Blurb

“The fulfilled renown of Moby-Dick and of As I Lay Dying is augmented by Blood Meridian, since Cormac McCarthy is the worthy disciple both of Melville and Faulkner,” writes esteemed literary scholar Harold Bloom in his Introduction to the Modern Library edition. “I venture that no other living American novelist, not even Pynchon, has given us a book as strong and memorable.”

Cormac McCarthy’s masterwork, Blood Meridian, chronicles the brutal world of the Texas-Mexico borderlands in the mid-nineteenth century. Its wounded hero, the teenage Kid, must confront the extraordinary violence of the Glanton gang, a murderous cadre on an official mission to scalp Indians and sell those scalps. Loosely based on fact, the novel represents a genius vision of the historical West, one so fiercely realized that since its initial publication in 1985 the canon of American literature has welcomed Blood Meridian to its shelf.

“A classic American novel of regeneration through violence,” declares Michael Herr. “McCarthy can only be compared to our greatest writers.”

Review

Blood Meridian is the second McCarthy book i have read in the last couple of years, following Suttree. McCarthy is an author often liked and recommended by people who read a lot of stuff I tend to enjoy and by people I tend to respect their opinions. Blood Meridian especially, as well as No Country For Old Men and The Road, get recommended often as examples of great American literature. All-time great, that is.

Two McCarthy books in, and I think I have landed on respect his work more than I like it. I can see the prose, the wit, etc. I can recognize why it is held in high regard. Only, I haven’t really enjoyed either story particularly well. In both Suttree and Blood Meridian, I was ready for the book to be over well before it was. And I say that while acknowledging this is something I should like, because it is talented writing. Yet, I don’t. Sometimes a review is as simple as that: did I like it or not?

As for pinpointing why, I’m not sure if it is just the lack of a likeable character or the darkness of the world or what. I have a feeling I would have liked this book a lot more if I had read it 20 years ago. I was just in a different space mentally back then. It also got me thinking about one of my favorite shows, The Shield. I have always put The Shield in my top five. But I have not watched it since shortly after it ended its original run, partly on purpose. I’m concerned the same thing would happen. The Shield, while great and excellently written and acted, lacked likeable characters. I have a feeling 25-year-old me was more okay with that than 45-year-old me. So, I have been reluctant to rewatch it in fear of ruining the nostalgia.

So, let’s file Blood Meridian under Probably A Great Book I Just Was Not In The Right Head Space For.