WOW

It is still sinking in and I am not sure that I will ever be able to do the book justice or the author for that matter but I just finished reading on Friday morning the most amazing book. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy who in my mind is the best american writer ever. Like I was saying, it is still sinking in but my mouth dropped as I read the last page of this journey. The judge is the most amazingly well developed and interesting characters (and incarnations of evil) in all of literature, and the book ends with the beautiful and heartwrenching line, "He is dancing, dancing. He says that he will never die." Anyway here is my attempt to sum up the beauty and violence and the amazing writing in this book...

This book is about men surviving on the frontier, violent men who live their lives according to the "rules" of violence. There are vivid images of violence, but also the spiritual imagery and the conflict between those who are simply no-good and those who are truly evil, these images create an unforgettable world of despair where carnage is law and survival is redemption. The story follows the kid, a fourteen-year old drifter, across the Texas border into Mexico where he joins a group of mercenaries traveling through the desert killing Indians and selling their scalps. And then there is the judge, an all encompassing character who you are terrified of but the reader also develops a love for his character. Judge Holden is a charming and gentlemanly renaissance man who also happens to be also be the "devil" He defines success as control and the means to this control is violence and war. Through the characters experiences the reader sees a world stripped of morality.

McCarthy has created a beautiful and frustrating world, that terrifies and thrills the reader. It is beautifully written and I am not sure any other novel will measure up.