Blood Meridian

What’s the book?
Our second Book Worth a Look is Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, a 1985 novel that brought McCarthy a slew of accolades for its incredible portrayal of a young man caught up in the horrifically violent border struggles of the mid 19th century. The shocking subject matter, the life of a young man whose troubled adolescence leads him to join a group of scalphunters, traces the path a nameless protagonist all over the American Southwest and the northern deserts of Mexico. Its characters are brutal and its action is fantastic, making it another of our recommended books that maintained a great, driving pace with the thematic force of a literary masterpiece.

What’s it about?
The unnamed protagonist, referred to as the kid, is followed on his many uber-violent (there is really no other way to describe it) journeys all over the Southwest and Mexico, hunting gold as a mercenary. Morality is only a passing thought for the kid, who finds himself involved with a group that laughs at the ethical codes of the people they kill for money, and eventually at the laws of even those that pay them. The book is based on a historical happening–Robert Glanton, the leader of the kid’s group, led a mercenary force called the “Glanton Gang” that rode around Mexican territory killing Indians for money. The “Judge,” a physically and morally monstrous human being, is Glanton’s strange, almost other-worldly lieutenant, whose vast knowledge of world culture is only surpassed by his desire to stamp it out. The kid is often a silent lens through with the reader is afforded an opportunity to see the darkness of the human soul at work, in the Judge and the other members of the Glanton Gang.

Why should you read it?
Like our last Book Worth a Look, Blood Meridian elicits as much excitement as it does literary umph, delivering a stunningly unapologetic depiction of violence. The characters are intriguing as portrayals of the grittier side of humanity, and McCarthy’s descriptive, but never overdone, prose drives the novel whose sinister plot is as important to its theme as the beautifully crafted writing. McCarthy’s books translate so well to movies because they are ready-made for the quick pace of the silver screen while still managing to delve deep into human psychology. He has a history of producing incredibly provocative books, and this might be his most well-respected (but don’t expect him to win a Nobel Prize any time soon; behold the wrath of the LitHuman against said award). The symbolism and eerie tone of the book elevate it to its place as our second Book, providing literary gold to go with such surprising subject matter. The book asks bold questions about the human mind and its capacity to do unthinkable things. It might be considered a Künstlerroman, except for the fact that, instead of gradually chipping away at bourgeois values, its characters are utterly devoid of them and violently opposed to civilized life. LitHuman’s Book Worth exists as a way to offer suggestions on what to read, and if you missed this one at some point earlier in life, the appeal of its gut-wrenching plot and its evocative prose make it an easy one to get into. Cormac McCarthy’s cold, uncompromising prose has been said to echo Faulkner, which is pretty high praise for any author, and this is widely regarded the most compelling work of his early career.

Past Books Worth a Look

April 10: Brave New World