Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy

Indians pass through the novel like extras in a Fellini film, ''wardrobed out of a fevered dream with the skins of animals and silk finery. Grotesque descriptions are alleviated by scenes that might have come off a movie screen. These misfits - including an ex-priest, a man with initials tattooed on his forehead and a mysterious, erudite judge named Holden - have a tasteįor blood and death that Mr. Hunters who have been hired by a Mexican governor to return Apache scalps at $100 apiece. Loosely based on historical events, the novel follows a fictitious 14-year-old called only ''the kid'' - born in 1833, exactly 100 years before the author - as he drifts through the Southwest. McCarthy has asked us to witness evil not in order to understand it but to affirm its inexplicable reality his elaborate language invents a world hinged between the real and surreal, jolting us out This latest book is his most important, for it puts in perspective the Faulknerian language and unprovoked violence running through the previous works, which were often viewed as exercises in style or studies of evil. God'' - have been reissued in the Ecco Press series, ''Neglected Works of the Twentieth Century.'' Three early novels, in fact - ''The Orchard Keeper,'' ''Outer Dark'' and ''Child of Subjects may have kept readers away, but the power of his writing has earned high critical repute. Over the past 20 years the brutality of his Any page of his work reveals his originality, a passionate voice given equally to ugliness and lyricism. But while Cormac McCarthy's fifth novel is hard to get through, it is harder to ignore. ''BLOOD MERIDIAN'' comes at the reader like a slap in the face, an affront that asks us to endure a vision of the Old West full of charred human skulls, blood-soaked scalps, a tree hung with the bodies of dead infants. Section 7, Column 1 Book Review Deskīy Caryn James Caryn James is an editor of The Book Review. The New York Times: Book Review Search ArticleĪpril 28, 1985, Sunday, Late City Final Edition

Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy