Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy -------------------- 1.5

Well. I'm clearly a fool.  Here are words I wrote upon reviewing Cormac McCarthy's The Road on February 22, 2009., "...but after two books I think I am done with him."    Ugh, why didn't I remember that and listen to myself? Instead, here I am, 15 YEARS LATER, giving the same review I gave then.

To give myself some credit and grace, Blood Meridian, has been on my list for so long I probably forgot about my negative feelings about McCarthy. And, perhaps more importantly, in the last decade or so critics opine that Blood Meridian might one of the greatest American novels in the past fifty years. Even, one of my favorites, David Foster Wallace wrote that. So, there was/is a huge amount of people heaping praise upon this book. That, along with it's focus on the Old West made me think I had to give it a try... and what a colossal mistake.

As you can probably tell, I wanted to like this book so much. I really did. I gave it a shot, at the start, even when I wasn't digging it. I wanted to give up half way through but figured it might have a great final half. And I wanted to drop it with about 100 pages left but I had come so far. Unfortunately, it never really got better or changed or did something new.

So why? Why all the hate? Well, mostly because it's just a miserable read. It's not entertaining, its' not funny, it's not really interesting, and if that wasn't enough, it's super dark. Like, I can't believe how many times he uses the "n" word or describes, in great detail the scalping of a Native Americans. The violence is just over the top. And the sense of nothing is incessant.  

If curious, here's Amazon's summary "Based on historical events that took place on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s, Blood Meridian traces the fortunes of the Kid, a fourteen-year-old Tennesseean who stumbles into the nightmarish world where Indians are being murdered and the market for their scalps is thriving."

I mean, that's about it.  For like, 400 pages. And, to make it even harder, he really doesn't use many structural tools. So no quotation marks for people speaking, very few commas, god forbid he uses a semi-colon. 

I could go on and on about how much I struggled with this book. And, to be fair, there were some parts that were interesting but I'd say 90% of it nothing of substance happens and you have to really wade your way through McCarthy's dense writing. Don't get me wrong, he's a genius with words and describing nature, but don't ask him to shape a character's motivation or offer
a great piece of dialogue.

As you can tell, I really can't recommend this novel. It was truly one of my least favorite books I've read, and I feel so bad about that. But, it's how it felt to me and perhaps you might have a different view of it.