by Cormac McCarthy

isbn: 0679728759
subject: Fiction and Literature
finished: Summer 1997

It begins:

See the child. He is pale and thin, he wears a thin and ragged linen shirt. He stokes the scullery fire. Outside lie dark turned fields with rags of snow and darker woods beyond that harbor yet a few last wolves.

Blood Meridian is a parable of violence and brutality in Texas and Mexico during the 1850's. McCarthy is a wonderful writer. He makes every word count, and the result is vivid, biblical prose that is disturbing and sometimes (blackly) hilarious. The Judge is a fascinating character -- a renaissance man, but twisted and corrupt. I highly recommend this book.