--- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Jack Bludis <buildsnburns@...> wrote:
>
>
> About a year ago, maybe two, after I praised "The Road" or "No Country for Old Men" and Cormac McCarthy, someone on the list tole me to stop what I was doing and to go read "Blood Meridian."
>
> I saw some recent chat about it, learned the the movie was in production, and came across the book at the Baltimore County Public Library all within a few days.
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> I was wary because of the specific violence people mentioned--I found even worse violence than I was told about because it was more one-on-one instead of general.
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> Although I am only two-thirds through the book, it is probably the best written book I've read in years. The first three pages are as good as any poem I have ever read.
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> And, yes. I don't know if it was here or on another list, but when casting the movie (although they probably already have) John Goodman as the Judge.
>
It could have been me that recommended it. I've been recommending that book to all sorts of people. Especially when I hear that American fiction has lost its edge... I think it's McCarthy's greatest book, though he has written several great ones -- the two most recent ones are masterpieces, no question.
I would not bet that the movie will be great... McCarthy is a man of words. Yes, there is action, but the poetry (to use your apt word) is the author's, and his particular rhetoric is hard to reproduce visually.
mrt
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