The blood meridian. Cormac McCarthy

There is a small minor spoiler.

  Two weeks ago, I was immersed simultaneously in three works in the genre of "Western": the series "Yellowstone", the game "Red Dead Redemption 2" and the book "Blood Meridian". A real wild trio. And today I want to share my impressions of the latest work, the novel "Blood Meridian".

The background.

  In December, I went to a bookstore to choose a gift for a loved one, and came across a very attractive cover of this book. Of course, being not a naive fool, before I bought a book because of the cover, I went online to get acquainted with a brief description. What did I see?

Time magazine included "Blood Meridian" in the list of "100 the best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005". In 2006, The New York Times conducted a survey of writers and critics about the most important works of American fiction over the past 25 years, and "Blood Meridian" took second place.

Well, that sounds hype , I thought, and without hesitation I punched at the checkout. And then there was one continuous bloody mess waiting for me.…

THEY ARE WANTED.

Briefly about the plot: The book tells the story of a kid named The Kid who joins a gang of scalp hunters. What motivates them? Money, cruelty, ideals. And now this frostbitten bunch is wandering along the border of Mexico and Texas, doing their dirty work.

The devil is in the details.

  The first and main questions that arise before diving into a story are: What 's wrong with it, and why do I need it?

  After reading the first third of the book about the gang's journey, the first thing that caught my eye and solidified in my opinion was the author's skill at descriptions. In general, every western describes in detail (or should do so) the nature of the wild West or the Mexican deserts. Endless sands and fields; the heat of the day and the coolness of the night; vultures, wolves, horses, mules and bison. McCarthy successfully copes with this important point in a work in the genre of "western". You read the pages, and they breathe of the wild West with all its heat, loneliness, mystery and struggle for survival.

  There are not many named characters in the work. The main ones come to mind: Toadvine (the clear guy), Brown (the brave guy), Irving (the doctor), Jackson (negro), Glanton (the leader, a la Dutch van der Linde), the Judge (the antagonist), Tobin (the former priest) and the Kid (the protagonist). It's actually not easy to remember them, since the characters in this work are extremely uncommunicative and rely more on the case.

  Did I say that the main character is a Kid? Okay, that's not really true. Yes, the story begins and ends with him, but in the middle of the plot he only flashes. The real heroes (or rather , the protagonists) of the book are evil, cruelty and their human nature, which the author explores in his book through the main villain, the Judge. As I wrote at the beginning of the post, there is a small spoiler here, and it lies precisely in who the antagonist is. But the spoiler is really unimportant, because from the first appearance of the Judge, you begin to sniff out his insidious and suspicious nature, which is then confirmed by the stories of one character, and in the end by Antagonista himself.

* * *

"In his hands is the same rifle that he is carrying now, all trimmed with German silver and with the name that he ordered to be printed under the cheek of the butt with a silver wire in Latin: Et In Arcadia Ego*. I mean, she brings death." - according to these words, which the former priest uses to describe the antagonist, you understand his whole character, essence and insides.

* "And I'm in Arcadia" (Latin) is a classic reminder that death visits even happy Arcadia.

* * *

  The judge is a huge, very fair–skinned and completely clean-shaven man. Throughout the story, the Judge rubs gang members for philosophical topics. Sometimes they are delusional, but more often, unfortunately, they are true. Reflections on human cruelty and war. The Judge himself is in fact a metaphor for the devil of the West, a metaphor for the truest evil that lies in the human soul. The conclusion of the antagonist's beliefs is that by nature all people are evil – some initially, others in response to the evil of the former.

THE PRICE PER HEAD. The symbolism of evil.

Blood, death, and redemption.

Why read this novel? 

Answer: An excellent description of the scenery, bloody and tough action, the author's plot ideas, the history of America. The moral. 
[The author of the post, like the author of the book, does not promote cruelty, but on the contrary, insists on restrained study and doing good deeds]

He never sleeps. He says he will never die. He dances and dances. And he says he'll never die.…

Judge Holden

Book: "Blood Meridian".

Author: Cormac McCarthy.

Genre: Western.

Written: 1985.

Verdict: 8.6/10. Not for the impressionable, as this is a study of human cruelty.