November 12, 2010

Literary Blog Hop: My Most Difficult Read -- "Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy

The folks over at The Blue Bookcase sponsor "The Literary Blog Hop," a weekly meme, that gives all of us who read and write about books an opportunity to find and make new friends, and exchange ideas.  This week's question was submitted by Debbie Nance at Readerbuzz--

"What is the most difficult literary work you've ever read?  What made it so difficult?

At first blush I thought that this'd be a snap.  Then I re-read the question again.  "What is the most difficult literary work you've read?"  Ahh, well then, I guess I can't talk about the dozen, or more times, that I have tried to read Ulysses by James Joyce, and ended up hurling it across the room in frustration several days later.  Yes, gentle reader, I even broke the back of an edition of Ulysses in one of my momentary fits of rage and frustration.  I have since entered a 12-step program that has kept me Joyce-free for nearly fifteen years now, and I have never injured another book.

Okay, back to the question at hand.  My answer to the question must surely be Cormac McCarthy's horrific novel Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West published in 1985.  While not profoundly intellectually challenging like one of Joyce's novels, or something by Pynchon, McCarthy has basically put a small thermonuclear device between the covers of this novel, and then double-dares you to open it and read it.  This novel is probably the most relentlessly brutal and savage novel that you'll ever read.  I compare reading this novel to looking at and trying to decipher the meaning of a painting by the Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516).  Blood Meridian is ostensibly based upon a series of historical events that occurred along the U.S./Mexico border region from Texas to San Diego in the mid-19th century, involving a gang of outlaws (the Glanton Gang) led by the fictional 'Judge Holden'--a man so evil that he almost defies description.  And like Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, the novel is loaded with biblical references and imagery.  The ending is vintage McCarthy too, i.e., completely and totally unexpected.  Harold Bloom considers McCarthy's Blood Meridian to be one of the great American novels of the 20th century and called it "the ultimate western."  Bloom and several other critics have compared it to Melville's Moby-Dick in its literary quality and importance to the American canonEven though it is a tough read, every time I read Blood Meridian I am able to discover something new, kind of like peeling an onion, layer-by-layer and gain a better sense of the novel's message.  I have come to the conclusion that Cormac McCarthy is the modern-American equivalent of Thomas Hardy--bleak, dark, and that fate and chance play a major role in his plotting.

Is Blood Meridian McCarthy's best novel?  Well, the critics would sure have you think so.  For me though, I think that I like his much earlier novel Outer Dark (1968) even more; and then his "Borderlands Trilogy" that includes All The Pretty Horses (1992), The Crossing (1994), and Cities of the Plain (1998) are truly amazing novels that I re-read every few years.  And for those of you who have read McCarthy's No Country for Old Men (2005), or saw the recent film adaptation by Joel and Ethan Coen of the same title; well, you obviously have an understanding of McCarthy's penchant for unrelenting violence and a difficult ending.

Well, there it is--my most difficult novel to read--Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West, by Cormac McCarthy.

***

25 comments:

  1. This was my second McCathy novel and I still don't know whether I loved it or hated it LOL It certaintly causes me to think about it every now and again over a year on. I'm not even sure I do want to read it again because the violence was so shcoking, on the other hand the writing and passages were wonderful and I can still remember some of them ........ahhhhh

    ReplyDelete
  2. "McCarthy has basically put a small thermonuclear device between the covers of this novel, and then double-dares you to open it and read it." Hehe. That is so true. This book was INTENSE, definitely unlike anything else I've ever read.

    ReplyDelete
  3. My husband read this and told me how good it was but how incredibly violent. I weighed whether or not to attempt the read and in the end, I passed. I just don't need to do that to my psyche.

    ReplyDelete
  4. not read this one, tho read & loved "The Sunset limited" earlier this year, so need to read more.
    Enjoyed your write up, thanks.
    Parrish

    ReplyDelete
  5. @ parrish lantern--I need to read his play "The Sunset Limited." It sounds fascinating (I just googled it). His dialog is more than amazing. I think you'll enjoy McCarthy's fiction though. Cheers! Chris

    ReplyDelete
  6. It ain't easy, I'll give you that, but gosh I loved this book. One of my favorite novels of all time. There's a music to the chaos of his mind.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ben, that is so true, but then it is just how Cormac writes. His novels are shockingly lyrical, and it does almost feel symphonic. Great comment, my friend! Cheers! Chris

    ReplyDelete
  8. You know, I've never read Cormac McCarthy. Which is likely a shame. I hear about him all the time.

    *His novels are shockingly lyrical, and it does almost feel symphonic.*

    I do like lyrical and symphonic... :-)

    ReplyDelete
  9. We must have been visiting each other at the same time! I see you were just at my blog. I found you through Allie’s blog. :-)

    Have a good weekend. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  10. I have avoided Blood Meridian for years, even though I enjoyed McCarthy's Borderlands Trilogy quite a bit. It just sounds too brutal and violent for me. Not sure I'll ever be able to bring myself to pick it up, but this is a great post! Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  11. What an enticing description of Blood Meridian. I've been wanting to read McCarthy for years but never got to it. Will give this a try soon. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I'm officially a huge fan of your blog and will be back soon.

    I bought this book for my dad because he told me The Road made him cry (and he isn't the type to get emotional over books) but I haven't read any thing by McCarthy other than The Road. I'm not sure if my dad has read it yet, but I will have to ask him how he liked it and maybe give it a try.

    By the way, thank you for your kind comments on my post! I look forward to reading more of your blog. (Oh and I noticed Middlemarch in your To-read. This is one of my new favorite books. Hope you like it!)

    ReplyDelete
  13. fantastic post. i read this a couple years ago. BM & the Road are the only books by McCarthy that I've read. I wasn't impressed by The Road, but I've been planning to reread The Road since about the day I finished it. Thanks for including (briefly) your thoughts on some of McCarthy's other novels, because I'd like to read more by him.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I have only read The Road and quiet liked it. I will check out more of his books, including this!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Blood Meridian is figuratively staring me in the face. It sits on a little shelf on this very desk where I work. I have not read it yet. I do have The Border Trilogy on my list to read very soon, and have read No Country for Old Men and The Road. I'm convinced of McCarthy's genius as a writer, but not sure I want to open the thermonuclear bomb quite yet!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Hi! Very nice blog, and I've become a new follower. I have all of McCarthy's books (I've been stockpiling them for years) but it's been years since I've picked one up. So now I know to prepare for interim depression when I get to them!

    ReplyDelete
  17. I'll get to this book one of these days, although I very much doubt that it will be one I reread like you do.

    It is funny that we both used the H.B. painting in our posts! Thanks for visiting mine about Finnegans Wake.

    Rose City Reader

    ReplyDelete
  18. Haven't read that McCarthy although I agree with you on the Joyce, I gave up on Ulysses too!

    ReplyDelete
  19. I'm thinking about how much I like safety in novels. I tend to stay with writers who ultimately spin the novel to a somewhat happy ending where bad guys die and poor people find enough money to get by for another month. Why is it, then, that the novels that stick with me are the awful novels like The Things They Carried where everybody suffers horribly and then everybody dies an awful death? Are they more true?

    I suspect that Blood Meridian is one of those kind of novels. I was sent a copy of No Country for Old Men for review a few years ago and that's the only reason I've ever read McCarthy. It was a painful read, with lots of suffering and lots of bad guys getting away with doing bad deeds, all which violates my sense of justice. Yet that book has stayed with me far longer than my light reads.

    ReplyDelete
  20. I've read two of the Border Trilogy and The Road (which I loved). I guess Blood Meridian is a book that eventually will come my way. I hope I'll be able to handle it!

    http://leeswammes.wordpress.com Leeswammes (Judith)

    ReplyDelete
  21. Thanks everybody for the great comments! I am truly overwhelmed by the response to my second week's participation in The Literary Blog Hop. I have tried to go through and visit everyone else's blog, read their entry, and leave a comment too. All of you are incredibly inspirational to me. And how cool is that!

    Cheers! Chris

    ReplyDelete
  22. Oh Christopher--I was thinking you and I might be good friends...until I saw your mention of Harold Bloom. :P I won't expand my comment...

    I've read a handful of McCarthy and regard him as one of my favorite authors (though I couldn't call any of his books my favorites), but I haven't read this one. I do have it on the shelf--where it's been for years--but something keeps me from reading it. I think mostly because I like the anticipation of it being there and don't want it to end.

    I quite liked The Crossing--my favorite of the bunch I've read.

    Oh, and Ulysses? I think a few of us are going to be crazy enough to tackle it at the beginning of 2011 together. Comfort in numbers?? ;)

    ReplyDelete
  23. Your review gives me a glimpse of insight as to why I've never progressed with The Road. Despite it's honors and accolades, I couldn't move much farther than the beginning. While I love novels with Biblical references and imagery, and I've grown in my affinity for novels with ambiguous conclusions, you've sufficiently scared me from trying Blood Meridian. Although, I would be very willing to pick up Moby Dick soon...

    ReplyDelete
  24. I'm here on the blog hop - nice blog! I have never tackled Cormac McCarthy as I have radar for books that are going to depress me in a nauseating sort of way. I perhaps ought to read them for the sake of literary rounded-ness, but then again, there are other challenges to seek.

    ReplyDelete
  25. I've read Mc Carthy's The Road and All the Pretty Horses and loved them both. It's been a year since I've read The Road and I still find myself thinking about it or flipping to the first page just to read the amazing prose. Some day I'll finish the Border Trilogy.

    Unlike many other readers, I don't find Mc Carthy's books depressing or with sad/ambiguous endings. In their essence, the endings strike me as true to real life while lending some insight into the intricacies of human nature.

    ReplyDelete