ayereads 's review for:

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

4.5

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Bleak, Brutal, Beautiful.

"He passed and so passed all into the problematical destruction of darkness"

This is what I wasn't expecting when I decided to pick up my first McCarthy. What I was expecting was sheer sheer disturbing content (which was there) but I wasn't expecting it to be
a- beautiful
b- funny

I think it's very interesting how writing can act in seemingly disturbing literature. Whether it's in Lolita where Nabokov had put us in the head of a pedophile or whether its in A Clockwork Orange where the writing distance us from the events.

The writing in this book was so bleak and haunting but also beautiful.

"The old ones are gone like phantoms and the savages wander these canyons to the sound of an ancient laughter."

"Hell aint half full. Hear me. Ye carry war of a madman's making onto a foreign land. Ye'll wake more than the dogs."

Another thing I found interesting about this book was McCarthy didn't give us the liberty of an opinion to rest against. No one here was condemning anything. Even the kid seemingly the protagonist didn't hold a lot of opinion just bleak and straight, action after action. It was each person, each reader for its own with their own opinions and their own heads.

I will like to take a moment to appreciate (for the lack of a better word)- The Judge. Just this line...this one line-

"Whatever exists, he said. Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent."

This one line had me reeling. I went- what. Sir. WHAT. But whatever he was- a supernatural being or a wrathful God or a personal demon or a demon from inside or a man for the taste for debauchery or omnipotent or inevitable or fate- he was unforgettable and much like McCarthy says-

"He never sleeps, the judge. He is dancing, dancing. He says that he will never die.

-he will keep on dancing in my mind long after I'm done with this book.