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A review by tumblyhome_caroline
Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy
5.0
Once upon a time Herman Melville wrote to his friend and fellow writer Nathaniel Hawthorne and told him he had written a ‘wicked book’ in Moby Dick. McCarthy, clearly inspired by Melville in Blood Meridian, took that idea and ran with it.
This book is set around the Texas Mexico border immediately after the Mexican/American war of the 1840’s. It takes the genre of the Western and brutally savages it with blood dripping teeth. This is not a John Wayne western! It isn’t just wicked, it is demoniac. It is about war and man’s inability to stop cycles of unremitting savagery. It sounds like a heavy topic..it is… and relevant bearing in mind current events. The book is about so much more and has many themes but you need to read it to find your own themes within it.
The nearest I can get to describing it is, imagine a Quentin Tarantino movie without the humour and music, add in the devil and then rough it up even more. That said I should say that the violence in Blood Meridian is not gratuitous, related just to get an audience reaction. In fact the most difficult parts to read are dealt out and then we just ride on passed them. None are dwelt over but all are necessary to the narrative. Not just necessary but essential. Also Blood Meridian is so much more important than a good night out at the pictures.
Despite all that, the writing is beautiful and spectacular, truly breathtakingly so. McCarthy is a genius with words something of a magician but also a trickster. I was in awe of his skills on every single page. This book is very rightly a masterpiece! There are layers upon layers of meaning and I didn’t get all of them, so I will need to read it again, many times.
It is a book for the fearless reader and not a book for a comfortable escape.. to put it mildly. It should come with a glaring red violence warning … and every other warning..But it is absolutely brilliant. Despite the topic and my trepidation about picking it up, I am so very glad I did. Oh and it has the best Epilogue ever once you think it through. I think it is a breaking of the forth wall.
I read this with the Hardcore Literature Book club which is a very excellent group to discuss literature…see the link to the YouTube intro to this book below
https://youtu.be/If1Su5qh96Q
This book is set around the Texas Mexico border immediately after the Mexican/American war of the 1840’s. It takes the genre of the Western and brutally savages it with blood dripping teeth. This is not a John Wayne western! It isn’t just wicked, it is demoniac. It is about war and man’s inability to stop cycles of unremitting savagery. It sounds like a heavy topic..it is… and relevant bearing in mind current events. The book is about so much more and has many themes but you need to read it to find your own themes within it.
The nearest I can get to describing it is, imagine a Quentin Tarantino movie without the humour and music, add in the devil and then rough it up even more. That said I should say that the violence in Blood Meridian is not gratuitous, related just to get an audience reaction. In fact the most difficult parts to read are dealt out and then we just ride on passed them. None are dwelt over but all are necessary to the narrative. Not just necessary but essential. Also Blood Meridian is so much more important than a good night out at the pictures.
Despite all that, the writing is beautiful and spectacular, truly breathtakingly so. McCarthy is a genius with words something of a magician but also a trickster. I was in awe of his skills on every single page. This book is very rightly a masterpiece! There are layers upon layers of meaning and I didn’t get all of them, so I will need to read it again, many times.
It is a book for the fearless reader and not a book for a comfortable escape.. to put it mildly. It should come with a glaring red violence warning … and every other warning..But it is absolutely brilliant. Despite the topic and my trepidation about picking it up, I am so very glad I did. Oh and it has the best Epilogue ever once you think it through. I think it is a breaking of the forth wall.
I read this with the Hardcore Literature Book club which is a very excellent group to discuss literature…see the link to the YouTube intro to this book below
https://youtu.be/If1Su5qh96Q