Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West

Blood Meridian is a challenging read. McCarthy's unconventional style – minimal punctuation, unclear speakers – can be frustrating. Certain characters, like the "idiot," seem to lack purpose, and overall character development feels minimal. The gang's aimless journeys and overly detailed descriptions of the landscape can be tedious. Despite this, the novel is strangely compelling, particularly the enigmatic Judge. However, the ending proved unsatisfying. While I appreciate McCarthy's skill, his style may not suit me.

Respected literary professor Harold Bloom called Blood Meridian "the ultimate Western". It is and it's much more than that, it may be the ultimate novel. I don't think I've read or will other read another book that truly captures the essence of what we are as humans more than Blood Meridian. The constant, indescribable violence and depravity that is this novel cannot be summarized, you havew to read it for comprehension. I don't think I've read or will ever read another book that is as well written as Blood Meridian. You read McCarthy's descriptions of the landscape, his character's dialogue, and his eerie prose and you can't help but look up and wonder in complete awe. The Biblical-style writing is so soaring and incredible you don't know how it was written. And his characters, his characters- the kid, who takes the horror of the world around him so passively, and the Judge, who is the greatest character in the history of fiction- again, so evil it's indescribable. Basically, if there's one book you have to read in your lifetime, it's Blood Meridian.

The language is archaic because the novel is set in the 1850's. But it is also frequently obtuse. The lack of quotation marks is just silly pretentiousness. I've been to the desert many times and I doubt anyone could survive the ordeals "the Kid" endures. About half way through the novel I was expecting these guys to get cut down in a crossfire of shotgun blasts. Never happened. Had to wait for the Indians to do it. It would have happened much sooner in real life. The novel never builds to anything. It's just a series of random savagery until it ends. There is no character development. One page the kid's 16 the next he's 28. The Judge promises to be an interesting character.In the hands of a less self important author, he might have been. But his speeches, though fascinating, never add up to anything.He never emerges from the author's needlessly difficult language. Especially the author's mania for the word and. The novel is shot though with run on sentences that sound moronic when read aloud. All told I'm mystified that anyone thinks this is a great book. It shows tremendous promise. The dialogue is often perfect. Not good. Perfect. The Judge's speeches sound beautiful read aloud - though terrifying also. When the author can tear himself away from his thesaurus, and fight off his addiction to the word and, his descriptive passages are so good the setting becomes all but touchable. Give this thing a good editing, develop the characters, give it a story arc that builds suspense and you'll have a book worth reading.