The Best Worst Reading Experience

No one really admits they enjoyed reading 'Blood Meridian", Cormac McCarthy's brutal, unsettling account of the Glanton gang's scalping expeditions along the Texas-Mexico border in the late 1800's. I can say I didn't enjoy it and actually had to take a break after reading one of the raid scenes. Not to mention the setting descriptions McCarthy goes on and on about.

But I persevered and when I turned the last page, I sat a moment and knew I had to read it again. Not soon, but sometime.

"Blood Meridian" is that book you love and hate all at once. McCarthy's characters like

Toadvine, the Kid, and, obviously, Judge Holden, are unparalleled and so captivating you can't seem to turn away and read on during the campfire scenes because the Judge's diatribes are part maniacal and theological, never truly sure if you are hearing Solomon-like wisdom or the ravings of a psychotic.

The poetic style of the novel is another powerful tool. If you focus on the structure of the sentences, they are written as if from an ancient pen and, with the ancient themes of violence and war echoing throughout the pages, the prose and purpose seem to coalesce into one brilliant entity.

But, as a reader, the temerity of McCarthy's depictions eat at the moral core of the reader. In one breath, the reader can stand firm on their moral footing but then doubts are raised as to their own capacity for violence and if, truly, war is inevitable.

I loved and hated 'Blood Meridian' and it is the impact, both aesthetically and emotionally, that I have to praise. Even if it gave me nightmares.