The whole book is about the experience of the protagonist "Youngster". As a teenager, he joined the U. S. Military and went to Mexico. Soon he was fatally attacked by the Indians. Later, he accidentally joined a team of bounty hunters composed of criminals, veterans and Indians. The nominal leader of this team was Granton, a veteran of the American-Mexican War. In fact, it was Judge Holden who directed life and death. This team of hunters hunted Indians everywhere in Mexico, regardless of age or sex. Naked violence raged across the wilderness. Twenty-eight years later, all team members died one after another.
This is a book composed of books. Elements of literature, philosophy, theology, science, and mythology can be seen everywhere. The superposition and integration of multiple dimensions create a huge text capacity and endless interpretation possibilities for the book.
Harold Bloom, author of "The Western Canon", believes, "In my opinion, Blood Meridian should be the real American apocalyptic prophetic novel."
Reader comments
This book is one of the 100 most influential novels of the 20th century. Its content is too extreme even for McCarthy. I read this book because Judge Holden is so out of the ordinary. The title of "the most terrifying villain in the history of literature" is indeed resounding. In addition, the movie No Country for Old Men is super good. However, after actually reading it, the impression is not very good, it can even be said to be very bad. However, this book is completely a literary work, so it is really impossible to evaluate it on a personal level. In addition, language and culture are also a huge obstacle when reading this kind of book. The absence of quotation marks in the whole text is originally an advantage, but after the translation, I just feel that it is completely unreadable...
The advantage of McCarthy's book is the vivid and real story of the US-Mexico border and the story of the Native Americans. The West is not a cowboy hero story full of romance and adventure, but a chaotic land full of blood and violence.
However, his books are not suitable for Chinese tastes. I had no feelings at all after reading them. The main reason is that his books like to show horror from the perspective of "blasphemy". The judge represents a rising new era. He tramples on religious morality and human kindness under his feet, and judges humans from a rational and violent perspective. He is actually a new faith, a "new God." In fact, he does not really exist. He is a microcosm and an incarnation of the boy's experiences in those years. In the end, the boy failed to escape this horrific experience, and everything represented by the judge continues to move towards eternal life.
I personally feel that McCarthy has been over-praised. He is not at all comparable to Hemingway. Hemingway was a front-line internationalist fighter. Many of Hemingway's works surpassed him in terms of heroism, suffering, and horror. The darkness described by McCarthy is nothing more than "the bad guys win and the good guys are defeated." He is even particularly keen to create a boy or girl in the book who symbolizes the kindness of human nature and is eventually killed by the evildoers. He is full of despair and dissatisfaction with reality and human beings, but that's all.
The plot of this book is so exciting! I especially like the growth process of the protagonist "Youngster", especially his experience in the hunter team, which is full of adventures and challenges. However, I really hate the character of Judge Holden, his cruelty and callousness are chilling. This book combines many elements and is very literary. It is worth reading!
There are no quotation marks in the dialogue throughout the book.
In Blood Meridian, evil is not a derivative of life. Evil is a stone in the desert. You can inspect it and mine it, but no matter how humans survive, it will always be there.
This book is one of the 100 most influential novels of the 20th century. Its content is too extreme even for McCarthy. I read this book because Judge Holden is so out of the ordinary. The title of "the most terrifying villain in the history of literature" is indeed resounding. In addition, the movie No Country for Old Men is super good. However, after actually reading it, the impression is not very good, it can even be said to be very bad. However, this book is completely a literary work, so it is really impossible to evaluate it on a personal level. In addition, language and culture are also a huge obstacle when reading this kind of book. The absence of quotation marks in the whole text is originally an advantage, but after the translation, I just feel that it is completely unreadable... The advantage of McCarthy's book is the vivid and real story of the US-Mexico border and the story of the Native Americans. The West is not a cowboy hero story full of romance and adventure, but a chaotic land full of blood and violence. However, his books are not suitable for Chinese tastes. I had no feelings at all after reading them. The main reason is that his books like to show horror from the perspective of "blasphemy". The judge represents a rising new era. He tramples on religious morality and human kindness under his feet, and judges humans from a rational and violent perspective. He is actually a new faith, a "new God." In fact, he does not really exist. He is a microcosm and an incarnation of the boy's experiences in those years. In the end, the boy failed to escape this horrific experience, and everything represented by the judge continues to move towards eternal life. I personally feel that McCarthy has been over-praised. He is not at all comparable to Hemingway. Hemingway was a front-line internationalist fighter. Many of Hemingway's works surpassed him in terms of heroism, suffering, and horror. The darkness described by McCarthy is nothing more than "the bad guys win and the good guys are defeated." He is even particularly keen to create a boy or girl in the book who symbolizes the kindness of human nature and is eventually killed by the evildoers. He is full of despair and dissatisfaction with reality and human beings, but that's all.
The plot of this book is so exciting! I especially like the growth process of the protagonist "Youngster", especially his experience in the hunter team, which is full of adventures and challenges. However, I really hate the character of Judge Holden, his cruelty and callousness are chilling. This book combines many elements and is very literary. It is worth reading!
There are no quotation marks in the dialogue throughout the book.
In Blood Meridian, evil is not a derivative of life. Evil is a stone in the desert. You can inspect it and mine it, but no matter how humans survive, it will always be there.
I was really shocked after reading it