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Ack, I'm late as usual...but yes to everything you're saying; such brilliant writing. The Judge is one of the scariest ******* characters I've ever encountered, and yeah, I don't recall either he or the Kid being named at all, either, though I could be mistaken on that. It's undeniably a difficult read, every bit as much a puzzle as Joyce or other notoriously hard texts, but perhaps the most rewarding I've encountered...DrumsAndBeer":y6swhqhw said:Well I have not had much of a chance to reflect on Blood Meridian, as I am about done with it. Also I just don't have the words to accurately review it. But IMHO along with The Road, Blood Meridian has to be considered a true masterpiece of American literature. In my opinion aside from McCarthy's stunning grasp of vocabulary, I cannot think of too many other writers who have his ability to slowly develop incredibly colorful characters through the course of a story using for the most part poignant & gripping dialogue. This is something he did with razor sharp execution in The Road, a story where he never even gave a character a name.GrampaGrossbart":y6swhqhw said:One of the greatest novels of the 20th century, in my opinion--definitely a favorite. There's this simile McCarthy uses early on in the novel which was great, but being the novel it is, not particularly obtrusive...but then he re-used it a little later in the novel, and it gave me pause. I mean, why diminish the impact of the original language by recycling? It stuck out, especially, because BM is such a meticulously written novel, and I wondered why he had chosen to use the same simile twice...but then he used it a third and final time, and it somehow made it all work, in this ineffable way, grounding the themes of the novel, and its purpose, and creating this marvelous cadence...DrumsAndBeer":y6swhqhw said:Currently finishing Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. Great read.
I could rant about that novel for ages, and with far less eloquence than McCarthy, so I'll leave it there, but gottdamn, is it a great book.
I think comparatively The Road, All the Pretty Horses, and perhaps Child of God are much more accessible than Blood Meridian, but the layering of profound, brooding & nightmarish acts of human nature set loose upon the reader in Blood Meridian make for one hell of a thought provoking novel.