Frank Maccormack's Reviews> Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West

I just recently finished this book after an acquaintance endlessly badgered
me to read it. I gave it three stars, largely for the last 50 pages or so. The rest I would have given 1 star. I got flamed because i gave it only 3. Further, accused of being ignorant because I didn't rave about it. I don't understand what is particularly special about it and I agree with what you said. It's repetitive. Bleh.

King wrote: "I just recently finished this book after an acquaintance endlessly badgered
me to read it. I gave it three stars, largely for the last 50 pages or so. The rest I would have given 1 star. I got fla... "

Good to hear someone else agree, I usually hear good stuff about the book and just don't understand.
I luckily have never gotten flamed for my opinions of the book, but definitely feel like I would have enough solid reasons for them to put up a fight.

Good review, I could cut and paste it for my review and be happy with that. Near the end I really felt like I must have kept skipping backwards on accident because it seriously felt like one scene was repeating over and over and over.

Very audacious of you.

so accurate.

Yeah, you're right about the last 50 pages being the most redeeming thing about it. If I had to put my finger on it, it is because the last 50 pages actually had a plot and the rest didn't. I describe this as a short story with a 250-page prologue.

I'm a big fan of McCarthy and definitely think this review nailed my sentiments. Don't get me wrong there are absolute splashes of brilliance contained in this novel, but they don't make up for the overall story and reader experience as it stands.

Child of god or the road are better reads.. i only got halfway through this and was bored out of my mind.. i will give another chance however

Child of god or the road are better reads.. i only got halfway through this and was bored out of my mind.. i will give another chance however

I was wholly entertained. I'm not reading for the sake of discussion or to say "I read this," and I absolutely loved it. The road, on the other hand, although a good book, feels empty compared to this. It, along with no country, which I also thought better than the road, seemed like McCarthy seizing an opportunity to make some money. I'd actually put the road pretty far down my list of McCarthy novels, with suttree and blood meridian sitting way above.

Automaticslim i finished last week on my second try loved it this time. I think the judge is one of the best characters i have ever read

I’m 60 pages in and thinking what am I reading here? Thought I’d check out some reviews and ran across yours. Guess I’m just not into this type of writing. Applaud your review and think I’ll put this book back up on the shelf as well. Is all this guys’ writing like this? This was the first MacArthur book I’ve tried to read.

I rarely rate books 1 star, as that usually means it was an early DNF. I often feel I don't know enough about the book and what might happen later to say that it would never have improved to a 2.

But this was just flat and dull and pointless. The amount of time needed to figure out when people are speaking, who is speaking, who is present at the time, and what the author's going on about in his latest run-on sentence was not worth it. What you get in return for your patience and confusion is a lot of repetitive, pointless, callous murders of random people we won't get to know, killed by main characters we won't get to know. This greedy, sadistic bunch of psychopaths has no appealing side. Got it, they are broken and heartless and so are many of us, and it's important to show readers this type of cold cruelty. Understood. Why read any further then? I don't need endless examples of poorly written unemotional cruelty to understand the author's interest in showcasing it.

I couldn't force myself to keep going after 38 pages. When I look at the negative reviews, I can see that nothing changed or improved after the point I stopped reading. The violent scenes only got more despicable. The characters became no more interesting or sympathetic, the redundant events no less redundant.

I'm 114 pages in. And I like violence. I'm still finding it sort of flat and dull. Save a few paragraphs that I did think lived up to the reputation I was sold on. I just finished (and loved) Gravity's Rainbow, so the idea that this is dense writing baffles me. I feel like 30% of the reading so far is everyone getting on and then getting back off of their horse again, the ratio of happenings to transitions is just too low by this point.

If the last 50 pages are so brilliant, I would at least give it 2 stars. 1 star is like the Fifty Shades or Twilight franchise

Yikes! This is the most ignorant review I have ever read. Doubt you actually read the book if you think there were just “splashes of brilliance.” This is one of the greatest American novels ever written.