Bring a Dictionary
Blood Meridian is Cormac McCarthy's fifth novel and was originally published in 1985. At the time it didn't receive much acclaim but is now considered one of his best works. It should be required reading for anyone who wants to pick up something from McCarthy's body of work. Be sure to have a dictionary on hand though because there are a lot of underused and antiquated words and terms used.
Blood Meridian takes place in Southern California, New Mexico and at one point crosses over the Mexican border. The books timeline takes place from roughly 1877-1887 with the epilogue being set 10 years after the events in the book.
Events Surrounding "The Kid"
The fist part of the book follows a character only revered to as "the kid" while he leaves a broken home steals a mule and escapes the small town where he lives to seek a life out on the range. It is not until near the end of his adventure that he is revealed to be only 16 years old which may only make him around 15 when he first started out. The kid is much wiser than his age. During his travels he is recruited by a group of U.S. army irregular soldiers with the purpose of clearing Mexicans and Indians off disputed lands for the U.S. government. The group marches many days into hostile and harsh lands encountering nothing but a never ending desert. The endless travel is described in detail and having a dictionary at this point as the simple descriptions of the group travelling are long and complicated. approximately a week into their march is when they have their first and only encounter as they are set upon by a war-band of Comanche Indians about 100 in number. The Indian band is obviously well experienced as they are using a wide variety of weapons and armour from different colonial soldiers. One is even dressed in Conquistador armour. The group of Americans is slaughtered, raped and scalped in a quick and brutal battle. The kid and a couple others survive and escape, managing to make it to a Mexican town where they are imprisoned.
Later on a man named John Joel Glanton is looking to put together a posse with the sole purpose of hunting Indians and selling scalps to the Mexicans. The Kid and the other survivors are recruited and outfitted with huge, brand new cavalry revolvers and a fresh horse. The second in command of the gang is a huge albino man named Judge Holden who acts very strange throughout the book, many times walking around naked at night. The rest of the book follows the gang as they hunt down Apache's and collect money but they gradually begin to kill peaceful Indian tribes, Mexican traders, innocent townsfolk and even some Mexican soldiers. At this point there is a bounty on their heads from the Mexican government and they are on the run trying to make it to San Diego. They make it top the Colorado river where there is a ferry crossing set-up by a few men. The Glanton gang eventually decide that ferrying people across the river is a lucrative business and decide to take it over. They start to charge more and more for their services until they just outright steal everything from the migrating settlers. They also run afoul of a local Indian tribe, The Yumas and kill a number of them. This spells the beginning of the end for the Glanton gang as some decide to leave and the remaining members are ambushed at night and slaughtered by the Yumas including Glanton.
The Kid ultimately survives and is driven out into the desert by the deranged Judge Holden who also survived and who seems to survive every terrible situation he is thrown into. The Judge took the role of second it command of the Glanton gang but even-though he spouts religious philosophy he is one the most violent among them. The Judge gives up trying to find the kid and disappears.
The Judge and The Kid
In the epilogue the kid is now 26 years old and is still living out on the range providing services as a gun for hire. Eventually he goes to a bar and finds the Judge there as well playing cards. They have a discussion about death and life and how the Judge sees life as just a dance and you have to keep dancing or die. The ending is left ambiguous as the kid goes to an outhouse where he is ambushed by the Judge who is now naked. The description of what happens is not told but later the Judge is back in the bar dancing naked on a stage.
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| Credit to Nathan Anderson@deimosremus |
Final Words
The book is an excellent book overall and well worth reading, even the slow parts. It builds into a crazy adventure that is to unbelievable to imagine. It is however extremely violent with lots of death, mutilation, rape and animal death. There are even hints that child rape is occurring at a couple points. This book is not for the faint of heart. It is full of great, well defined characters like the Judge, Glanton, the kid, and other members of the gang. Glanton gets more and more arrogant as the book goes on and will kill anyone without hesitation, some in the gang attribute this to the Judge's influence. The gang takes over every town they encounter with money and violence. At one point while there is a bounty on their heads they go into a Mexican town and while drinking in the bar everyone turns on them with knives. The gang proceeds to kill almost everyone in the bar in a giant melee with dead bodies and gun smoke everywhere.
The Kid and the Judge have philosophical discussions at several points. The Judge is not afraid to take anyone's life and intimidates almost everyone in the gang by his unpredictable actions. The Kid seems like the only one that is unafraid of him and even tells him that. During the showdown between them in the desert the kid proves far more difficult to kill than the Judge thought which is why he gives up.
If you can deal with the violence that is throughout this book then I highly recommend it as one that should make your list of "must reads."
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