Customer Reviews

No Country for Old Men (Random House Large Print)

5 star:		(225)
4 star:		(128)
3 star:		(84)
2 star:		(45)
1 star:		(45)

 

 

Cormac McCarthy's first novel since completing the Border Trilogy in 1998 is a dramatic change of pace. Gone is the focus on the wild Texas plains and the encroachment of civilization. Gone are the lyrical descriptions of untamed nature and young love. Gone is the belief that love and hope have a fighting chance in life's mythic struggles. Instead, we have a much darker, more pessimistic vision, set in Texas in the 1980s, a microcosm in which drugs and violence have so changed "civilization" that the local sheriff believes "we're looking at something we really aint even seen before."

Forty-five-year-old Sheriff Ed Tom Bell must deal with the growing amorality affecting his small border town as a result of the drug trade. The old "rules" do not apply, and Bell faces a wave of violence involving at least ten murders. Running parallel with Bell's investigation of these murders is the story of Llewelyn Moss, a resident of Bell's town, who, while hunting in the countryside, has uncovered a bloody massacre and a truck containing a huge shipment of heroin. He has also discovered and stolen a case containing two million dollars of drug money, which results in his frantic run from hired hitmen. Hunting Moss is Anton Chigurh, a sociopathic cartel avenger, a Satan who will stop at nothing, the antithesis of the thoughtful and kindly Bell. A rival hitman named Wells is, in turn, stalking Chigurh.

By far McCarthy's most exciting and suspenseful novel in recent years, the story speeds along, the body count rising in shocking scenes of depravity. Bell's first person musings about crime, society, and the people around him break the tension periodically, allowing the reader to ponder the wider implications of the action and to see it as a symbolic struggle for man's soul between good and evil, love and hate, God and Satan. As the violence continues and Bell becomes more discouraged, he visits his elderly Uncle Ellis, a former deputy sheriff and war veteran, and as they talk about World War I and the Vietnam War, where they were willing to give their lives for a presumably winnable cause, the contrast between those battles and this battle on the home front is seen in broader and bleaker perspective.

McCarthy's desire to preserve traditional values, and his grim vision of the present and future, reflect a view of life that many readers will not share. The artistry the reader has seen in McCarthy's thematic development throughout the rest of the novel is sacrificed in the last forty pages, in which Bell's overt warnings and cautionary remarks about the future sound preachy. Still, the novel is breathtaking in its construction, and Sheriff Ed Tom Bell is one of McCarthy's best-drawn characters. (4.5 stars) n Mary Whipple

If you like your conflicts fully resolved, you may want to look elsewhere; if you're bothered by unconventional punctuation, you may be irritated by this book; if you despise jump cuts and point of view shifts, you may find yourself rereading sections of this book to catch your bearings. Otherwise, however, you may find this one of the most original books you've read in years.

The story begins when Llewelyn Moss stumbles across the aftermath of a drug shootout while out antelope hunting. He follows a trail out into the desert at the end of which he finds a dead man and 2.4 million dollars. What he doesn't find (until it's too late) is the bug hidden in the money. Soon he has a dauntless hit man on his tail. The bodies pile up like cord wood. This part of the story is pretty conventional. Llewelyn Moss is likable and smart. He seems to anticipate the killer's every move, until he meets a fourteen-year-old, female hitchhiker, who proves to be too much of a distraction.

About two-thirds of the way through the book, the focus switches from Llewelyn to Sheriff Bell, who's trying to save Llewelyn from himself. There's more quirky point of view stuff going on here as McCarthy has Bell tell us what he's thinking in first person, then switches immediately to third, still using Bell as a focus. Bell philosophizes about how he's never seen criminals quite as bad as these drug pushers. He never really believed in Satan until confronted with these people. McCarthy does like to preach occasionally and Bell is a willing stand-in; he indicts not only the drug pushers, but also the people who buy them, and he also seems to hint at some kind of organized crime syndicate that is intentionally chipping away at the American character, hence the title NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN.

I have to admit that I was completely caught off guard by what happened to Llewelyn Moss. It happens after a jump cut, and I kept thinking McCarthy was playing some kind of trick on the reader. No such luck. McCarthy is just as ruthless as Chigurh, the hit man. And there's another surprise in story when it comes time to resolve Sheriff Bell's story arc. You won't believe that one either.

'It's a mess, aint it Sheriff?' 'If it aint it'll do till a mess gets here.' "Sheriff Bell's deputy says to him. And, yes, what a hell of a mess. 305 pages of a riveting book that I read in almost one sitting. I could not stop reading. The "old man" of the book if there is one, is Sheriff Bell. And his wife, Loretta, is the calming influence. Bell's voice is heard through out this book, in italicized version; we recognize that his down to earth common sense views are sure to calm down the violence that starts on page 4. The first murder, and then the second on page 5 and...

The setting is Texas, and the title of the book may be a simile for what is happening in our world and in Texas. Llewellyn Moss, a young cowboy, who works hard for a living and is out hunting antelope, stumbles upon millions of dollars, drugs and 8 dead men in the Texas desert and highland. He does what many of us would do, he takes the money. He understands that his life will never be the same, but it is worth it, isn't it? Money is trouble and Moss is in for as much trouble as anyone could imagine. He has his wife move from their trailer to her mom's to keep her safe. And, Moss, well Moss goes looking for that trouble. And, Zagnorch? Well, find out for yourself.

The character that I am intrigued with is Anton Chigurh. We meet him via a murder in which Chigurh goes from being handcuffed by a West Texas county deputy to driving away in his patrol car, splattered with blood. The telling of the murder is so gory, your heart stops but for a second. The heartlessness of Chigurh is burned into our memory, he will allow some of his victims to flip a coin for their life, but that is just as grizzly as the murders.

The dignity and honor of Moss is contrasted with the heartlessness of Chigurh. We are rooting for Moss, and we understand this may be a little foolishness on our part. As Sheriff Bell says,the problems with our society now starts with the lack of manners. No one says, yes sir, anymore and it is all down hill from there. The lessons stated and learned in Cormac McCarthy's new book are many. We understand we are in the presence of a literary genius. Such a well written and played out novel.


As Sheriff Bell states, "I think if you were Satan and you were settin' around tryin' to think up somethin' that would just bring the human race to its knees what you would probably come up with is narcotics." Money is the root of all evil. Millions of dollars may be equitable to evil, but wouldn't we all like to have a chance to experience it? Anton Chigurh may be likened to evil; will we look evil in the face again?
Highly recommended.

There's so much to this novel that any review or description will fail to do it justice. McCarthy does many things with near perfection: dialogue (oh! his dialogue!), suffering, the American West, doom, beauty, humor, and violence, to name only a handful. All of these familiar, essential McCarthy elements are present here, but this is a different kind of book than McCarthy has written before.

"No Country for Old Men" is a thriller but it resists so many of the temptations and cliches of popular thrillers. It is gritty and violent, without reveling in its violence; its bad guy is chillingly evil without being boastfully so; and Sheriff Bell is the right combination of admirable guy and flawed hero. It is also quicker and easier to read than McCarthy's previous novels, but to read it superficially would be a mistake, as you'll miss so many powerful literary allusions that dot the landscape. Even though you know how this novel is going to end (more or less), McCarthy keeps you engaged with taut writing and mesmerizing prose. Not many writers have that ability.

Cormac McCarthy isn't for everyone, with his disdain for quotation marks and apostrophes, the improper (but true to life) grammar that invades characters' speech, and the affinity he has for creating compoundwords. He gives few introductions to his characters and their circumstances, leaving much for the reader to deduce alone--quite a change from typical dumbed-down fiction.

I think the best parts of McCarthy's books are the endings. Things don't fall perfectly into place and there's a lot of room for interpretation. I much prefer this to force-fed, off-into-the-sunset conclusions that are so appealing to writers. I wonder what those who complained so heatedly about it were expecting? Well, not to worry, when it comes to a big screen near you (as it undoubtedly will), Hollywood in all its infinite wisdom will surely slap a conclusion on it that Answers All Your Questions.

I finished this book two days ago and I'm thinking about it. That, to me, is a hallmark of great fiction, which "No Country for Old Men" is.

Unlike other reviews I'll stick to the review itself and not the retelling of the inner notes of the publisher. This is McCarthy's first true crime noir thriller and what a thrill it is. The story though simple in plot is never dull and the characters as usual for McCarthy find themselves over their head very quickly (with the exception of Chigurh). Only sheriff Bell (a.k.a. Lord Jim) seems to realize this, but even he cannot alter the path life has set for himself. The dialog that has made McCarthy famous is as strong as ever, and as sparse. The writing is sparse and one notices immediately that the author has purposely left out much of the atmospheric narrative that is found is all of his earlier novels. Chigurh is by far one of the strongest and most interesting characters McCarthy has ever created. And as usual the one we learn least about. But all the reader need know of this guy is found in the first chapter.

This is a quick read. Fans of McCarthy will notice that the narrative diction is well pruned and reminiscent of Hemingway in comparison to his earlier works, so you can leave the dictionary on the shelf.

Finally, The New Yorker and the New York Times took this opportunity to trash not only No Country for Old Men, but McCarthy's overall canon. One complaint they had was that he is too violent, too theatrical, too melodramatic, and there aren't enough well-developed female characters. Not just in this novel but all of his novels. I wonder if they are at all familiar with the reality of the eras and the environments that McCarthy writes about. McCarthy has demythified the old west. And it is well over due. I also read where these two publishers enjoyed Harry Potter. Well. I suppose a balanced novel of character genders is more important than structured plot, narrative, and overall literary value. What do I know. I'm just a simple reader.

This is an extraordinarily complex and nuanced novel masquerading as a shoot 'em up. Like other of McCarthy's stories, the novel is propelled by the reflexively violent nature of men operating outside social constraints. The particular millieu for this story is the drug trade, depicted as an evil force of nature that makes claims on the lives of all the characters. The dynamics of the story lead toward entropy. The central figure is a West Texas sheriff clinging to old concepts of honor, who must confront the facts of a case he cannot solve involving a merciless killer he can neither name nor understand. His inability to do his duty to the people of the county he is sworn to protect amplifies a lifelong sense of inadequacy and duplicity that is revealed through a continuing interior monologue. Without giving away any elements of the captivating and fast-moving plot, the message seems to be inescapably dark: evil is afoot in the world, and we lack the tools and the will to defeat it. Our only small victories come from love and trust and as much selflessness as we can muster.

The writing is extraordinary. McCarthy's style is of course mannered, but his words flow from the page and the voices of his characters are remarkably clear. The book is a delight to anyone who loves the language and loves to see it used well, and the story works on so many levels that it is difficult to imagine anyone -- apart from those who find violence offensive --who will not find something to take away from this novel.

Cormac McCarthy is considered by many to be one of the great living American writers. I, too, think he's good, although probably not as great as some would make him out to be. Certainly, for casual readers, McCarthy can be a bit of a trial as his style is both distinct and not the easiest read (for example, he doesn't use quotation marks; in fact, he hardly uses anything beyond periods and question marks...even commas and apostrophes are rare). For those who want to be introduced to McCarthy, No Country for Old Men is a good place to start. Not only is it simpler to follow, but it's also a really good story.

Towards the beginning of the book, Llewellyn Moss is out hunting in the desert near his home when he stumbles upon some dead bodies, the result of a drug deal gone bad. Avoiding the drugs, Moss does help himself to some of the weapons and, more importantly, a couple million dollars in cash. Early the next morning, he revisits the site which is both bad and good: bad, because others are now there and they start hunting him down; and good, because they would probably have found him anyways and at least he is now aware of them.

Moss sends his wife away for her safety and goes on the run himself. There are many pursuing him. On the side of the law is Sheriff Bell, a late-middle-aged man who is growing disillusioned about his job and finds himself in the middle of a crime spree that's the worst in his career. More significantly, Moss is also being hunted by Anton Chigurh.

To call Chigurh a vicious killer is almost an understatement. Chigurh is a truly nasty person, almost more of a force of nature than a human being. Like a tornado, he leaves only death and destruction in his path, and he seems almost unstoppable. Moss is no lightweight, but Chigurh is on a whole different level.

No Country for Old Men is a modern Western with a lot of violence. For the most part, it is a fast-moving story; the ending, however, is a bit of a letdown. For this reason, I am giving this book four starts, albeit a high four stars. If you like action stories with a more "literary" bent, this is a good choice.

"Yeah, Wendell said. I guess you ought to be careful cussin the dead.
I would say at the least there probably aint no luck in it.
It's just a bunch of Mexican drugrunners.
They were. They aint now.
I aint sure what you're saying.
I'm just saying that whatever they were the only thing they are now is dead.
I'll have to sleep on that."
(No Country For Old Men, Page 73)

Sleep is something in short supply in this violence filled book.

Llewelyn Moss while on a hunt for antelope manages to wound one and is forced to chase it across the West Texas desert country. Instead of finding the antelope dead or dying he finds the results of a drug deal gone bad. To the south of him lie the mountains of Mexico and their stark beauty as well as the surrounding stark beauty of the desert country he walks in as he closes in on three off road vehicles and numerous bodies. He investigates and discovers the dead, the dying, the drugs and a large amount of money. He decides to take the money and run.

Huge mistake.

For Sheriff Ed Tom Bell society at large, as well as the folks that populate his county next to the Rio Grande, have changed so much that he doesn't know what makes sense anymore. Already facing the twilight of his law enforcement career and burdened by what he did in the war, he feels helpless to stop the killing. With Moss on the run and a number of parties looking to get the money as well as the suddenly now missing drugs and not caring who dies in the process, this caring Sheriff seems always two steps behind.

But their paths do cross, as do numerous other paths in this highly atmospheric read. What follows is an engaging and often very violent read as the bodies pile up on a trail that leads into Mexico and back and forth across Southwest and West Texas. While the read does occasionally confuse the reader due to the author's absolute refusal to use quotation marks and his rare use of identifier tags such as "he said," etc., the novel provides a complex study of morality.

Much of this is done through the deeply complex character of Sheriff Bell. Simplifying greatly which does a disservice to the character and the novel, this is a man who knows that he has always done the best he could and yet wonders if he could have done more. He also wonders why so much was sacrificed in war to have society as it stands today. He wonders why the country he fought for has so many folks willing to dope themselves up among other philosophical issues. His conflicted character is in contrast to the killer Chigurh, who along with killing a number of people innocent and guilty alike, offers his own brand of absolute certainty in wisdom regarding himself and the world he inhabits. Somewhere in the middle is the character Llewelyn Moss, who far from perfect, gives in to temptation and sets lose a secondary wave of death and wonders what fate had to do with all of it.

The result is an engrossing story where amidst everything else, a world that makes no sense on one hand and perfect sense on the other is contemplated. Those looking for escapist fun need to look in other places and steer wide of this book. The novel is one of those examples that abound in good literature-a work that makes the reader think.


Kevin R. Tipple © 2005

This book starts out like a thriller, in fact it starts out pretty much like a mass-market thriller, but it doesn't finish that way. If you buy this book for the suspense you may be somewhat disappointed by the direction taken. However, if your taste runs to "deeper meaning" literature that is good to great, then you will enjoy this book from Cormac McCarthy.

The story begins when Llewelyn Moss, while hunting antelope in the desert near his home, discovers a murder scene. Apparently it's a drug deal gone wrong. Moss, basically a good man, warily surveys the carnage, and finds a bag full of millions in cash. With no one around to witness, Moss decides to take the drug money. Bad move. But it is the decision around which this sorrowful tale is told.

McCarthy's writing takes a little getting used to, it is unadorned and he wastes no words, there are no quotes, speakers are seldom identified, commas are rare, as are adjectives for that matter! The writing is simple, but all the more powerful because of it. It is a dark book full of foreboding and dread, good versus evil, where bad decisions are traps offering no way out and are compounded by even worse decisions. No happy ending here either (no surprise to McCarthy followers), so if that's what you're looking for, look elsewhere. It is a raw and brutal account of a world gone wrong, a world that Sheriff Bell (the book is told from Bell's point of view) no longer understands. The exchange between Bell and one of his men sort of sum things up, "It's a mess, aint it Sheriff?' 'If it aint it'll do till a mess gets here."

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN by Cormac McCarthy
December 31, 2007

Rating *** (3 Stars)

I think many others have probably given this book a 5 star rating. The reason for my 3 star rating is this - I had a really hard time following the story line. With hardly any distinctive quotation marks and punctuation, I couldn't tell right away who the narrator was for each chapter until half way through each one. There were no quotation marks, so at first I didn't know where dialog began or ended. I know this is an artistic style of writing, but personally I have a hard time following it.

And my apologies again to all those who raved about this book, because the story was fantastic. What helped me a lot was watching the movie a few days after finishing the book, and it helped put the chapters together for me. As I watched the movie, I saw that the script followed almost to a tee the original book, including a lot of the dialog. This is the type of book that I think one needs to read more than once to really appreciate it. I do recommend the book to those who are true book fans, and who can appreciate a different style of writing.

With all that said, here's a short summary of NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN: Chigurh is a loner, a man that has only one business in mind - killing. Moss is a man that happens to come upon a stash of money in the millions, and while he is perfectly aware that there must be someone out there looking for it, he doesn't immediately know that one of the many who want that money back is Chigurh. Moss also is about to find out how good Chigurh is when it comes to getting what he wants, and getting rid of people who get in his way or detract him from a job well done. There is also the sheriff who knows Moss is on the run, and that Chigurh is on Moss's trail. It's a race against time as the sheriff tries to prevent another killing.

This is one very violent story, and while I said I had a difficult time with the writing style, it is still a very good tale and one that I will not forget for many years to come. One thing that stands out is the highly descriptive writing. One can picture in detail every thing that is happening. I suggest that all who read this book watch the movie as well, because both complement each other. I rarely will watch a movie and read a book that the movie was based on, mainly because it's rare to find a movie turn out as good as the original book. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN is an exception.