed. With all that is said about it it’s not as bad as you’d think upon finishing the read. I’ve read worse from more “grotesque” writers. Overall damn near perfection.

Ngl I’m trying to get my youngest son to read this one. We like the same books but he said he’d skip this one. There is something about The Judge that you just want to knock his teeth out