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Cormac McCarthy: No Country For Old Men

lenny nero

lenny nero

New Member
Anybody got this one yet? Booklist says:
*Starred Review* Dark themes suffuse McCarthy's first offering since his completion of The Border Trilogy, wose opening installment, All the Pretty Horses earned him both the National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award in 1992. Texas welder Llewelyn Moss makes a dubious discovery while out hunting antelope near the banks of the Rio Grande: a dead man, a stash of heroin, and more than $2 million in cash. Moss packs out the money, knowing his actions will imperil him for the rest of his life. He's soon on the run, left to his own devices against vengeful drug dealers, a former Special Forces agent, and a psychopathic freelance killer with ice blue eyes. Shades of Dostoyevsky, Hemingway, and Faulkner resonate in McCarthy's blend of lyrical narrative, staccato dialogue, and action-packed scenes splattered with bullets and blood. McCarthy fans will revel in the author's renderings of the raw landscapes of Mexico and the Southwest and the precarious souls scattered along the border that separates the two. Many are the men here who maim in the name of drugs. "If you killed 'em all," says the local sheriff, "they'd have to build an annex onto hell."
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I'm a big fan of his stuff and I didn't even know this was out!
 
I loved The Border Trilogy, although I found The Crossing a truly upsetting experience. My favourite of his is Blood Meridian. I'll check this out as I haven't read anything of his for ages.
 
Read this one in one sitting. Best book I've read this year. McCarthy's prose isn't as dense in this one, which is probably why I sped through it. It was a lot easier to read than some of his past books. Great stuff. I can't recommend it highly enough.
My favourite of his is Blood Meridian.
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My fave of his as well. In my top 3 all time.
 
lenny nero said:
Read this one in one sitting. Best book I've read this year. McCarthy's prose isn't as dense in this one, which is probably why I sped through it. It was a lot easier to read than some of his past books. Great stuff. I can't recommend it highly enough.

My fave of his as well. In my top 3 all time.
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Dammit Lenny, its not availably yet in the UK, except in pricey hardback version...I'll hang on a bit for the paperback, but if it doesn't come out soon I might have to hit the credit card again :(
 
The hardback here in the states is one of the smaller, trade sized ones, so it wasn't as expensive as a full sized one.
 
TTT

This is a fine novel. I loved Blood Meridian. I found the Border Trilogy a bit soft. We're back in dark places with this. There is a lot of violence, but it is used as a window into the human condition, much as with BM.

Run out and pick up this book.
 
Glad to see someone else on here that likes this author! I think him and James Ellroy are my fave American authors right now.
 
Made arrangements to obtain a copy -- as I didn't even know it was out until a couple weeks ago -- Mccarthy is IMHO one of the great contemporary authors. Blood Meridian is as mentioend above, absolutely fantastic.
 
I'm just starting "No Country for Old Men." I picked it up and read the beginning and liked it immediately. Such a relief after my last two dud reads.

I'll post here after I've read it.
 
Darn, I am a slow reader but I think I had better speed up. I am currently reading The Red Heart and I am also #4 on the hold list at the library for Robert Jordan's latest Wheel of Time book. I better put my name in at the library for No Country for Old Men as I really liked the Border Trilogy and this book sounds very good. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
 
muggle said:
Darn, I am a slow reader but I think I had better speed up. I am currently reading The Red Heart and I am also #4 on the hold list at the library for Robert Jordan's latest Wheel of Time book. I better put my name in at the library for No Country for Old Men as I really liked the Border Trilogy and this book sounds very good. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
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Double darn. I just checked the library and they have 3 copies that are available now but I don't dare request it as I am only half way through my current book and the Robert Jordan which I have on hold is a big book. Guess I will have to wait until later and hope it continues to be available.
 
I just finished No Country for Old Men.

As I've said elsewhere, it took me a while to adjust to the author's omission of quotation marks. This stylistic tic can be very confusing, and while all of my confusion didn't dissipate, I did settle in after a while and the book does have certain rewards.

McCarthy's language is extremely interesting. He rides somewhere between idiom/dialect and poetic license, particularly in character's speech, but also in the overall narrative, which tends to give the book more of a whole feel. That is, the characters are not separated from the narrative by their idiom, so you feel the whole is more organic.

But the author has other stylistic affectations that hogtie his exposition, which results in a very jumbled denouement. I won't spoil here, but it feels like there is a scene or two missing toward the end.

The story is set in 1980, which seems at first to be an odd choice, but it gives the author a wide horizon for his characters—there are the old-timer WWII gen guys who remember the really old-time Western characters from their childhoods, and there are the Vietnam vets who are just hitting middle age, and there are the contemporary kids who seem to come from an entirely different place (all in Texas or thereabouts).

If you like McCarthy, you'll like this. It's punchy and rugged and a bit sentimental, sort of marking the end of a time in the West in ways that he hasn't before.
 
I'm currently at the half way point in the book. The story is very compelling in how a simple beginning becomes more complex. The down-home Texas dialogue in the interaction of the various characters is realistic and it appears authentic. With that being said, there isn't a lot in regards to interaction that draws out the distinctive differences between the characters. They all sound like Pulp Fiction caricatures. Granted, you don't want a good old boy talking with someone who sounds like George Plimpton, though what makes for authenticity as far as i'm aware of, makes up for characters that are virtually indistinguishable in regards to speaking.
 
I thought this book was very interesting. It was a real quick read and kept my attention throughout the entire novel. I got a question for whoever read it.

SPOILER

Why did Wells let Chigurh kill him? I didn't understand that at all.

I really liked the end where Chigurh had gotten away from authorities but was actually a loser because of his strong character and pride. Very different and very thought provoking.
 
I think that Chigurh got the drop on him, and this was the way they portrayed it in the movie. Their whole scene together has Chigurh pointing a gun at Wells.
 
Did anyone else have to go back and re-read just to see who was talking? At first I wasn't having a problem with this but after a while I was often re-reading scenes just to clear things up.

On the whole, though, I liked this book. I think the omission of quotation marks is annoying (c'mon McCarthy, are they really that bad?) but the characters and story had me intrigued. Chigurh, despite being pure evil, was probably my favorite. The scenes at the convenience store and with Carla Jean are probably among the book's best.
 
Hasn't this book been made into a film??? I seem to recall the film winning lots at the Oscars but I haven't seen it advertised anywhere???
 
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