"Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy

Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

It’s difficult to write about this book, mainly because it’s missing many features you expect in a book - there is no plot, there is no hero, and no real antagonist. It’s just a series of random events, sprinkled with some supposedly shocking violence. However, it’s not even that shocking. Perhaps back in the day it would be, but certainly not today. It’s strange, because his descriptions of the violence are at the same time very matter-of-fact and filled with flourishing language; in both extremes, the author fails to cause shock or to make it interesting; it’s just boring. The events are barely connected together, we just go to one place to another, people kill each other for no reason, we are letting wondering “but why is he chasing that guy? why did he shoot him? what just happened?” I kept going back to see if I missed something, but no, there is nothing. Things just happen. Although there was no plot, there was a story. We follow a “kid” traveling through the west, joining a couple of mercenary gangs causing death and mayhem through Mexico and California. The narrative makes sense, it serves its purpose of describing the Old West in a realistic way, brutal and raw and miserable. But that’s it. It felt like a waste of time and I would definitely not recommend it.

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