3.5 Stars
Moral law is an invention of mankind for the disenfranchisement of the powerful in favor of the weak.
This is a book I probably need to read again because I believe I missed the allegorical nature of the story. I didn't realize it, perhaps the unrelenting graphically described acts of maiming and murdering distracted me. Those were countered by these gorgeous panoramic views described so precisely that they were stunning.
"In a night so beclamored with the jackal-yapping of coyotes and the cries of owls the howl of that old dog wolf was the one sound they knew to issue from its right form, a solitary lobo, perhaps gray at the muzzle, hung like a marionette from the moon with his long mouth gibbering. "
"They found the lost scouts hanging head downward from the limbs of a fire blacked paloverde tree. They were skewered through the cords of their heels with sharpened hustles of green wood and they hung gray and naked above the dead ashes of the coals where they'd been roasted until their heads had charred and the brains bubbled in the skulls and steam sang from their noseholes."
The description of their demise continues for another two elongated sentences to truly illustrate the horror. You can see how it is distracting. Add in McCarthy's frugal use of punctuation, and you can see that it at times overwhelming. There is a weird niggling in the back of my mind whispering Canterbury Tales or some other such work, but honestly, it was so long ago that I read it, didn't enjoy it, and thus have failed to retain critical components. I'm sure there's a smashing review out there critiquing it--this is not that review.
Anyway, it was repetitive in nature and seemed to drag on. I'd probably have enjoyed it more if it were tighter. Oddly enough, it had a feel of the movie The Highlander to me by the end, but I didn't see it until over 50% of the way through it. Another reason I need to reread it. I can see where McCarthy's The Road gets it's trajectory though that ended more optimistically in my opinion.
Is that why war endures?
No. It endures because young men love it and old men love it in them. Those that fought, those that did not.
Overall, the ugly, brutal truth about how the West was won.
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