Every once in a while you read a book and you say, it may be a good read for someone, but not me. This is clearly the case in Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. The story is about “the kid” from Tennessee who is a runaway in the 1830s. The kid, who is aged 14, meets up with the “Judge” at a revival meeting. The kid meets numerous folks along his journey, joining up with a group of scalphunters led by Joe Glanton. The trip takes the group, which ebbs in flows in size and different characters through the US Territory, mostly southwest and Mexico. The journey is full of blood and gore, more blood and gore, and finally some more random violence and a shot of bourbon. It is believed to be a true story, at least many of the happenings along the way. I’m not a wild west fan at all so this was a hard read. I’m not really even sure what was to be learned, or experienced besides the idea of how the wild west existed, in that case, did I really want to know? I have now read three of Cormac McCarthy’s books, and realized I’m not such a fan of this genre. The book gives explicit detail into the senseless slayings, rapes, and violence. The character development was weak, the writing fine – he paints pictures vividly for sure. I’ll head back to some sci-fi or business books over this. A skip for me.
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