Goodreads | No Country for Old Men (MTI) (Vintage International)

topics	replies	last activity
book vs movie	17	03/12/2008 08:18AM
does the book explain things any better than the movie	9	05/02/2008 12:01PM
This book almost makes me sorry that I ever learned to read.	30	05/22/2008 01:46AM

Taylor rated it:

(review of isbn 0375706674)

03/03/08

bookshelves: desert-island-picks, favorites, fiction, own

Read in March, 2008

Right off the bat I have to say this is a book that I'm not so sure I can do enough justice to in my review. There are so many themes and subtleties here (this is another book as much about what isn't said/done as what is), and I'm not sure that I've entirely digested all of them. A lot of the "professional" reviews tie some of the themes to the Bible, and having little knowledge of the Bible, there's a chance I'm missing out on some things. That said, even without that knowledge, this...more

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Tmc222 rated it:

(review of isbn 0375706674)

07/08/08

Read in March, 2008

This book is a masterpiece. I tend to rate books based on how much I enjoyed reading them; this rates a five by that standard, but it's also one of those books that will be with you for a while. It wouldn't let go of me after I read it; for several days, it occupied my mind and my imagination like a song I couldn't get out of my head. Generally, I classify books like that as really good reading, but this one was also beautifully crafted in some very subtle ways. I wasn't just thinking about ...more This book is a masterpiece. I tend to rate books based on how much I enjoyed reading them; this rates a five by that standard, but it's also one of those books that will be with you for a while. It wouldn't let go of me after I read it; for several days, it occupied my mind and my imagination like a song I couldn't get out of my head. Generally, I classify books like that as really good reading, but this one was also beautifully crafted in some very subtle ways. I wasn't just thinking about the characters and the land and the events of the books; I was also trying to figure out (as a writer) how McCarthy did what he did.

[I have to admit here that I'm a little biased about the book because of the location -- that part of Texas is home to me, and I can see every shade of dust and sky and road and river McCarthy describes -- he represents it well.]

Some readers complain about the way the book jumps around, shifting between points of view; nothing about the shape of the novel is neat and orderly, something we seem to like our fiction to be. It provides a kind of emotional roller-coaster ride -- a villain to hate, a regular guy who has done something wrong we can sympathize with, and a sheriff, a good man who appears to be the real center of the novel by the time we get to the end. But even that final shift in perspective doesn't tie the novel up neatly -- it ambles and meanders, and if you tried to chart the spikes of action and denouement, which are generally supposed to increase in size and momentum as a book progresses to its final crisis, you would just have a mess. I've even heard the plot described as a "hoax".

The villain gets his comeuppance, but only after he accomplishes what he has intended to do, with a lot of collateral damage. The book is not very satisfying as a morality play: yes, drugs and violence are bad, and taking money that isn't yours will lead to disaster, but that was fairly obvious to begin with -- why would the author waste his time creating such vivid characters and settings and situations if he was going to be so trite?

When a book so beautifully crafted in other ways appears to be so flawed in others, it makes me wonder if perhaps the author had a reason for doing what he did. I can't speak for the writer's purpose, but the story does have the shape of a more natural narrative, one that closely echoes the narratives that come out of "real life'. (He chose an odd time frame, too -- 1980 usually isn't a focal point for meaningful narratives from our own point in time -- but in the context of the story, it's quite meaningful. Locally, it happens to be around the time drug-related violence spiraled out of control along the border with Mexico, but in a larger sense, it's also after Vietnam, which was not a "good" war like WWII, and at a point when the idealism of the 60s and 70s gave way to the Reagan administration.)

I think the intention behind the shape of the plot goes beyond naturalism, though; instead, the reader is being prompted to look beyond the events themselves for meaning. This book isn't just about the struggle between good and evil, but about what it takes to oppose evil. Sheriff Bell is clearly a good man and a good sheriff, even an able lawman, who does not like violence. In the end, he is completely ineffectual at stopping Chigurh, because -- as he comes to understand -- he is not willing to do what it takes to stop him. Just as clearly, Chigurh represents the wave of violence that drug trafficking brought to the border during that period of time, and by extension, violence wherever it occurs. If good men do not do what it takes to stop violence, it takes over.

As with any other book, readers can extrapolate where they want. For me, it became a metaphor for what happened in the US following 9/11: good people were not willing to stop the invasion of Iraq, which was obviously unnecessary violence motivated by the interests of a few; the result is a place where violence has largely spun out of control, with massive collateral damages. It could represent any armed conflict, any massacre, any genocide, where these things are true: violence has flourished because good, well-meaning people are not willing to do what they must to stop it, and it is always most destructive of those who are the innocent bystanders, and the least able to protect themselves.

At the end of the book, the sheriff dreams of his father carrying fire in his hat, a symbol that anyone who has read "The Road" will recognize. It's also another way of looking at this book's central theme. The fire, of course, is the opposite of destruction and anarchy -- it is the fire Prometheus stole from the gods, the essence of a civil society built on law that will protect all of its citizens. The violent country McCarthy recreates in this book -- our country, our world -- requires guardians that are willing to do what it takes to protect even the weakest of its members from anarchy and violence, and to remember why it is we do it.

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Adam rated it:

(review of isbn 0375706674)

12/12/07

"You can't go to war without G-d." So says Cormac McCarthy. The concept that G-d has a vested interest in war is as ancient as war itself. Fore did G-d not say to the Israelites as they prepared to enter Canaan: "My terror I send before thee, and I have put to death all the people among whom thou comest, and I have given the neck of all thine enemies unto thee. (EX 23:27)." It is not only in Judaism that a deity steps to the plate in the eternal struggle between men. In ...more "You can't go to war without G-d." So says Cormac McCarthy. The concept that G-d has a vested interest in war is as ancient as war itself. Fore did G-d not say to the Israelites as they prepared to enter Canaan: "My terror I send before thee, and I have put to death all the people among whom thou comest, and I have given the neck of all thine enemies unto thee. (EX 23:27)." It is not only in Judaism that a deity steps to the plate in the eternal struggle between men. In the Greek classic "The Iliad" Athena, Ares, and Aphrodite play as prominent (if not more so) a role in deciding the battle's fate as Odysseus, Hector, Achilles, or a large wooden horse. It is not news that before facing the uncertainty, which lies latent in war, man looks to find an ally in G-d.

However, what if G-d does not take a hand in war? How does one go into battle w/o a principle and fundamental faith? A very good and pertinent question-especially with the mindset behind our current military involvement. When man looks at his destiny outside of what G-d’s providence has determined for him, a very strange and scary existence takes shape. While I have no doubt many a soldier has pondered over this, it was Napoleon Bonaparte (emerging from the Enlightenment, where fundamental theological beliefs were called into question) who succinctly summarized this concept: "God is on the side with the most artillery." Thus implying that, indeed, we form our destiny. We create the reality of our lives. This is a terrifying concept for the soldier venturing into the chaotic expanse of the battlefield. Fore, if the buck stops with me, maybe the bullet will too.

But, it is not just in the midst battle where one feels lost without a Divine Providence. The struggle of everyday’s existence can be combat in itself. As the Russian playwright Chekhov says: “Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.” The choices we may make on a day to day basis carry a significant weight when they alone form our tomorrow. It is this notion that McCarthy drives across in this saga of how life’s yesterdays yields to make today. Chance does not bring you to the bed of a cheap motel where you stare at a neon illuminated ceiling. Nor does bad luck put you at the working end of a silenced .22. It is the choices you make that chisel your sculpture of reality from the blankness of the broad, granite world. When one looks with an incisive eye, the destiny of decisions can be made clear. However, an insightful eye is rare. For this reason McCarthy employs Carla Jean’s grandmother in the archetypal role of the old (often sick and/or crazy) soothsayer (it is not by chance she is referred to as an “old woman” on p. 202 when she makes the inference that she deserves no credit for predicting the course Moss and Carla Jean’s relationship would take-the course of events where clear as day).

Many are unwilling to accept the notion that G-d is not laying a path for us; as is the case for the retired Sheriff Deputy Ellis. He waits his entire life for the arrival of G-d. He never comes. When the reader meets Ellis he is old, sick, and alone. Maybe this is the existence that waits those who spend their life waiting for a destiny, rather than creating one.

Ultimately, this novel weaves a tale of masculine brawniness in a world where destiny is created-not found. It is a harsh and cold world where scruples of sensitivity have no place. It is a border town world, where life bends only in the direction we are willing, and able to take it.
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Annalisa rated it:

(review of isbn 0375706674)

05/26/08

Read in April, 2008

recommended to Annalisa by: Ryan
recommends it for: guys

This is definitely a man's book, loaded with violence and male tendency toward underexplaining vs female overanalyzing. The first half I thought there must be nothing gained from the book over the movie (I haven't seen it) because it read like a movie script describing one violent murder after the next without any insight into characters' motives, emotions, intentions, all the reasons a book is better.

But near the end of the book, you realize that this is not Moss' story, but sheriff Bell's...more This is definitely a man's book, loaded with violence and male tendency toward underexplaining vs female overanalyzing. The first half I thought there must be nothing gained from the book over the movie (I haven't seen it) because it read like a movie script describing one violent murder after the next without any insight into characters' motives, emotions, intentions, all the reasons a book is better.

But near the end of the book, you realize that this is not Moss' story, but sheriff Bell's. You are getting pieces of his mind. It's not about a lack of old men because they're all getting killed off young, but a country where old men are left holding values of the past and wondering what has happened to society.

The story is about a young man (Moss) who stumbles on a drug exchange gone array and takes the millions from the carnage. He soon becomes the hunted from hit men (Chigurh the main one) out to recover the money and one step behind it all is sheriff Bell about to retire who has never had an unsolved homicide and needs to world to make sense and be good.

There are plenty of statements about right and wrong and the fine line between the two. You take sheriff Bell who is the standard for good, but he is doing good to live up to his dad, to make up for a war failure, but it brings him no joy because it's just retribution. And the one moment when he could redeem his youth, he fails into the same pattern when he hides and waits for backup.

Then you take Chigurh the villainous assassin who will kill someone just because they inconvenienced him. Then you learn the twisted scruples his psychopathic mind created to justify himself. Of all the characters he seems to have the most integrity although you want to kill him yourself for it. He sees himself as a symbol for death that has no sense of right or wrong, just fate that cannot change course. You see how the other characters deal with him in your classic steps of death. Of all the characters he was the most interesting to read.

And finally you have Moss who is a good guy who made a dumb mistake, or lots of them. Where does he fit in the good and bad when he lets greed overcome his consideration for his wife? It was well into the book before I could decided whether I liked him or not because he seemed so undecided himself.

I liked the lack of a fairy tale ending and the surprises. What I didn't like was the style. Not the loose grammatical style that added character to the book, but the lack of description. Sometimes I got lost. What character am I reading here? Who did what? What are they talking about? The condensed dialogue seemed to wander into nowhere at times and then snap into insightful without a transition.

I would have liked to understand more about what happened in the motel with the hitchhiker, but all we get are police reports not who came or how or even why. It could have been as random as the car accident. But I guess the senselessness is the whole point of the story. I felt the end dragged a little. Quick to the point of being snipped and then page after of page of sheriff Bell's mind wandering, unexplained, sometimes hard to follow wanderings. The end didn't match the rest of the book.

The writing and the story aren't amazing, but once the flavor of the book fades and you are left considering and wondering, the book grows on you. It was frustrating to read, but once mulled over I liked it better....less

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Peter rated it:

(review of isbn 0375706674)

12/10/07

bookshelves: novel

Read in March, 2007

I still think, “Blood Meridian,” has been his best book--probably by far-- and I would have to agree with those who find the present volume a small story by comparison to some of the other books Cormac McCarthy as written. But I take exception to the idea that the book is some kind of cheap thriller. It's a serious effort to say something by one of America's very few good writers. And I don’t mean that there is not a horde of trained American writers out there producing well-crafted senten...more I still think, “Blood Meridian,” has been his best book--probably by far-- and I would have to agree with those who find the present volume a small story by comparison to some of the other books Cormac McCarthy as written. But I take exception to the idea that the book is some kind of cheap thriller. It's a serious effort to say something by one of America's very few good writers. And I don’t mean that there is not a horde of trained American writers out there producing well-crafted sentences. I am saying McCarthy has something to say that cannot be said in a sentence—what he is trying to do needs a novel to get done.

In “No Country for …” McCarthy continues to obsess over the nature of consequence. He seems to be essentially a pagan intent on honoring more virile gods than simply nodding in respect to the washed out idolatry that has faded the never very bright American version of Christianity. All of this seems very explicit in the last paragraph of "The Road."

What I like about McCarthy is he is not simply celebrating the virtues of selfhood the way the rest of the empire seems to be. Somehow American letters has become obsessed with not so much the condition, but the importance of the psychological self in ways I find not only tedious, but almost evil. Character, which is inseparable from personality these days, gets held up as if it mattered. In McCarthy's work, character is incidental. The rain and the sun fall upon both the wicked and the just and we are sent back to ponder the origin of the west.

However, I find McCarthy darkness a bit overblown--particularly in the Trilogy. He seems to evoke darkness in ways he is unable to sustain. Bleakness is only a mood. But I always enjoy reading him.

In his “No Country for …,” I am particularly interested in a facet of the story that is probably not very important, and not terrible developed. I am interested in how Chigurh manages to corrupt Llewellyn’s marriage to Carla Jean. It happens though lies and rumor. Only Bell seems to notice and at least tries to do something. He tells Carla Jean that he does not believe Llewellyn had been cheating on her with the hitchhiker discovered in his hotel room. Of course her doubt is a problem for the book and one that is not really worked out. Llewellyn’s marriage is almost heroic in that he and his wife are worthy of one another. They don’t whine. They live hard. They fuck each other for pleasure. Even if she seems weaker than she should be, Llewellyn tells her what is going on and she believes in him. Because they are in love. There is, for instance, no reason on earth why he should give himself up to Chigurh to save his wife. There is no inevitability about his end or hers. He could very well have killed Chigurh and might have had he not been cut down by the Mexicans. But the role of false necessity in all that happens does not find much light in McCarthy. But I am going to think about this a little more before I say much more.

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Spahnie rated it:

07/09/08

bookshelves: books-that-became-movies

Read in July, 2008

recommends it for: ummmm....

I really wanted to like N.C.F.O.M.. I really, really did. Sadly, it was definitely not as good as it could have been for multiple reasons, the most relevant being its style.

The plotline follows Llewelyn Moss, who finds $2,000,000 in a crime scene out in the desert and decides to make off with the cash. This puts him on the run from Anton Chigurh (pronounced shih-grrr), a badly-hairstyled psycho (yet disturbingly calm and coldly intelligent) with a cattle gun bent on getting the mon...more

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Platoeatssouls rated it:

(review of isbn 0375706674)

04/04/08

bookshelves: theboxmarkeddone

Read in April, 2008

recommends it for: people who like it dark

A literary critic (of whom I am not fond) by the name of Harold Bloom referred to Cormac McCarthy as one of the four living (and still working) American novelists who write "the Style of our age", saying they have composed canonical works. So with this ringing in my ears, and the film version still playing through my mind, I decided to read the book.

Cormac McCarthy writes about the west, but not the vaguely-homoerotic wild west that we all know and love. This is West Texas, where ...more A literary critic (of whom I am not fond) by the name of Harold Bloom referred to Cormac McCarthy as one of the four living (and still working) American novelists who write "the Style of our age", saying they have composed canonical works. So with this ringing in my ears, and the film version still playing through my mind, I decided to read the book.

Cormac McCarthy writes about the west, but not the vaguely-homoerotic wild west that we all know and love. This is West Texas, where there's antelope and dust and drugs and a bunch of stuff that's been around forever and not a whole lot else. The men are tough and taciturn; they don't use apostrophes or quotation marks, they're slow to anger and quick to strike once roused. They love their wives with a slow, steady passion. Their wives, on the other hand, are strong, steely women who do well by their menfolk (of course they're called "menfolk".) They may carry weapons, but in the end they're not too important, mostly functioning as reasons for the men to do the things they do.

The book's central thesis (or, I suppose, one of them; books are relatively poor places for straightforward philosophy) is this: you make choices as you go through life. There are rules and other, smaller choices you make which propel you along. And then eventually there's an accounting.

In some ways, it's similar to the "alternative universe" trope beloved by science fiction writers, except here the "what if" part of the universe doesn't matter. Only what happened is actually relevant. People live their lives thinking every day is a fresh start, that they can somehow divorce themselves from their pasts, but in a certain sense the past is the only thing that exists. Your past defines you, just as the past of the country defines what America is today.

This is not, as it happens, a philosophy I particularly buy into. But that's neither here nor there.

What surprises me is how McCarthy drags us through nearly 300 pages looking over the shoulders of Llewellyn Moss, Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, and Anton Chigurh without ever really letting us into their lives. The way he uses and discards them makes it difficult to get attached, and none of them are especially likable (though I'll admit they each of them have their own particular charms). The plot, revolving around a drug deal gone bad and a big case of stolen money, is interesting but never really tied up - it's mostly a MacGuffin to keep the characters on the move, which is disappointing; you'd think that if you spent as long as CM must have writing a book this full of ideas, you'd have taken a few minutes to fix that.

The book was engrossing, true; I spent more than one lunch hour buried within its occasionally agrammatical pages. But though I liked it, I remain unconvinced that McCarthy is as good a writer as Bloom seems to think. The word I'm searching for, I believe, is "overrated". It's much like Bloom himself in that regard....less

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Kenyon rated it:

12/04/07

Read in November, 2007

recommends it for: all friends

I wrote a review of this for the Sackets Harbor Gazette!
If you think that the western novel genre died with Louis L’Amour. Think again. Cormac McCarthy has been writing them after a fashion for a while with a style all his own and a voice as stark and certain as the plains of Texas he often describes. No Country for Old Men, first published in 2005 and recently brought out in paperback as a movie tie-in, is a story of duty, treachery, loyalty, and evil; of a decision to act made by instinct t...more I wrote a review of this for the Sackets Harbor Gazette!
If you think that the western novel genre died with Louis L’Amour. Think again. Cormac McCarthy has been writing them after a fashion for a while with a style all his own and a voice as stark and certain as the plains of Texas he often describes. No Country for Old Men, first published in 2005 and recently brought out in paperback as a movie tie-in, is a story of duty, treachery, loyalty, and evil; of a decision to act made by instinct the consequences of which cannot be undone, ignored, or escaped especially by the three characters central to the novel’s plot. It’s also a story of our times and other times.

Set 1980 in the vastness of west Texas and its small towns, a Vietnam veteran out on an early morning hunt discovers from a distance, the deadly mayhem of a drug deal that had imploded with greed. This man, Moss, makes a decision that will set him on a path to converge with a diabolically sinister man named Chigurh who is out to square, rather than clean up, the drug deal mess and the local sheriff, Sheriff Bell, a longtime peace officer who wishes to save Moss from a fate that the sheriff comes to believe cannot be altered. As Sheriff Bell goes about his duty, the author takes the reader into the Sheriff’s confidence using first person narration to convey the weariness and confusion the sheriff has suddenly become aware he feels for the way the world has come to work, and the sense of frustration he has when he begins to reason that the value system that has served him so well no longer can be applied.

This reviewer found the whole of No Country for Old Men, as with many excellent books, to be greater than the sum of its parts. As a fast paced action tale of the old-fashioned page-turner variety, it will not disappoint the reader willingly enthralled by suspense and a fine tuned sense of apprehension. For the reader with an ear for, and appreciation of, the vernacular, rhythm, and speech patterns of the West Texas version of the English language that seems to be defined by the topography and weather as well as the drawl of its practitioners, this will be a book in which to revel. And lastly, there is a moral story here that reduces good and evil to the most, not the least, common denominator, and asks the reader to reflect, along with Sheriff Bell, on how the values that we count on to get by don’t necessarily add up any longer. Cormac McCarthy’s gift lies with interleaving these layers he creates into a fascinating story.

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Steven rated it:

(review of isbn 0375706674)

04/02/08

bookshelves: goodmodernfiction

Read in March, 2008

My coworker provided me with a copy of this book and told me that I had to read it. He knew I was a pretty big fan of the movie, though not really a huge fan, and he knew I had mentioned that Cormac McCarthy was being talked about much more often in reference to his body of work. Much like “The Road,” this book took approximately 4 to 5 hours to read and it went by exceptionally quick. Even if I was not familiar with the plot from having seen the movie, I would definitely classify this bo...more My coworker provided me with a copy of this book and told me that I had to read it. He knew I was a pretty big fan of the movie, though not really a huge fan, and he knew I had mentioned that Cormac McCarthy was being talked about much more often in reference to his body of work. Much like “The Road,” this book took approximately 4 to 5 hours to read and it went by exceptionally quick. Even if I was not familiar with the plot from having seen the movie, I would definitely classify this book as a real page turner.

The novel follows roughly the same plot as the book and concerns the activities of three central characters, Llewyn Moss, Anton Chigurh, and Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, as they deal with events caused when Moss happens upon a drug deal gone bad while out hunting and takes a satchel with over $2 million in cash.
Much like in the movie, I was rather unconcerned with the fate of Moss (he does seem a bit smarter in the book than the movie, but it is hard to root for him because at base he simply stole money) or Chigurh (he is a sick and demented sociopathic killer, even though he is the ultimate believer in destiny). For me, the much more interesting characters were Sheriff Bell of Jewel County and Llewyn Moss’ wife, Carla Jean.

Carla Jean was a fascinating character in the book (I thought she was played brilliantly in the movie too) with much more depth than you might imagine. Married at 16, now age 19 when her husband arrives with this satchel of cash, she is a big believer in destiny. She knew she was destined to be with Llewyn, she knew that when she took the job at Wal Mart, but it is ultimately destiny that is her undoing. The body count is pretty high in this book, but for whatever reason, her death was certainly that most difficult for me to reconcile.

More than Chigurh or Moss, though, the book is ultimately about the folksy Sheriff Bell. It is obvious that McCarthy knows folks like this, and without a doubt, just people most certainly do exist. He certainly thinks the world is indeed going to hell in a hand basket. One of my favorite exchanges in the book is when he is conversing with someone who is concerned about the ability for her children to have an abortion and he matter of factly responds that the way the world is going, there should be little doubt that there will be no problem in being able to have an abortion. He knows the danger of drugs and believes that if Satan were thinking of something to bring the human race to its knees, he’d certainly pick narcotics. In a lot of ways, he simply seems like he is a man trying to do his best to make sense of the depravity and violence that is simply everywhere.

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Tremendous depth, haunting images, great use of switching from the first person in Sheriff Bell and the inner monologues of Moss to the third person. Just a tremendous read.

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Trish rated it:

(review of isbn 0375706674)

12/01/07

Read in March, 2007

When I tried to read this a while back, I stalled out in the early pages. Those spare sentences about guns and the Western landscape were like inpenetrable koans. This time, I concentrated and caught the rhythm of the fractured story McCarthy tells--a story about drugs, money and, mostly, murder.

Lllewelyn Moss is just hunting for antelope. Instead, he finds dead bodies, a cache of heroin, and $2 million. If he walked away, could he have been saved? Or was his fate sealed by happenstance? Mo...more

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Sherry rated it:

(review of isbn 0375706674)

07/23/08

Read in July, 2008

recommends it for: anyone who enjoys pondering the big issues of life

Last Thanksgiving, my sisters-in-law were talking about the movie version of NCFOM, and I was intrigued by the description on s-i-l gave of the end of the movie: "...then he says,'And then I woke up.' What is that about?! Was it all a dream? Did it really happen?" I knew I wouldn't be seeing the movie since it was rated R and sounded pretty bloody, but I was really curious to see what really did happen and if the story really was as great as all the Hollywood hype would lead you to be...more Last Thanksgiving, my sisters-in-law were talking about the movie version of NCFOM, and I was intrigued by the description on s-i-l gave of the end of the movie: "...then he says,'And then I woke up.' What is that about?! Was it all a dream? Did it really happen?" I knew I wouldn't be seeing the movie since it was rated R and sounded pretty bloody, but I was really curious to see what really did happen and if the story really was as great as all the Hollywood hype would lead you to believe. So I checked the book out from the library and gave it a go.

Let's start with the bad news first. The writing and format of the story take some getting used to. McCarthy never uses quotes with dialog, so it's easy to get confused about who is talking, are they really talking, or are they just thinking. He also doesn't use apostrophes with contractions or possessives. I tried to see if there was some sort of rule he went by, but it wasn't consistent that I could see. And the language of the book is very much Texas-talk. Not poorly written, just very localized dialect. The final style choice that wasn't as hard to understand was the switch between third person narrative and first person recollection. Every couple of chapters or so there is a short, italicized chapter written from the point of view of the main protagonist, Sheriff Bell. This was the easiest device to understand and didn't really give me much trouble once we got going.

So all of these hurdles made me have to read the first chapter a couple of times to get the feel for his style. Once I got my sea legs (so to speak) the book really took off.

Now for the good news. This was, for me, an amazing book. I want to have my own copy now so I can mark it up and read it again. I loved it because it made me think. The Sheriff Bell chapters always had some word of wisdom, some little nugget of truth, something to make you really think about your life, your place in the world, what it really means to be successful. And, as a whole, the book really made me think about our choices in life, how where each of us is today is the culmination of choices made everyday for years, not the result of one or two big choices.

There is some real violence in the book, but it is not gratuitous and serves to illustrate the themes of the book. And since it is a book, you can go over it quickly if you want and not get a super graphic picture burned into your retinas. However, other thank one F-bomb, there isn't any swearing and crude language in the book. And for those who didn't see the movie and wonder, like I did, if the main bad guy is going to say "Friend-o" through the whole book like he did in the clip of the movie you saw 800 times - he doesn't. Only says it once. Thank goodness.

So, to wrap it up - the book is a challenge to read. Not terribly long, not terribly hard, but a challenge. Definitely a challenge worth taking. And then we can all talk about what happened after he woke up....less

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Larry rated it:

(review of isbn 0375706674)

12/16/07

Read in November, 2007

Very good but not great. Still recommended.

No Country For Old Men is memorable in many ways: the quick pace, the easy read, the crazy violence, the merciless villain and the likable characters. Unfortunately, its the way they interact, the story itself, that falls short.

Chigurh is a horrifying villain. Moss is likeable for his stubbornness, his salt-of-the-earth personality and his young wife lovable for the same reason. The Sherriff is also enjoyable as he is constantly one step behind,...more

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Tim rated it:

(review of isbn 0375706674)

03/23/08

bookshelves: crime, thriller

recommends it for: Anyone

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

This is a great book on two levels - style and content.

You have to enter into the laconic vernacular of the border country and see how McCarthy uses it to show how a few words in the right context can get you deeper into the emotions (or lack of them) of the main protagonists than long-winded description of feelings.

He manages the rare feat of showing how a basic decency, a sentimental decency, triumphs morally over cunning and intellect. He reminds us that 'sentiment', that is feeling...more This is a great book on two levels - style and content.

You have to enter into the laconic vernacular of the border country and see how McCarthy uses it to show how a few words in the right context can get you deeper into the emotions (or lack of them) of the main protagonists than long-winded description of feelings.

He manages the rare feat of showing how a basic decency, a sentimental decency, triumphs morally over cunning and intellect. He reminds us that 'sentiment', that is feeling one's values as givens without too much analysis, is not to be despised by those whose default mode is knowing irony. There is nothing post-modern about this book.

As for the content, this is a deeply political book without once mentioning politics, as most readers would understand it.

It implies not so much the regret for lost values that other reviewers have noted and which may be obvious in the text (but which it is arguable provided a mere interlude of integrity between the normal condition of self-centred violence in the American West) but a gentle questioning of patriotism when your country has drifted far away from your own ideals and understanding, when you don't know what you are fighting for (and putting ourself at risk for) any more, when it asks too much and gives so little in return.

The American working man's experiences in America's wars overseas is a running theme 'sotto voce', underpinning the account of one incident in what is really a civil war in all but name, one in which government agents and drug runners seem to be fighting over who actually represents the will of the American people.

The Sheriff seems to sense that urban America has chosen the other side to his by providing markets for the 'criminals'. The killer Chigurh is almost a parody of the Ayn Rand libertarian in his peculiar a-social determination to 'succeed' on his own terms. He is out of the 'Fountainhead' but with crime rather than architecture and art the model. He should be fascinating but is merely chilling - a half person compared to the much weaker hero.

This book might appear to be an elegy for an older America which has been left behind (that is how most would like to interpret it), but this reader detected a darker mood, an implied anger that the betrayal of simpler souls in matters of war and peace starts to return home at the border between America and the world outside.

A cold hell (represented by Chigurh) has seeped into the homeland, looking for opportunity. Of course, nothing is made quite that clear - but that is what happens in great art, and this is great art. ...less

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Jim rated it:

06/21/08

Read in June, 2008

recommends it for: anyone interested in a disturbing and deep sketch of the human condition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

I have to say that the movie bugged me. But it bugged me in a way that made me want to give it another chance. I decided to read the book first.

The book is really amazing.

I see it as a balance between the best and the worst of what human beings are capable. The characters at opposite poles are the enigmatic murdering force of nature, Anton Chigurh, played off against the solidly humanistic Sheriff, Ed Tom Bell. Bell's italicized monologues punctuate the book, introducing each section...more I have to say that the movie bugged me. But it bugged me in a way that made me want to give it another chance. I decided to read the book first.

The book is really amazing.

I see it as a balance between the best and the worst of what human beings are capable. The characters at opposite poles are the enigmatic murdering force of nature, Anton Chigurh, played off against the solidly humanistic Sheriff, Ed Tom Bell. Bell's italicized monologues punctuate the book, introducing each section. His voice is troubled but solidly human. He knows he is up against something new and terrible and that he possibly has met his match. We learn a lot about Bell and what he thinks and his own demons. We get a good sketch about what has made him the way he is and why he thinks what he does.

Chigurh is written very much as Bell's opposite. We don't know much about him. We only see his actions, and his actions are horrific, at odds with anything we'd call human decency. He not only kills people, but kills them in horrible ways and seemingly without motivation at times. He seems to have his own deep and solid and furious set of values, but they are values we ultimately cannot understand or reject. He seems almost to stand outside what we'd usually call humanity, and yet he is human. That makes the character all the more disturbing.

Directly between these characters is Moss, who has made the monumental decision of his life in running off with the satchel of drug-tainted money. In doing so, he has opened himself to the world of Chigurh, while still being protected and pursued by Bell.

So, Sheriff and murdering demon at opposite poles, and a failed human being directly in the center, pursued by both.

Makes for a great and a deep novel.

McCarthy's writing is spare and poetic. Most of the time he portrays people through their actions, not their thoughts. Most of the thoughts as thoughts come in Bell's monologues, which are often a welcome balance to the ghastly actions of Chigurh.

That is part of what is great about this truly excellent writer's work. He is able to convey much about people and their motivations through detailed sketches of their actions only. He rarely dives into their thoughts, and when he does it is deliberate and powerful.

It is hard to heap too much praise on this great great book.

And, having read the book, I have to say that the Coen Brothers certainly stayed with it faithfully in their movie. There are few scenes in the book that did not appear in the film. Not very many, just a few.

Now it is time for me to view the film again, see what I think this time! ...less

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Amber rated it:

(review of isbn 0375706674)

04/16/08

It's really difficult for me to explain why this book feels so incredibly important to me. There's something of an Old Testament, Ecclesiastical feel to it with its paradoxes of violence and downward spiral. Were the old days better than these? Bell recalls that old surveys showed chewing gum and talking in class as major school problems; now they're rape and murder. At the same time, his own past is far from a happy one, filled with death in foreign war, ancestors killed outside their house...more It's really difficult for me to explain why this book feels so incredibly important to me. There's something of an Old Testament, Ecclesiastical feel to it with its paradoxes of violence and downward spiral. Were the old days better than these? Bell recalls that old surveys showed chewing gum and talking in class as major school problems; now they're rape and murder. At the same time, his own past is far from a happy one, filled with death in foreign war, ancestors killed outside their houses, family rifts and personal guilt. On the one hand, he blames drug-pushers for the downfall of law, people who bleed children for their money and can buy people, police, even whole countries. On the other hand, they have customers; people, even children, want to be doped up. And then there are the youth, with their green hair and bones in their noses, lawless and disrespectful of their elders. Then again, their elders walk around in a daze, unsure of themselves or anything else; do they command any respect at all?

Moss's own part is that of a hero in a thriller, but stepping back from the excitement of it all, his plight is almost absurd. Why is he doing this? He knows that at no point will someone stop looking for his two million dollars. Why does he cling so tight to something he will never enjoy, a thing that only puts himself and his family in constant danger and promises to make him a hunted man for the rest of his life? When his wife begs Moss to give up the money, calling it "a false god," she reaches the truth of the matter. The pursuit of the money is utterly futile and meaningless.

And in the midst of all this uncertainty Chigurh makes his rounds like death personified, killing almost at random, but not, I think, without any direction. He completes his killings not with any conventional, mindless pleasure but a certain satisfaction, doing what must be done. Rich and poor, old and young, friended and friendless; no one can escape him when their own time comes. Some people seem to earn their demise; others have every reason to live. Some, like the man at the convenience store, are allowed to go on. Others are simply down on their luck. Then again, is it really luck? Chigurh's flipped coin presents another paradox: predestination or chance? The toss seems arbitrary enough, but what of the journey that brought the coin, the man, the victim together after years of each one's traveling? Who could know it would come to this?

McCormac's book brings up a lot of questions and few, if any, answers. But the questions themselves...that's where the vast importance lies....less

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Robert rated it:

(review of isbn 0375706674)

09/18/07

Cormac McCarthy is known for his bloody novels, but the death toll in No Country for Old Men was still a shock. In some ways, this book read more like a James Ellroy novel than a typical McCarthy book (or, at least, All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing, which were the other McCarthy books I’d read when I read this book). It’s propulsive like a typical thriller—and in that way it resembles Ellroy or Michael Connolly. It never lingers over the land, and only toward the...more

No Country for Old Men (MTI) (Vintage International)

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