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arockinsamsara's review against another edition
4.0
I started reading this almost with more of a sense of obligation than expectation or excitement. As I read it was always clear why this is considered a masterpiece of American literature, why it is a pinnacle of western and anti-western literature, and why there is continued discussion and exploration of this text now near forty years after its publication. But, for all that, I wasn’t enjoying it, I wasn’t gripped by it. I am such a fan of character, and McCarthy is intentionally devoid of interiority, in this epic/Biblical narrative modality that is pure observation, which feels antithetical to character. And yet, somehow, by the 2/3 mark, I was hooked, and deep. Because the purely observational, the refusal to explore the interiority of the characters, doesn’t mean an absence of character. It makes for characters as mirrors, where we see different aspects of ourselves reflected.
I finished the story, and it weighed heavier in my mind than a lot of other fiction has, precisely because that lack of interiority forces us to fill in so much. Really, why? Why did these men, and our “protagonist” the kid especially, continue doing this? There are so many opportunities for him to change course, for him to give up this lifestyle which seemed to have more times of being starved and near death than it did times of excess or gluttony. And yet we find ourselves constantly dancing with the darker part of our natures, the part that insists violence and might make right, that anything not under your heel is about to trample on you. This is a journey of loneliness, searching for identity and worth in a land that doesn't care about you, and when blood and violence are so ready at hand they seem like suitable stand-ins for meaning, for substance, for knowing oneself.
I read a decent amount of dark, somewhat nihilistic fiction. Yet McCarthy disguises what feels like a nihilistic examination of human nature in a much more colorful wrapper. Acts of violence and depravity don’t feel shocking, because we aren’t told how the characters feel about or experience these things, we only have this knowing observation of their actions. Inhumanity becomes disguised as the mundane, and we are hiding the teeth and claws of our inner monstrosity with the manufactured delight/distraction of a dance, twirling and high-stepping while a family searches the streets for a lost young girl who was mourning her murdered pet.
I finished the story, and it weighed heavier in my mind than a lot of other fiction has, precisely because that lack of interiority forces us to fill in so much. Really, why? Why did these men, and our “protagonist” the kid especially, continue doing this? There are so many opportunities for him to change course, for him to give up this lifestyle which seemed to have more times of being starved and near death than it did times of excess or gluttony. And yet we find ourselves constantly dancing with the darker part of our natures, the part that insists violence and might make right, that anything not under your heel is about to trample on you. This is a journey of loneliness, searching for identity and worth in a land that doesn't care about you, and when blood and violence are so ready at hand they seem like suitable stand-ins for meaning, for substance, for knowing oneself.
I read a decent amount of dark, somewhat nihilistic fiction. Yet McCarthy disguises what feels like a nihilistic examination of human nature in a much more colorful wrapper. Acts of violence and depravity don’t feel shocking, because we aren’t told how the characters feel about or experience these things, we only have this knowing observation of their actions. Inhumanity becomes disguised as the mundane, and we are hiding the teeth and claws of our inner monstrosity with the manufactured delight/distraction of a dance, twirling and high-stepping while a family searches the streets for a lost young girl who was mourning her murdered pet.
juane102's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
artemisfalling's review against another edition
3.0
“He never sleeps. He says that he will never die.”
nothing60606's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
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
3.5
theunderfold's review against another edition
challenging
dark
fast-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
Deplorable racists do terrible things to others and themselves. Hard to read misery porn.
daintysinferno's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
paperback24's review against another edition
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
erickibler4's review against another edition
5.0
It's strange that two of my favorite writers are P.G. Wodehouse and Cormac McCarthy. To one, life is a frolic; a comedy. To the other, life is a seemingly meaningless series of horrific events, the meaning, if any, known only to some dark god or other.
Blood Meridian blew me away. Judge Holden is one of the most terrifying characters in literature. It occurred to me while reading that he and Stephen King's Randall Flagg could be the same entity. Both appear in the wilderness and proceed to foment discord and mayhem among men, disappearing when the maximum carnage is achieved, only to reappear later, renewed and ageless.
But where King is content to be a storyteller, McCarthy aims higher. Every novel I've read by him intends not only to tell a story, but to unsettle the reader with the hard "truth" that the universe is meaningless, and that human beings aren't any damn good for anything but causing misery and death for one another. I would definitely be one of the sheeplike victims of the dark forces at play in any McCarthy novel.
And yet: although I've finished the book, the sun has come up, life appears rosy once more, and there are some Wodehouse books on the shelf. The antidote to a hard dose of McCarthy.
Blood Meridian blew me away. Judge Holden is one of the most terrifying characters in literature. It occurred to me while reading that he and Stephen King's Randall Flagg could be the same entity. Both appear in the wilderness and proceed to foment discord and mayhem among men, disappearing when the maximum carnage is achieved, only to reappear later, renewed and ageless.
But where King is content to be a storyteller, McCarthy aims higher. Every novel I've read by him intends not only to tell a story, but to unsettle the reader with the hard "truth" that the universe is meaningless, and that human beings aren't any damn good for anything but causing misery and death for one another. I would definitely be one of the sheeplike victims of the dark forces at play in any McCarthy novel.
And yet: although I've finished the book, the sun has come up, life appears rosy once more, and there are some Wodehouse books on the shelf. The antidote to a hard dose of McCarthy.
satyak's review against another edition
1.0
Really hard to understand the prose. Had to reread paragraphs again to grasp what’s happening. Was nice to read a classic but would never reread.