a gruesome sobering tale from our past

Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

i love reading Cormac McCarthy, but frankly, i'm glad this one is behind me. Blood Meridian is wonderfully written, but the story is gruesome. It is filled with an excess of violence and massacre. Were this book not solidly based on historical events, i'd say "don't bother". But because it is based on history, specifically Samuel Chamberlain's memoir "My Confession: The Recollections of a Rogue", i am glad i read it. Chamberlain rode with the Glanton gang of mercenaries between 1849 and 1850. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Meridian#Background_and_writing). Even McCarthy's excellent writing gets wearisome as it recounts the bloodshed and cruelty inflicted by this renegade group upon other humans. It was a dark time in our history. As an aside, the story, being based on facts, gave historical credibility to the gangs of outlaws that Clint Eastwood's characters fight against in his classic spaghetti western films.

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