McCarthy, Cormac. Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West (New York: First Vintage International Edition, 1992) pp. 351. Considered an American classic, this novel tells the story of racial and ethnic cleansing in western America and northern Mexico in the 1850’s, and it employs a writing style that is both unique and frustrating, to say the least.
The reader learns, well into the story, that certain governors in northern Mexico engage a veteran American officer in the U.S.-Mexican War to lead a corps of ruthless cowboy tramps to find and kill Indians in the Texas-Arizona-Chihuahua region, Apache in particular. All 351 pages are devoted to this bloodstained enterprise that encourages an equally gory response from the Apaches themselves. The collection of dried out scalps becomes the proof of a job well done. Each pursuer collects his own grisly scapulary.
In following the trail of these hired murderers McCarthy offers an unending description of the land they cross and the sky that looks down on them, giving the author plenty of opportunities to demonstrate his unstinting writing ability. I concluded that he must have traced their pathways in order to recreate the details he presents.
The author does not flinch in presenting the gruesome depictions of people killed, be they Indians, Mexicans, or Americans. Sorry to say, the entire scenario in this novel corresponds with information about the region provided by historical research which confirms the bloody contests that finally came to an end about the time that this novel covers.
Pensamientos (thoughts) over the border by carlos b. gil 