Preview
  • Blood Meridian

  • Or the Evening Redness in the West
  • By: Cormac McCarthy
  • Narrated by: Richard Poe
  • Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (10,626 ratings)

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Blood Meridian

By: Cormac McCarthy
Narrated by: Richard Poe
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Publisher's summary

Author of the National Book Award-winning All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy is one of the most provocative American stylists to emerge in the last century. The striking novel Blood Meridian offers an unflinching narrative of the brutality that accompanied the push west on the 1850s Texas frontier.
©1985 Cormac McCarthy (P)2007 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

“The authentic American apocalyptic novel…I venture that no other living American novelist, not even Pynchon, has given us a book as strong and memorable as Blood Meridian.” (Harold Bloom)
"McCarthy is a writer to be read, to be admired, and quite honestly envied." (Ralph Ellison)
"McCarthy is a born narrator, and his writing has, line by line, the stab of actuality. He is here to stay." (Robert Penn Warren)

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What listeners say about Blood Meridian

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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    6,868
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  • 3 Stars
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Should be read from paper

I really wanted to enjoy this one as I read many great reviews and love westerns. The scenes and descriptions are great, and the narrator is very good, but the story itself drags and slips on. You can't leisurely listen or you'll get lost and frustrated. Names like "The Kid" and flashbacks (?) don't help guide the story along, especially when you're multitasking with other things. End of the day- read a physical copy. Audio just doesn't work for this one.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Incredible!

best book and narrator ever!
Powerful command of language and creating strong visual narrative

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great book

Narrator had a mouth full of spittle and audibly gurgling between sentences. Good pronunciation though

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The Judge

The judge is one of the most terrifying literary characters ever to be put on paper.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

My first Cormac McCarthy experience

A fantastic story, I can’t wait to listen to it again. I shall do that immediately

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Hard to follow

its like the author was trying to impress me with his expressive word play but its so hard to follow parts are in spanish and not translated so I feel like im missing something
also main characters that make no sense at all no context no backstory

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent imagery through the use language.

The story is compelling and the language employed creates vivid images in one's mind while listening. The characters are well developed and readers are easily able to insert themselves into each setting.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Amazingly real western novel...

Nothing happy or joyous about this book. It is a gritty, sad, and bloody tale, that takes the reader from bad to much much worse. Simply Amazing!!!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Masterful and gritty.

McCarthy captures the bitter feuds and harshness of the American west as only he can. A no holds barred telling of a story of violence and growth in a hard world. Vivid landscapes come to life before the reader's eyes as one can nearly feel the heat of the desert and the parched throat of the pilgrim. An absolute necessity to the library of any McCarthy fan, or any enthusiast of western expansion who would like a fresh and breathtaking perspective of the turbulent west.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A grim, but addictive read (err..listen)

I was captivated from the start.

I took this audiobook hiking with me and extended my hike several days in a row to almost total muscle failure because I didn't want to stop the story.

The content is grim, based largely on historic fact, and the narration is great, too.

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