Title Blood meridian ; or, The evening redness in the West / Cormac McCarthy.

SRP 2012 REVIEW: This is no ordinary Cowboy and Indian tale. McCarthy's prose elevates the brutal subject matter to a literary, almost biblical level. The protagonist is a 14 year old runaway who joins a band of miscreants to kill Mexicans and Native Americans, though the terms used back then were a lot less pleasant. They're paid per scalp, and in between massacres they sit around the campfire discussing everything from the universe to the nature of man to war. Be prepared for unconventional punctuation (McCarthy uses no quote marks to indicate dialogue) and NC-17 levels of bloodshed and cruelty. But also prepare for some of the most memorable writing and characters you've ever encountered.