Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy, Cormac McCarthy

7 reviews

billyjepma's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

A towering, alienating, raging tapestry of the violent, bloodthirsty heart of the American condition. It’s a nightmarish read, one that forces you to wrestle with its foggy, murky plotting and aimless pacing—there’s a reason it took me months to finish. But that’s part of the nightmare McCarthy is cataloging for us, and his disdain is palpable even (especially?) as he coldly pontificates on the situation of the men his story follows.  

“In the days to come the frail black rebuses of blood in those sands would crack and break and drift away so that in the circuit of few suns all trace of the destruction of these people would be erased. The desert wind would salt their ruins and there would be nothing, nor ghost nor scribe, to tell to any pilgrim in his passing how it was that people had lived in this place and in this place died.”

There are a lot of quotes that speak to the intent of this book—a book I might someday understand better—but that one might be the one I latch into. McCarthy understood violence and its roots in the masculine soul better than almost any other American writer.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Murder, Rape, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Gore, Gun violence, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Racism, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Violence, Child death, and Sexual violence

Moderate: War, Alcoholism, Torture, Excrement, Kidnapping, Medical content, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Confinement, Death of parent, Genocide, and Cannibalism

asililydying's review against another edition

4.5

depraved. the united states committed a similar level of atrocities, probably greater than the dark ages. Enlightenment was only bringing pure hateful fire to the darkness.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Gore, Grief, Alcoholism, Gun violence, Hate crime, Body horror, Gaslighting, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Ableism, Excrement, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Stalking, Suicide attempt, War, Xenophobia, Classism, Homophobia, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Cursing, Slavery, Trafficking, Racial slurs, Racism, Colonisation, Antisemitism, Body shaming, and Bullying

themagpiereads's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

A stunning and brutal indictment of Manifest Destiny. A tough read in many ways: the writing is dense, the subject matter is harrowing, the characters are detestable. Yet, it is a propulsive read as well, difficult to put down in spite of its brutality. Did I like this book? Not really. Did I think this book was good? Absolutely. Take heed of all the content warnings if you're going to pick this one up. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, and Torture

Moderate: Confinement, Excrement, Misogyny, Rape, Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, and War

carolinemb's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Genocide, Murder, Physical abuse, Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Violence, Ableism, Blood, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Colonisation, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, War, and Xenophobia

reachingforstardust's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Murder, War, Violence, Gore, Genocide, Racial slurs, and Excrement

Moderate: Racism, Torture, Pedophilia, Alcohol, Confinement, Child abuse, and Misogyny

namizaela's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

"The way of the world is to bloom and to flower and die but in the affairs of men there is no waning and the noon of his expression signals the onset of night. His spirit is exhausted at the peak of its achievement. His meridian is at once his darkening and the evening of his day."

Granted, I didn't know much going into this book, but I feel like no one talks about how incredibly racist it is? McCarthy writes as if he's getting paid $50 for every slur he uses. In addition, he treats Native Americans and Black people as nothing more than cannon fodder to show how violent the white protagonists are.
Apart from the appalling racism, the plot is basically nonexistent, which isn't necessarily a bad thing but made reading this book confusing. I honestly didn't know what was going on half of the time. I didn't even remember any characters besides the kid, the fool, and the judge.
The saving graces of this book are the prose and the character of the judge, both of which chilled me. However, these merits don't make up for the glaring flaws. I'm disappointed, because The Road was my favorite book of 2020. It looks like Blood Meridian might be my least favorite book of 2021.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Excrement, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

jakej's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A towering achievement, so awe inspiring and distinctly McCarthian that it challenges the ideas of what a great book has to do. There is no character development and no protagonist (except in the superficial sense of occasionally being told from the kid’s point of view) and little plot. The purposes of the book are to remind you simultaneously of the necessity of violence to the world, and as a warning of what violence will do to it. More depressing and immersive than The Road, birthed by McCarthy’s archaic and cold descriptions.

The depravity hides a lot of complexity: there are a lot of unanswered questions in terms of plot that translate into unanswered questions about the characters' psyche's. However, the characters aren’t inordinately complex: the thematic treatment is through descriptive imagery and lacerating language, not through characters facing some internal struggle. It reaches near Biblical levels in the sheer amount that can be pulled from it.

Worth reading a dozen times.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Excrement, Gore, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, and Violence