Reviews

• One of my favourite reads from 2017. Blake writes with such wonderful use of the English language and with great prose. This story may be slightly far fetched but is a great story with characters you can believe in. Not for the faint hearted.

• Blake was interviewed by GQ in 2013. If you’ve read Cormac McCarthy you’ll understand. If you haven’t read Cormac McCarthy’s 1985 BLOOD MERIDIAN you must: James Carlos Blake: I think Mr. McCarthy is one of the best writers of my day. The first book of his I read was Blood Meridian. At the time I was about three-quarters done with In the Rogue Blood and was very unsure of my approach in it. I was not only trying a style that was, quite deliberately—because of the book’s setting—a tad Faulkner-ish and somewhat Biblical, but I was trying to write the truest novel of violence I could. I was pulling out all the stops in my effort to show as graphically as I could just how horrifically violent that time and place in our history was. Then I let a friend of mine read the manuscript and he said he had a surprise for me and a few days later brought me a copy of Mr. McCarthy’s book. I’d never before heard of Cormac McCarthy, and I was knocked on my ass by our common setting of the same historical era and, to lesser degree, by the similarity of style—though his style, of course, soars up around the poetic heights of Parnassus. - Blake interviewed by GQ in 2013

• I’m not a fan of Westerns, but I thoroughly enjoyed this. It has a very authentic feeling and is a far cry from the prairie romanticism of the Hollywood western. I recommend it highly. Peter W. Oldham

• In the Rogue Blood, by James Carlos Blake, has often been compared to Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West. Mr. Blake’s effort has been seen as a pale imitation and it seems for good reason. Both are literary works, but where McCarthy’s shines through as a work of literary genius Baker’s doesn’t reach as high or with as much elegance of purpose. Mr. Baker’s book is very good and has suffered only because of the genius of McCarthy’s work and the latter’s author place in the pantheon of American Literature. To focus on Baker’s work, it is a wonderful, if disturbing, character study; the dialogue rings true and reaches towards the poetic; the scenes are honestly written, if occasionally slipping into the pornography of violence; the resolution honest and to the point. As a study of America leading up to and following through to the end of the Mexican War In the Rogue Blood is a very interesting piece of writing and well worth the reader’s time. Though not McCarthy’s masterpiece, In the Rogue Blood remains an important piece of work. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars Recommendation: Men, more so than women, will find this work engaging if they enjoy historical novels littered with senseless violence. The violence is not dishonest, but in most cases it was not strictly necessary. Some would believe this is how the West was; others might disagree. Whichever your perspective readers should find this an enlightening read.

• GREAT BOOK. FAST SERVICE. THANK YOU.

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