This book is the ultimate litmus test for the avid reader of fiction. An arguable triumph of prose, style, form and content it has no equal I could think of to compare it to. I haven’t read an exceptional amount of Westerns but then I’m not sure that is the best category to place this book. It is epic in story conception and completely without the romantic elements that are so prevalent in such novels. It’s theme of depraved brutality is unlikely to appeal to a mass audience despite the magnificent poetic style and form McCarthy utilizes here. Even though I was repelled by the violence of the story and found it quite difficult to read at times I still felt driven to finish it because of the author’s excellence in creating a powerful visual picture inside the mind’s eye.
Blood Meridian: Or The Evening Redness In The West recounts the odyssey of a Tennessean, ‘The Kid’, a fourteen year old runaway who eventually falls in with a band of men that have only the barest threads of humanity which they loose quickly. It isn’t long before ‘The Kid’ learns to survive by learning their ways, willingly assisting in the terror they spread as they journey westward beginning at the Texas – Mexico border and spanning a few years between the 1840’s & the 1850’s. The rest of the supporting characters in the story are vividly fleshed out with the judge, an educated and shrewd man among near-savages, being the most unforgettable. ‘The Kid’ outlasts all of his counterparts with his wanderings taking him to the coast of California and almost back to the same spot where his travels began, meeting up with the judge one final time.
McCarthy has turned the normal pageantry of the Western tale inside on itself in an effort to help us discover the part of the western advancement of our nation that seeks to remain hidden and often at our own insistence. Our desire to remain happily ignorant of this dark region of history comes naturally to everyone – it isn’t pleasant to hear (or read) about. Confronting that evil (and being confronted by that evil) even at this now great distance of time is unsettling for most of us. It won’t be an easy read for anyone, it will get under your skin and stay there for the duration of your reading and it will likely even leave you feeling uneasy after you’ve finished.
Understandably Blood Meridian will not fascinate each reader in the way it did me. Visit the websites of Barnes & Noble, Borders, or even Amazon and read as many reviews as you wish to and you’ll see that there is a huge debate over the merits of the book. There is plenty of criticism and equal (or more) amounts of praise for this controversial but bravura work by McCarthy. If you’re a reader of fiction who is looking for a real challenge then I strongly suggest the book to you; and be certain to venture as far into the book as you can. Getting accustomed to the style and rhythm of the storytelling takes a while, and steeling yourself against the often numbing theme of violence will also be difficult at the beginning. But I found the rewards were worth it and I can’t recall such a senses-stunning, more memorable ending to a book ever.
Filed under: Books I've Read
