I just finished Blood Meridian after DNFing two years ago; now it definitely places near the top of my favorites of all-time

I previously attempted Blood Meridian in 2024 but didn’t complete it at that time for a few reasons, the biggest of which was just coming out of a reading slump, I found the prose extremely dense, and the sheer amount of violence was difficult to comprehend at the time. To contextualize, the only other McCarthys I had read at that point were All the Pretty Horses and No Country for Old Men.

After having my copy sit on my shelf untouched for a while, I was determined to reattempt and complete it this year. To prepare, I reread All the Pretty Horses, finished the Border trilogy, and did The Road earlier in the year. The prep work definitely helped with comprehension of Blood Meridian, and after just finishing it I have some thoughts I want to put down, and hopefully this will convince at least one tentative reader to give it a try.

Premise: "the kid" joins up with the Glanton gang, a historical group of scalp hunters active in the US-Mexico borderlands during the 1840s; among them are leader John Joel Glanton, seasoned mercenary and outlaw Toadvine (who the kid first encounters very early in the novel prior to joining Glanton's group), ex-priest Tobin, and one of the most famous characters in literature with Judge Holden

• Like I mentioned earlier, the prose here is extremely dense but going through it a second time it's much more digestible and beautiful; McCarthy's descriptions of the landscape just suck you in and at times feel like a fever dream
• I also read Lonesome Dove earlier this year and Blood Meridian feels very much like its dark counterpart: both popular Westerns first published in 1985, Lonesome Dove leans towards a more Romantic depiction of the West with a diverse cast and broad subject matter, while Blood Meridian is a more bleak and singularly violent depiction of the frontier
  • While my experience with the Western genre isn't as deep, these two felt like excellent companion novels
• Judge Holden is a haunting depiction of evil incarnate with his unsettling, infant-like appearance, vast knowledge, and "war is god" philosophy; combined with his heinous acts throughout the novel and complex dialogue, it makes sense that he'd be the most memorable of the cast
  • The judge's dialogue is excellent; the conversation in chapter 17 regarding the nature of war is some of my favorite writing from any author:
    • Easily one of my favorite lines of all-time: "War was always here. Before man was, war waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner."
  • When looking at some of the online discourse after completing the novel, I saw a YouTube comment with a take on the judge I particularly like: that he's not just an embodiment of man's inclination for violence, but more tangibly represents a young America and helps frame the story as a sort of indictment of Manifest Destiny
    • As mentioned earlier, his appearance resembles that of an infant
    • The judge is confident, arguably to the point of arrogance, that his way is the only correct one in the world, and is willing to dominate and/or destroy all in his path in order to prove it, not unlike America's subjugation of indigenous peoples during its period of westward expansion
• After the judge, I found Tobin the most interesting, the former man of God is the only one in Glanton's gang who seems to at least somewhat understand what the judge is and is the one who most openly questions his motivations and opposes (and fears) him
  • And even then, his opposition is only to a certain extent; Tobin, as well as the rest of the gang, fail to voice any sound arguments against the judge's claims on man's war-like nature
• This is the first book in a while to make me reconsider my "favorites" of all-time list; this might also be a result of my changing tastes since the last time I gave any serious thought to my favorite books, but this novel felt… different and evocative in a way that very few others have
  • I feel confident in saying that Blood Meridian enters my top 5 of all time, and might take one of the podium spots even after recency bias passes
  • It will also definitely enter my regular reread list

I'm looking forward to finishing the rest of McCarthy's bibliography; I imagine I'll go through his remaining works chronologically (Orchard Keeper → Outer Dark → Child of God → The Passenger / Stella Maris). Butcher's Crossing by John Williams is also on my TBR list to expand on my Western repertoire.