Scan barcode
A review by theanitaalvarez
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
4.0
This is one depressing book. There’s a lot of people being bastards (and I don’t mean that they are the illegitimate children type), horrendous violence (with heavily detailed descriptions of the scenes) and so on. It’s generally a gruesome read, but in the end it has something that’s really compelling. It is, after all, an exploration of humanity’s darkest impulses.
On an aesthetic level, I actually enjoyed this book. I mean, it’s brilliantly written; the descriptions, while gory and violent, are also original and powerful; and even if the characters are indeed awful people, they are actually portrayed very well.
Though I think the Judge deserves a few lines for him. What a creepy and scary character! None of the character can be thought of as “good guys”, but he took the cake. He was vicious, evil and disgusting in more ways than I can think of, but he was also a freakin’ good character. I’m not sure if I really want to learn how McCarthy got round to creating this bastard, but it was intense. Judge Holden is evil for evil’s sake, he never sleeps and he’ll never die. But the scariest thing about him is the fact that he’s so persuasive. He can make people believe that a priest is a pedophile and kill him. And he’s never seen the man in his life.
I won’t get into what was Judge Holden (he seems to be either inhuman or completely deranged), but I’ll say he gives a bad vibe. Well, the really creepy vibe. And his implid rape and murder of children doesn't really help his case very much.
While I’m totally grossed out by this charming gentleman, the kid (who is the POV character here) is somewhat more ambiguous. It’s easy to feel sorry for him at first. I mean, he’s an orphan. But then he voluntarily joins these people who travel through the desert killing Indians. That’s so not cool. It’s pretty interesting, however, to see how detached the kid becomes towards violence. The descriptions are, of course, in third person, but it’s pretty clear that they are seen from the kid’s POV, so the matter-of-factly tone is slightly more creepy.
But the kid appears to have some good in him. At least, he gets to a point where he tries to make things right (even if you have all that symbolism that seems to say that everything is for nothing). He’s by no accounts “good”, but he tries. His ultimate fate is horrible, because at a point he was able to escape the horrible violence he was almost getting used to.
I was utterly disgusted at Judge Holden’s attitude at the end of the book and hated to be left in such a bleak note. But McCarthy’s epilogue actually made me feel better. Even after a lot of pages of hate and destruction, there was a spot of hope.
Maybe that’s the most important part of the whole mess, isn’t it? People can be horrible, and they can also do good things.
I’m not sure I’d recommend this book to everyone. You need to have a good stomach to read it and be in the right spot psychologically. It can be a really horrible read if you’re depressed.
On an aesthetic level, I actually enjoyed this book. I mean, it’s brilliantly written; the descriptions, while gory and violent, are also original and powerful; and even if the characters are indeed awful people, they are actually portrayed very well.
Though I think the Judge deserves a few lines for him. What a creepy and scary character! None of the character can be thought of as “good guys”, but he took the cake. He was vicious, evil and disgusting in more ways than I can think of, but he was also a freakin’ good character. I’m not sure if I really want to learn how McCarthy got round to creating this bastard, but it was intense. Judge Holden is evil for evil’s sake, he never sleeps and he’ll never die. But the scariest thing about him is the fact that he’s so persuasive. He can make people believe that a priest is a pedophile and kill him. And he’s never seen the man in his life.
I won’t get into what was Judge Holden (he seems to be either inhuman or completely deranged), but I’ll say he gives a bad vibe. Well, the really creepy vibe. And his implid rape and murder of children doesn't really help his case very much.
While I’m totally grossed out by this charming gentleman, the kid (who is the POV character here) is somewhat more ambiguous. It’s easy to feel sorry for him at first. I mean, he’s an orphan. But then he voluntarily joins these people who travel through the desert killing Indians. That’s so not cool. It’s pretty interesting, however, to see how detached the kid becomes towards violence. The descriptions are, of course, in third person, but it’s pretty clear that they are seen from the kid’s POV, so the matter-of-factly tone is slightly more creepy.
But the kid appears to have some good in him. At least, he gets to a point where he tries to make things right (even if you have all that symbolism that seems to say that everything is for nothing). He’s by no accounts “good”, but he tries. His ultimate fate is horrible, because at a point he was able to escape the horrible violence he was almost getting used to.
I was utterly disgusted at Judge Holden’s attitude at the end of the book and hated to be left in such a bleak note. But McCarthy’s epilogue actually made me feel better. Even after a lot of pages of hate and destruction, there was a spot of hope.
Maybe that’s the most important part of the whole mess, isn’t it? People can be horrible, and they can also do good things.
I’m not sure I’d recommend this book to everyone. You need to have a good stomach to read it and be in the right spot psychologically. It can be a really horrible read if you’re depressed.