Dark, Disturbing, And Amazing.

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	• Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West Cormac McCarthy Vintage, 1992 - 352 pages average customer review:based on 302 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Undeniably brilliant, but....

Blood Meridian is increasingly seen as one of the great American novels (thanks, in no small part, to Harold Bloom's impassioned advocacy) and it remains a remarkable achievement.

To begin with, McCarthy is just a brilliant prose stylist. Even at its most affected and portentous, the book contains breathtakingly poetical passages and imagery. And McCarthy is also a terrific storyteller. The characters are vivid, and the action is often thrillingly intense.

Beyond that, however, I have some reservations. McCarthy is an inspired genre writer (and as a thriller, western, and road book, Blood Meridian is first-class), but there's always a sense of overreach in his books and I'm not particularly moved by the heavy-handed quasi-biblical language and symbolism or the rather tired platitudes on the nature of violence and man and war that litter this book. As many have noted, the violence in this book is graphic and legitimately shocking at times. Yet by the end of the book, the violence has grown tedious and even kitsch-y from McCarthy's constant efforts to top himself.

I don't want to deny McCarthy's exceptional gifts and Blood Meridian is, in many respects, a tremendous book, but I do feel it ultimately stumbles under its own weight.

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Dark, Disturbing, And Amazing.

Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian is yet another book that you'll find review after review of and they'll all be positive. But unlike so many books, this one more than earns it's praise. If anything those reviews fall far short of ever doing it justice.
Following the nameless protagonist throughout his journey's takes you beyond the Southwest and Mexico, you look into that side of humanity that most people don't want to acknowledge is there.
The many horrific acts McCarthy's characters commit, mixed with his nonchalant tone makes you realize that the horrors they commit are just as troubling for them as putting your shoes on is for you.
If you do decide to read this book, be prepared for one of the best, and most intense, books you'll ever read. It truly has earned it's merit as one of Time's 100 Best Novels.

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Blood Meridian critique

Blood Meridian is a beautifully written yet horrifying story of the Old American West. This book is certainly not for the faint of heart or the squeamish. McCarthy certainly captures the spirit of the time and his prose is breathtaking. If one can move beyond the images of senseless, brutal violence that are found throughout the novel, it is certainly a book worth reading.

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