Blood Meridian: The beautifully written novel I'll never recommend to anyone
Cormac McCarthy's language is stunning and reading this novel feels, at times, like sitting at a camp fire while an old man tales you a story that is ... utterly horrific and entirely pointless.
If it were for Cormac McCarthy's literary prowess alone, this book would get 6 out of 5 stars. The similes and metaphors just keep coming sumptuously in this tale that is - from start to finish - supremely and sadistically violent.
Why did McCarthy write Blood Meridian? What was he trying to convey? Heck, plenty has been written and mused about it. I'm sure he had his reasons. As for the western genre, give me Louis L'Amour or Zane Grey any time over this novel.
Heck, give me MOST novels in any genre over this one.
Why? Because most novels have (or at least aim for) a compelling story, most novels have a point, most novels have a moral center, or any center at all, really, and most novels give readers a chance to meet a protagonists and other characters to live and fever with them through ups and downs as they fail and succeed and overcome obstacles and finally learn something about themselves. In Blood Meridian? None of that, at all.
Blood Meridian has historical elements as it follows the Glanton Gang and depicts many of its atrocities - and every other atrocity McCarthy comes up with along the way - in gruesome detail. What we’re told through every page of the novel is that man is monstrous, that war is man's nature, that it’s all a game/war to be won or lost, and that everybody shoots and stabs and scalps everybody else. Also that there are no redeeming elements, that nothing is learned and that he who is the worst of the worst will be left standing at the end.
That 'worst of the worst' is Judge Holden, and the Judge is, by all accounts, by far the best character in the novel. He is larger than life, he may be the devil himself, in fact, he defies all odds and surpasses all measure of cruelty and is full of knowledge and is a monstrous psychopath of the first order. But if I were an actor, what a character to be played! Attempts at turning Blood Meridian into a film have come and gone (and I hope it never happens) - but the obvious choice for the Judge would have been Clint Eastwood - and he would have been mesmerizing in that role. Another amazing choice - a few decades from now - will be Brad Pitt (but again, may it never, ever happen!). Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about Judge Holden (and I think it makes my point nicely):
“The role of antagonist is gradually filled by Judge Holden, a physically massive, highly educated, preternaturally skilled member of the gang who has Albinism and takes extreme sexual pleasure in killing everything he sees, including children and small dogs.”
For the life of me, I couldn't ever recommend this novel to anyone. Read about it, by all means, read up on its literary strengths, read lists of fantastic similes and metaphors - but don't go wandering through McCarthy’s endless prairie, desert and mountains to experience horror after horror after horror - for no other reason than to get to an end where all you’re left with is this: Humanity is cruel, human beings are the worst and violence trumps all.
This novel is now considered “one of the greatest American novels of all time.” I won’t argue about that, I just wish it wasn’t. Nobody needs to read this book. Ever. Nobody will learn anything from it, nothing will be bettered by any of it. Good writing, for sure, but zero redeeming value. Critic Harold Bloom considered it to be one of the best American novels of the 20th century - but, again, he makes my point by saying the following:
“… worthy of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, but my first two attempts to read through Blood Meridian failed, because I flinched from the overwhelming carnage.”
Author David Foster Wallace calls it one of the five most underappreciated American novels and then adds:
“… and probably one of the most horrifying books of the 20th century.”
Critics and literati circles can’t agree on what the novel’s all about and some argue that that’s exactly the point - that Blood Meridian is designed to elude interpretation. I mean, huh!? There’s mind-bending reflections by the ‘experts’ that the novel’s actually a satire of the western genre - it very clearly is not - and that it represents an indictment of Manifest Destiny - also utter rubbish. Yes all of the horrific violence that is pervasive across the every blood-soaked page is not glorified, it simply is - but there isn’t the hint of an indictment.
And the comparison to Moby-Dick? Unbelievable! There’s nothing that even remotely elevates Blood Meridian to Moby-Dick level. By the way, I’m not a particular fan of Melville’s epic tale, but it had character development and heart to spare. There was story, the was purpose - what could be grander than the mad quest of Captain Ahab - in that novel, everything clicks. In Blood Meridian, the only thing that clicks is McCarthy’s very special writing style - sometimes downright lyrical with its dreamlike quality - everything else is a world that is beyond cruel, a world that feels like you’re constantly wading through a swamp of blood and rape and scalps.
So - if all of the above has intrigued you to the point of wanting to read this novel, well then I’m sorry. Again, please, be kind to yourself, don’t read Blood Meridian.
PS: Let’s not forget that Cormac McCarthy is a stellar writer. No Country for Old Men, another violent tale of his, comes with insight and character to spare. And then there’s The Road - a dark dystopian tale where all’s gone bad and people have turned cannibalistic … but even there, McCarthy tells that dark and violent and gruesome tale through the powerful relationship of father and his son. So, read Cormac McCarthy, by all means, but please skip Blood Meridian.