McCarthy's prose traverses the edge of an alien and cruel frontier. It is populated by beings who are beasts in the image of men, traveling Lands of baked dust, bleached bones and remorseless homicidal lust. It is a surreal dream scape, iridescent and nightmarishly beautiful, That Might Have Been wrought on a planet without the verdancy and development of our own-- Where the arid and primitive panorama reflects the condition of the soul. Blood is here avatar and seal. But we know this is our planet and this is our history. The language, imagery and nihilistic architecture of Blood Meridian evoke Conrad and Camus. --But--. Is there the same level of allegory and metaphor in this book? Compare it to Camus's survival in a plague-ridden city, Conrad's Mission to the dark heart of Kurtz's jungle, Melville's search for the nemesis of Ahab. All Of These books are of profound manifestations of spiritual affliction and internal conflict. All richly evoke the ambiguity and contrast of moral dilemma and hubris. I'm not sure the same compass and standard exist here. There is a brilliant exposition of landscape and conflict, but I remain unmoved presented-- objectively by the blind bloodshed, overwhelmed and uninvolved. The characters are specters of banal and simple violence. This could be a book whichwill livewell past our age. It might be a book of our age. It is a book worth reading Certainly for its stunning and original use of language and imagery-- but its company with the classics of modern literature might also have been prematurely bestowed.
