NP:Blood Meridian

[Chris Broderick]

> Yeah, it's well written (is the guy a MacArthur
fellowship holder?
> possibly)... but it's just variations on a theme of
scalping, 
> interspersed
> with bludgeoning hints that the big bald guy is the
devil....

My thoughts exactly.  What I've read of McCarthy's
work (the Border Trilogy, Blood Meridian & Suttree)
has left me impressed if not exactly enthusiastic.  He
is obviously a masterful stylist, but as a
storyteller, there doesn't seem to be a lot there.  I
thought Blood Meridian was the weakest of his works. 
It took me a couple of goes to get through it, not
because I was shocked by the violence, but because I
was bored by it.  It just became numbing.  There very
likely were many levels of allusion that I missed, but
IMHO, a book is not interesting just because it makes
subtle allusions to other interesting things (the
Bible, the Iliad, etc.)  At many points, the only
thing that kept me reading was the cadence & rhythm of
his sentences.  Suffice it to say that he's not one of
my favorites.  Though I'm curious to see his latest,
because I love it when literary writers raid the SF
cupboard for story ideas.

-Chris


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com