Book Review: Blood Meridian

blood meridianCormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian. This novel follows a group of men in various degrees of sociopathy (my layman’s diagnosis) as they hunt Apaches through the high deserts of Mexico and the southern US, slaughtering the inhabitants and encountering the aftermath of carnage committed by their Apache prey. McCarthy seamlessly integrates historical detail and language into this unrelentingly violent and bloody narrative. He uses the doomed “kid” as the reader’s entry point into this world but enlarges the story world beyond a single character’s perceptions through complex language, riveting descriptions of landscape, and the weighting of exposition over scene.

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