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Michael Finocchiaro's Reviews > Blood Meridian
Blood Meridian
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Michael Finocchiaro's review
bookshelves: fiction, american-21st-c, favorites, classics, western, novels
Jul 16, 2016
bookshelves: fiction, american-21st-c, favorites, classics, western, novels
Read 2 times. Last read October 4, 2016 to October 9, 2016.
UPDATE: Cormac McCarthy left our world on June 13, 2023. This book plus The Border Trilogy, No Country for Old Men, and The Road are among the greatest books written by an America in the 20th and early 21st century. RIP, Cormac. We’ll miss your voice
Breathless. Unique. Brutal. There are many words that could be used to describe Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. For me, this was my second time through and I liked it far better than my first reading. Judge Holden, John Job Glanton, Toadvine, and the "kid" are all fantastic characters. I shudder to think that the horrors visited upon the Indians and Mexicans and homesteaders were all based on fact. The apocalypse described in The Road is not too far a cry from the hellish country on the US-Mexico border (which has not really changed if we exchange the scalper mercenaries for the drug cartels) and yet the descriptions and language of Blood Meridian is more beautiful to me. The symbolism here is quite strong and one wonders whether the author is a nihilist like his characters or if there is really some redeeming quality buried deep inside man...a true American masterpiece.
I would read The Border Trilogy after finishing Blood Meridien. I have not tried Suttree or Child of God, but they would have a hard time to top this one!
Breathless. Unique. Brutal. There are many words that could be used to describe Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. For me, this was my second time through and I liked it far better than my first reading. Judge Holden, John Job Glanton, Toadvine, and the "kid" are all fantastic characters. I shudder to think that the horrors visited upon the Indians and Mexicans and homesteaders were all based on fact. The apocalypse described in The Road is not too far a cry from the hellish country on the US-Mexico border (which has not really changed if we exchange the scalper mercenaries for the drug cartels) and yet the descriptions and language of Blood Meridian is more beautiful to me. The symbolism here is quite strong and one wonders whether the author is a nihilist like his characters or if there is really some redeeming quality buried deep inside man...a true American masterpiece.
I would read The Border Trilogy after finishing Blood Meridien. I have not tried Suttree or Child of God, but they would have a hard time to top this one!
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
July 16, 2016
– Shelved
July 19, 2016
– Shelved as:
fiction
October 4, 2016
–
Started Reading
October 8, 2016
–
36.9%
"This is my second voyage through Blood Meridian and it is proving to be even more enjoyable and impressive than the first."
page
131
October 9, 2016
–
Finished Reading
November 18, 2016
– Shelved as:
american-21st-c
November 18, 2016
– Shelved as:
favorites
November 18, 2016
– Shelved as:
classics
November 18, 2016
– Shelved as:
western
November 21, 2016
– Shelved as:
novels
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Jessaka
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rated it 5 stars
Nov 06, 2016 03:15AM
What a great review. I will have to read this book soon. It just sits on my book shelf.
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It was awesome as was the Border Trilogy and The Road. Thanks for the compliment! You'd probably enjoy my A Brief History of Seven Killings review too :)
that would be awesome! The on-screen version of All The Pretty Horses is one of the few movies of Matt Damon that I really liked!
Thanks for your comment Josh. You mean Carpaccio's Oscar film? Well, yeah, there was some of that but I had more affinity to the Kid than to Carpaccio because Carpaccio's character was really one dimensional - he gets fucked over, survives nearly certain death and has his revenge. The Kid is a more profound character having run away from far away Tennessee, joined and witnessed the evils of the Glanton gang and participated in them as well. He never fully gets revenge and - and spoiler alert - Judge Holden gets the best of him at the end. I am not sure if Hollywood ever portrayed a character as complex and conflicted as the kid. I think the closest might be DeNiro in Taxi Driver or maybe Pacino in the Godfather series...but always open to debate the point.
Nice review; one of my favourite books!
This was my first McCarthy book, and a good way to start indeed :D
After that, The Border Trilogy is fantastic!
Yes, there was a slightly scorched earth feel to Revenant but I'd put forward perhaps The Cohen brothers Blood Simple or Barton Fink as more otherworldly and senseless in violence. Anyone following me here?
One of my favorite books by McCarthy. I think it should be required reading in high school because there's so much depth.
Yes, my friend; yes and yes. At first McCarthy's violence put me off. That was my mistake. This book of his in particular is a masterpiece; the symbolism the equal of Lawrence.
That is not to dismiss any of his others. However I always thought "The Road" was his cash-in and avoided it. Is it that good?
Never mind. Just read your review. Gotta try it.
That is not to dismiss any of his others. However I always thought "The Road" was his cash-in and avoided it. Is it that good?
Never mind. Just read your review. Gotta try it.
Suttree is also brilliant with some humour which is unusual for McCarthy. Child of God is as brutal as Blood Meridian and also an excellent read. My favourite McCarthy novels are Suttree, then Blood Meridian, then Child of God, then The Road. But I'm splitting hairs - all five star reads! (I read 166 books last year and gave 14 five stars so McCarthy is up there for high quality reads and consistency). The Border trilogy is very good but not of the very high standing of these four.
I will never forget this book. It is an epic that will never sleep and can never die. I will have to read it a second time because of the stories within the story ie the story of the traveller that Judge Holden tells and the Kids final kill when he is referred to as the man. I love how the author doesn’t explicitly say what the judge is and throughout the book I pictured him as taller version of marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now.I would love to have a beer with someone and talk about this book for hours!
@T that sounds like a great idea :-)
One of my favorite modern American novels.
Thank you , Michael got this review. It serves as an introduction for me of this work.
@Sherril you are most welcome@Bryan yeah, I know, right?
The more I see of humanity, the less faith I have in it. I do think some people are born without empathy, without the quality that makes them human (Judge Holden). I think this book is a towering masterpiece, McCarthy's best, and the gorgeous prose only intensifies the brutality. This book has left an imprint on me like no other. How I wish McCarthy were still with us. He wasn't afraid to shine a light where only a few will go.
@kiki totally agree. Epic work and timeless message
