The great American author Cormac McCarthy recently passed away at the age of 89. In his decades as a writer, he penned a dozen novels, and we've actually covered a couple of them on this show in the past: The Road (Episode #78) and No Country For Old Men (Episode #233). In ode of such an inspirational and talented creator, we thought we'd thumb through what many consider his finest work, Blood Meridian. Written in 1985 -- before McCarthy was a truly known literary quantity, but nonetheless well into his career -- Blood Meridian tells the story of The Kid, a runaway-turned-criminal inescapably caught-up in the events of the American southwest in the years leading into the Civil War. Brutal, violent, vivid, and honest, Blood Meridian is a tough read on multiple levels, and there's an incredible density of threads to pull when talking about it. Thus, we did the best we could to show thanks to Cormac McCarthy the KnockBack way, following whichever trails the conversation brings us down. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices