Pajiba

Nice review, Carrie. I'm always torn about Cormac McCarthy too, but for different reasons, I guess. For me, I think his stories are amazing; the plotting and morality - or usually lack thereof - gets me every time. I just can't fucking stand his prose. The Road made me feel like I was reading doomsday Jack Kerouac; the story's unique and interesting, but for the love of Godtopus, man, edit your shit.

There are a few books that I can get lost in & this is one. I've read it several times. It always takes me a few pages and then I'm caught, I'm there in the words and rolling with it, it's brutal and gorgeous and perfect.

It took me several instances of picking up The Road and reading a few bits in the book store to finally buy and read it. I was sorry it had taken so long, as I blasted through it in no time and was left haunted when I finished. I just picked up Child of God - but I don't think I'd be interested in the subject material of this one. Perhaps that was the issue, Carrie?

The best works are so good that people of all different backgrounds and reading aptitudes can get something out of it--see Shakespeare. A 12 year old can appreciate the good old fashioned sex and violence in Macbeth, while Pajiba-ites can write about fancy-shmancy english stuff.

Now, is Blood Meridian a masterpiece? By my criteria, no. It is still, however, a GREAT work; it just isn't enjoyable as a light-hearted read. It requires a great deal of time and effort to truly comprehend the world Cormac creates and why he constructed it, but I promise you it is worth it.

Moreover, I completely disagree that this book can't capture your attention. If you read this properly, i.e., you don't read 20 pages each morning on the subway, you will FEEL this book. The world he creates will instill in you a a feeling of dirt, disgust, and humanity so real that you may wish you didn't "get what he is trying to do."

The Road is a book that is more suitable for the cannonball read. It is a simple and elegant book that you can read on a plane or with some friends.
Blood Meridian is a book you devote several hours in the study to, the type of book that merits a book club. If you give it that type of treatment you will get a proper reward.

Look at this passage. This is an inspired description of the judge. It is complicated and confusing and I wouldn't change it one bit.

"A great shambling mutant, silent and serene. Whatever his antecedents, he was something wholly other than their sum, nor was there system by which to divide him back into his origins for he would not go. Whoever would seek out his history through what unraveling of loins and ledgerbooks must stand at last darkened and dumb at the shore of a void without terminus or origin and whatever science he might bring to bear upon the dusty primal matter blowing down out of the millennia will discover no trace of ultimate atavistic egg by which to reckon his commencing."

McCarthy's prose works well in those of his books that are particularly dark. The prose in The Road, stripped down and bare, is a mirror of the colorless post-apocalyptic world. In Blood Meridian, his prose is deeper, richer, loaded with the darkness and horror of his subject matter -- but yet still conveying not only the desolation of the settings but the nihilistic brutality of the action. And then there are incredible passages like the one quoted above.

I've read enough of McCarthy's books to think he is one seriously bitter, fucked up individual. Half of his books deal, in some way, with "pure, concentrated evil" (to quote another movie) -- in The Road, it's the roving gangs of cannibals; in Blood Meridian, it's The Judge; in No Country For Old Men, it's Anton Chigurh. That guy has some demons infesting his soul.

I just finished Blood Meridian a few weeks ago, and I found it to be one of the best books I have ever read. I agree with Luker in that it does take some time and effort to read McCarthy, but your efforts are well rewarded. The worlds he creates, the feelings he evokes, even the very words he chooses, are all done with a specific end in mind. As McCarthy himself has said, everything is in the book exactly as he intended it to be. It's up to the reader to discern that meaning. To me, his prose reads like poetry at times. He uses just the right words and phrasing to express the exact meaning he is trying to convey.

Haven't read Blood Meridian, but I've read the Border Trilogy. I liked those 3 books, but I agree with some of the posters that McCarthy's style can get annoying. The lack of quotation marks and the absence of the names of the speakers becomes very confusing during long stretches of dialogue. Also, he'll write a whole conversation in Spanish without any explanation. I know a little (un poco) spanish, and I can kinda keep up, but sometimes that can be off-putting. Another thing is the long-winded story told by a character. In The Crossing, a guy in a ghost town tells some story to the main character (Billy) for like 20 pages, and damn if it didn't ramble. If the point of that was: the story-teller is crazy, then mission accomplished. Otherwise, . . .???? In Cities of the Plain, at the end, another stranger tells the main character a rambling, crazy dream-like story-within-a-story, that just pissed me off.

Anyway, despite all that, I actually enjoyed those 3 books. I'd say I liked All the Pretty Horses the best and The Crossing the least.

I wouldn't say McCarthy is all about the non-existence of God. In his work it often seems that a deity exists, either as a "cold" uncaring creator entirely detached from the workings of the material world , or as a "sadist" actively working to create suffering. In fact, certain interpretations of Blood Meridian hold that Judge Holden is the God of that world.

Carrie, thanks for the review. I can definitely relate. I am a big fan of McCarthy's and I thought Blood Meridian was amazing. But I also felt that there was too much to fully comprehend; if I were really going to understand it I'd have to learn Spanish, intensely study the history of the area, and read it another fifty times--at least.

I'm going to have to have a look at this one - see if it grabs me.

I read it in 1989. Before that time I had exclusively read SF & Fantasy, but after reading a review by John Banville in The Irish Times I read Blood Meridian. And never forgot it. It was the most violent, horrific and exquisite thing I'd ever read, but I hadn't the critical faculties to appreciate it. But it was key in changing my reading habits to modern literature. I've loved CmC ever since, though I would suggest few of his books reach the same heights, poss. The Road & All The Pretty Horses. The "baby tree" haunted me for years.
I reread it last year. It was as good as I remembered.

uhg.

another 'it's hard to read so i didn't really pay attention' review.

yes, it requires focus. if this is a problem for a reader, then maybe reviewing books for fun isn't an appropriate use of your time. for the love of god don't read Suttree.

perhaps i'm being too critical here. maybe i'm just an asshole. there are times when the language of mccarthy's works can carry me page after page. it's a bit like circus music written by Rachmaninoff with blood and sometimes pee. it's poetry that kicks you right in the balls. it has horrified me when i thought that capacity had been lost.

i guess i like it and get grumpy when i think it isn't given the attention it warrants. fine if you don't like it, but at least know it before you dismiss it.

that was the name of my second band.