Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy

My first McCarthy book, after being intrigued by the movie adaptation of No Country For Old Men. Started off very difficult, written in a rather unique style that has been described, in my opinion accurately, by others as biblical in tone. Once about twenty pages in however I was able to fly through it very quickly. It's classified as a Western, but far different than the image that the genre would bring to mind for most. The Judge Holden character is very interesting, but I wonder the exact point to him. Is he a Mephistopheles type devil, directly responsible for the atrocities committed, or rather a kind of amused, detached observer - a kind of personification of the moral decay exhibited originally from mankind? Certainly the ending would suggest something like the former, but that almost goes against what I feel to be the overall theme of the book - violence and hatred being universal and innate in all men. If such actions are caused by an outside source, then its difficult to fit in with such a theme, although both ideas lean toward a "fate in inescapable" view.
The descriptions of open, desolate places are wonderful, although McCarthy loves to throw in obscure, arcane words which I was not always willing to take the time to look up. He also gives entire conversations in untranslated Spanish, which I also usually was too lazy to do more than a quick translation.
Overall, a very enjoyable and thought provoking book. The title has been hovering in my mind for years, initially after seeing it top a list of the most violent books ever written and then after No Country was so successful. I hear a movie adaptation of this book is in the works too, which makes me glad I've now read it, allowing my mental picture to not be dictated by its movie adaptation.
I definitely have an interest in reading more of his novels in the future.