Blood Meridian

Name: Blood Meridian
Author: Cormac McCarthy

Cormac McCarthy · 1985

Harold Bloom called it "the greatest single novel published by an American writer since Faulkner." Set on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s, it is a relentless, biblical meditation on human violence. The Judge is among literature's most terrifying figures. McCarthy published it in 1985 to little fanfare; its reputation has only grown.

The case against

on the vocabulary
“his vocabulary is apparently drawn from Jacobean tragedies and translations of Beowulf”
Allen Boyer · The Detroit Free Press, 1985
on the travel scenes
“It’s exhausting and causes everything to blend together”
a Substack review
on the kid
“The main protagonist, the “kid,” is boring.”
three stars · a book blog
on the prose
“stentorian, pretentious prose will quickly dissuade most readers from attempting to share McCarthy’s dark vision”
Kirkus Reviews, 1985