McCarthy writes distinct characters. Each character has a unique voice. The plot is high adventure and high violence. He attempts to give us wisdom through the dialog of three main characters. The wisdom often comes out trite because it is written with a southern rural dialect which is melodramatic and feels strained. Sometimes there are some funny attempts. For example, one of the main characters, the Sheriff, remembering a conference in Corpus Christi, thinks,

“Me and Loretta…got set next to this woman, she was the wife of somebody or other. And she kept talkin about the right wing this and the right wing that. I ain’t even sure what she meant by it. The people I know are mostly just common people. Common as dirt, as the sayin goes. I told her that and she looked at me funny. She thought I was sayin somethin bad about em, but of course that’s a high compliment in my part of the world. She kept on, kept on. Finally told me, said: I don’t like the way this country is headed. I want my granddaughter to be able to have an abortion. And I said well mam I don’t think you got any worries about the way the country is headed. The way I see it goin I dont have much doubt but what she’ll be able to have an abortion. I’m goin to say that not only will she be able to have an abortion, she’ll be able to have you put to sleep. Which pretty much ended the conversation.”

The book has a strong theme about death. The abortion quote is an example of how little McCarthy thinks our culture respects life. The antagonist, a sociopath, believes he has perfect integrity and yet he is a cold blooded killer. He feels no remorse and kills to insure he leaves no possible liabilities alive. Its Darwinistic and many scenes of his murders are almost too hard to read. McCarthy writes with this extreme harshness in The Road also. Perhaps, The Road is even more severe.

I like the book's serious tone, the suspenseful plot, and the strong characters but found the dialog to be overplayed. Country folk do have an earthy wisdom and sometimes have a way of putting things poetically, however, Llewelyn and the Sheriff are stylized men who's mistakes of the past make them cowboy prophets. McCarthy's view of a good ol boy is similar to Willie Nelson.

Finally, I really liked the bleak conclusion. If anything is honest about this book it is that nothing good comes from drugs, violence, and lawlessness. Good guys don't win and courageous guys die.