47: "Blood Meridian" | * * * * * |
I wasn't a seasoned enough reader to fully appreciate Blood Meridian on the first pass, as an aspiringly pretentious 19-year-old English major.
The adult revisit has convinced me that it is, in fact, the masterpiece my younger self wasn't wise enough to see.
McCarthy's book, written in his characteristic sparse, elegantly brutal style, is a positively haunting look at both America's history and humanity's indefatigable nature, which (in both the telling and the reality) leaves much to be desired.
A book that will haunt you for a long while.
48. "The Hunter" | * * * | After McCarthy, I needed something much simpler, that perhaps wouldn't require as much existential and theological squirming.
Tana French's new offering certainly holds up. Though not as good as the prior Cal Hooper story ("The Searcher"), this book is a well-crafted crime story that explores the costs of free will, the web of relationships that make our family and friends, our ties to our homeland (whatever that may be), and the secrets that must stay buried to keep small towns alive.
Well worth your time on a lazy weekend.
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