One of few books that I reckon they made a good movie from (although I saw the movie first so maybe it doesn't count). The book is of course still a whole other thing - the weight, the weariness, the poetry of the sheriff's internal life particularly, but also, strangely, the landscape. McCarthy takes you right there in a way that screen visuals can't. ( )

Might be one of my favorite McCarthy novels. It's just so well woven. I really think McCarthy mastered dialogue in his own right. I think so far, it's at its best. Lot of witty characters too. I think I liked the actual book more than the characters if that makes sense. So much better than the movie and I love the movie. ( )

This is a very well-told crime story that I think is well executed in how it doesn't promise or deliver on a traditional happy ending.

It took me until close to halfway through to feel like I was really gripped by this story. I don't entirely know why, but I did get engrossed during the second half. I think that the halfway point is around where the threat to Moss began to feel very tangible.

I think that the violent nature of Chigurh is immediately apparent, but it still took time for me to fully comprehend. His characterization borders on surreal, but I think that ultimately it's one of the things that ties the story together well. Bell's inability to comprehend the modern world is contingent on the plausibility of Chigurh as a character. I agree with sentiments I've seen online that ultimately, it is his decision not to face Chigurh that leads Bell to retire. Chigurh exists outside of the law in a sense - a confrontation with law enforcement has the potential to cause only death, not his arrest. This plays out at the very beginning of the novel.

A central theme of the novel is that while the evolution of violence makes men (Bell) feel out of touch with the world as they age, ultimately violence has been pervasive throughout history. I think that in this way there is a strong connection thematically between this novel and Blood Meridian, both through this central theme and between the characters of Chigurh and Judge Holden. The primary difference is the mortality of Chugurh that is demonstrated by his car crash.

The other element of the book that I enjoyed was the theme of determinism. I understood the first coin flip scene to be significant, but I did not fully comprehend it until Chigurh offered the same coin flip to Carla Jean. I found these scenes to be salient in the context of the discussion that Moss had with the girl: the value of fantasizing about being somewhere else in life is the notion of a disconnect with your current life. That is impossible. ( )

McCarthy has such style, such command of language, such insight into the depravity of men. ( )

I’ve seen the movie a number of times and finally read the book. I didn’t expect the movie to hold up—but the Coen brothers adapted the book fantastically, for the first 2/3rds anyway. Their ending made sense though. McCarthy’s ending was more of a slow fade, which was still really good, I just don’t feel like it would’ve worked with the movie as well. Loved the book. ( )

Bought the FS edition and had a new reason to reread this one. It's hard not to compare and contrast with the movie if you're a fan of that one as well; the editing choices made, what was cut, what was swapped around. The bulk of the story is the same, key scenes almost line for line. But some changes make you wonder, like substituting the hitchhiking teenager for a chance encounter with some woman at a motel, swapping a line declaring his integrity for his wife for a suggestion of impropriety - but on the other hand aging up his 19 year old sweetheart for the movie. Chigurh talks more and you get a few looks inside his mind in the book, which makes him less enigmatic than in the movie. Though a longer explanation of his chance driven ethos does little to dull his alien nature. The conversation of him being purely a force of nature is cut short in the book and the movie by his own chance encounter with mortality. Loose ends are wrapped up in the book that might not need tying up, as to what Chigurh ultimately does, the money, and what becomes of the mexican after the shootout.
Really the big change is how much time is given to Bell to philosophize about his views on how times have changed, and reflecting on his own views of meaning and chance, of his past and losing the battle that never was between him and Chigurh.
As always in McCarthy there's some shadow of a discussion about God lurking in the background, and a little ember of hope, in this book through the fire lit by Bell's father in his dream. In The Road, the fire that's carried by the boy and his father. A dim light in the big darkness of the universe, something to hold against the incomprehensibleness of evil. ( )

Review to follow ( )

Well, I've finished it... and my experience was a bit of a mixed bag. The writing style is distinctive—short, choppy sentences that really fit the gritty vibe of the story. This approach creates a tense atmosphere that draws you in, but I found myself confused quite a bit along the way.

The plot revolves around Llewelyn Moss, who stumbles upon a suitcase full of cash after a drug deal goes wrong. It sounds exciting, but I kept thinking maybe I should've just watched the movie instead. While I appreciate McCarthy's unique style, I’m starting to think this genre might not be my thing.

Overall, I enjoyed the writing and its alignment with the story's themes, but it didn’t completely resonate with me. So, I’m giving it 3 out of 5 stars—a solid read, but not one that left a lasting impression! ( )

When Llewelyn Moss comes across the site of a drug deal gone bad, he takes a gun and a case of money and leaves.

This novel tells the story of what happens next--the different mean looking to recover the money, the sheriff, his wife, the men hiring the men chasing him, his wife, her mother, the motels, the cafes, the innocent bystanders who pass by these situations.

McCarthy's spare writing and somewhat confusing dialogue (it is very easy to lose track of who is speaking), the extreme cartel-related violence in the midst of everyday small towns and people going about honest lives and jobs is masterful. ( )

Just Call It, Friendo
Review of the Vintage eBook edition (orig. November 29, 2007, but updated as of late 2022*) of the Alfred A. Knopf hardcover original (July 19, 2005).

The man looked at Chigurh’s eyes for the first time. Blue as lapis. At once glistening and totally opaque. Like wet stones.
You need to call it, Chigurh said. I cant call it for you. It wouldnt be fair. It wouldnt even be right. Just call it.
I didnt put nothin up.
Yes you did. You’ve been putting it up your whole life. You just didnt know it. You know what the date is on this coin?
No.
It’s nineteen fifty-eight. It’s been traveling twenty-two years to get here. And now it’s here. And I’m here. And I’ve got my hand over it. And it’s either heads or tails. And you have to say. Call it.
I dont know what it is I stand to win.
In the blue light the man’s face was beaded thinly with sweat. He licked his upper lip.
You stand to win everything, Chigurh said. Everything.

I read most of my Cormac McCarthys back in my pre-GR and pre-reviewing days, so when No Country for Old Men popped up as a Kindle Deal of the Day recently I couldn't resist a revisit to highlight some favourite passages and compare it to the more recent viewings of the film that I've also enjoyed.

This ne0-Western saga was as chilling and relentless as ever. Set in 1970, Vietnam War vet Llewelyn Moss makes a bad decision in scooping up a satchel of $2.4 Million in narco-dollars when he comes upon a deal-gone-bad with no survivors in the Texas desert. Both the American and Mexican sides of the cartel send hitmen, bounty hunters and sicarios on the trail of the money which is handily tagged with a location transponder. Among the hunters is the psychopath Anton Chigurh who lives by a code of his own which only allows for the occasional mercy via a coin toss.

See poster at https://is5-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Video113/v4/ba/05/26/ba05263f-6dbb-c7f7...
Promotional poster for the 2007 film adaptation of "No Country for Old Men".

Musing about the downward path of civilization and the amoral world that surrounds him, we listen in on the stream of consciousness asides of Sheriff Ed Tom Bell who tries to save Moss from the fate that awaits him with little chance of success.

Re-reading the book I was reminded of how faithfully the Coen brothers screenplay followed the text, even though they dropped several peripheral characters and scenes. The time jumps and unresolved issues were all there in the book as well and left many of us somewhat lost at our first screenings when the conventional Hollywood 'happy ending' was not provided. Hitman Anton Chigurh was yet another of McCarthy's evocations of immortal evil, even if not quite on the level of Judge Holden in Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West (1985).

Footnote
* The 2022 updated eBook editions include an excerpt from Cormac McCarthy's The Passenger (2022).

Trivia and Links
No Country for Old Men was adapted for film and directed by Joel & Ethan Coen in 2007. It won Academy Awards for the Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh) and Best Adapted Screenplay. You can watch a trailer for the film on YouTube here. ( )

After seeing the movie I wanted to read the book. I must say the movie followed the book very well and very close. There were some questions about what happened to some of the people, and the book answered them. It was also a quick read - I finished it in 3 days of commuting to work on the train. I'd recommend it. ( )

L'ho trovato piuttosto "faticoso" da leggere, molto cupo, forse per me non era il libro adatto in questo momento, ma mi ha lasciato perplessa. Non è proprio un due stelline ma neanche tre... Per buona parte del libro si vive una specie di film d'azione che personalmente non andrei a vedere al cinema, poi migliora per fortuna, ma nel complesso noiosetto.

This is a book which is better than the movie. Anton Chigurh is the embodiment of evil, "a true and living prophet of destruction." His reign of terror changes the life of a dedicated sheriff forever.
The story is told in direct, uncomplicated language,which made the violence even more horrific for the reader. Chigurh is a cold-blooded killer and his acts are described as such.
The book also has a much better ending than the movie. ( )

This is my favorite book and arguably the most important fiction of our generation. ( )

Cormac McCarthy often uses simple, clear and short language, but the reader feels the mountains of weight behind each sentence. Everything is so meticulous and unique, only giving you glimpses of possible meaning. This book has great writing on the disaffection felt by any generation upon reaching old age and the incomprehensible nature of senseless violence that is a common theme for him. ( )

For many, The Road is their first experience with Cormac McCarthy. For me, it was No Country for Old Men. That final passage has always stuck with me, but reading it now, at 30, gives it an entirely new meaning. Or maybe I just appreciate it more now than I ever could have at sixteen. ( )

Commanding and accessible, No Country for Old Men is a bleak chronicle of murder, revenge and implacable fate. What Cormac McCarthy did for the Western, here he has done for the crime novel. Cormac has some nasty fun here and writes like a someone who is set afire with the ghost of Faulkner whispering in his ear.

No Country for Old Men is, in many ways, a straightforward crime drama. It follows a man who stumbles onto a drug deal gone bad and tries to get away with a case full of money as a hitman and a sheriff both pursue him...leading to disastrous consequences.

This book is built around the premise that any one of us can think we are making a good decision only to later find out the depths of how bad that decision actually was. Llewelyn Moss chose to take a suitcase full of money from a drug deal gone bad, thinking he would never get caught…and it all goes downhill from there. It's also a brutal meditation on the nature of fate. story is very cinematic, a slow and complex chase with three grades of characters: good (the sheriff), bad (Chirgurh and assorted drug traders), mixed (Moss, a loving husband and veteran who did take the money). And the Sheriff, it would seem, is in over his head - in new territory.

McCarthy writes a hard, cold, mean prose almost devoid of heroes, even the Sherriff can't save the day.

Riveting, commanding, and brutal, No Country for Old Men is a crime novel of Texas noir that you will not be able to put down until the very last line.


( )

4.25


No Country For Old Men is a solid, pensive thriller. The dialogue is great, and the prose is economical but poignant. I probably would have given this a slightly higher rating if it weren't for two things:


A. Punctuation (or lack thereof). The absence of speech marks for dialogue will throw many off. I found it pretty frustrating, though I did get used to it. By the end of the book it felt much more natural to read that way, but there were still times where I had to double-take/re-read, and I feel like the author's intent to "declutter" the prose introduces about as many problems as it solves.

It's kinda like when someone decides to clean your house for you and make it all nice and tidy. And you agree... it is nice and tidy - but now you don't know where a damn thing is.


B. The end is indulgent. The last quarter or so of the book drags and feels unnecessary. The main narrative is over by this point, and so 60 pages of epilogue tested my patience.


Otherwise, it's very good. I've seen the film, but I'd forgotten about how anti-climactic (in a good way) the ending is (the ending before the ending). It's shocking and bleak and fits the thematic of the novel very well.

All in all, (mostly) good stuff. ( )

Un Saturno che vorrebbe essere un Terra. Santa Saint Morand... ( )

Che dire...è un capolavoro!!!
L'ultima parte andrebbe letta ogni anno scolastico in tutte le scuole superiori. Le ultime riflessioni andrebbero inserite in tutti i testi scolastici, compresi quelli di matematica e di biologia.
L'immagine del tipo che scava con lo scalpello l'abbeveratoio nella roccia non può ricevere accoglienza nella nostra società. Credo sia una delle cose piú belle che abbia letto in assoluto.
Val la pena di imparare l'inglese anche solo per leggere le due paginette finali in lingua originale.

La totale e disperata tragicità di tutta la storia è davvero abissale.
Ho letto su internet paragoni con Shakespeare e i Greci ma secondo me qui siamo un passo avanti. Qui la disperazione è ancora piú onnicomprensiva e radicale almeno in due direzioni.
Sia in Shakespeare che nei Greci (per quel pochissimo che ne so) i protagonisti delle tragedie sono personaggi importanti (re, principi, principesse, figli, cugini, nipoti di dei e dee) che subiscono una sorte sventurata di cui viene a conoscenza tutto il mondo civilizzato. Da qui l'esemplarità e l'universalità delle vicende narrate.
Qui, invece, i personaggi sono gente comune. Persone che vivono con mezzi di fortuna, poliziotti con moglie a carico, gestori assonnati di motel incastonati in mezzo ai deserti del centro america, trafficanti di droga qualsiasi e killer ignoti ai piú. Nel bene e nel male, tutti signor nessuno. Nessuno saprà mai di loro, nessuno vedrà le loro lacrime, i loro sputi nella sabbia, il sangue secco delle loro ferite mentre la loro vita si svolge lungo i nastri grigi delle statali. Nessuno li chiamerà eroi o assassini.
È forse questa la tragedia piú grande a cui vanno incontro tutti i personaggi, è questo che piange Carla Jean seduta sul letto a fianco al suo sicario. Non la fama o la notorietà. Ma l'inutilità di un sacrificio che rimarrà sepolto per sempre.

Quando è ormai vecchio e cieco Edipo chiede che la sua storia venga raccontata, che diventi e rimanga cosa viva la sua esistenza proprio quando il suo corpo sta diventando cosa morta. I personaggi di McCarthy questo lusso non se lo possono permettere. Nascono nessuno. Vivono forse momenti di speranza, di gioia, di oscura felicità e poi giú anzitempo nel niente. Senza che nessuno ne sappia nulla. Anzi peggio. Perché il loro ricordo rimane legato al chiacchericcio pettegolo dei trafiletti di cronaca del giornale locale. Per uno o due giorni. La storia di una vita bruciata in un paio di articoli scandalistici e morbosi. Neanche il silenzio spetta a chi non ha niente.

In secondo luogo la normalità dei protagonisti rende la storia virtualmente moltiplicabile e riproducibile su scala planetaria. Edipo, Amleto, Macbeth, Oreste erano tutti personaggi unici, eccezionali. Quanti Moss e Carla Jean ci sono invece in giro per il mondo? Centinaia di migliaia, milioni? E quanti Chigurh? Sempre di piú, pensa lo sceriffo Bell, che si vede ormai esemplare di una razza in via di estinzione. Questo fa rimbombare in modo intollerabile quei colpi di pistola e di fucile ben al di là della conche assolate del Texas, in cerchi concentrici sempre piú ampi, oltre l'orizzonte.

Irrinunciabili le elementari verità che Bell riferisce alla giovane giornalista: "Le cose cominciano ad andare male quando i giovani smettono di dire 'Per favore' e 'Grazie'" e poi "I trafficanti di droga ci sono perché ci sono i drogati" il che equivale ad una dichiarazione di guerra contro tutte le dipendenze della modernità, non solo quelle scontate (alcol, fumo, sesso, soldi, potere, fama, egoismo, ecc.) ma anche quelle meno plateali (libertarismo, autoaffermazione, esibizionismo, ecc.).

Sono contento di aver letto il libro prima di aver visto il film.
Qui in occidente credo che solo i Coen o Eastwood potevano avere il coraggio di trarre un film da una storia del genere.

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Seconda lettura.
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Terza lettura.
Precedente: [b:L'uomo flessibile: Le conseguenze del nuovo capitalismo sulla vita personale|9695209|L'uomo flessibile Le conseguenze del nuovo capitalismo sulla vita personale|Richard Sennett|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1455692616l/9695209._SY75_.jpg|87469]
Successivo: [b:La casa per bambini speciali di Miss Peregrine|25150558|La casa per bambini speciali di Miss Peregrine|Ransom Riggs|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1465327104l/25150558._SY75_.jpg|14345371] ( )

Took me a while to finish this book. It was OK, and some parts were damned good, but I think I'm done with McCarthy at least for a while. I don't have a lot to say about this book. It left me feeling kind of blah.

Edit - a couple of days later...

The books has grown on me. It is still a downer, but I have to say that it is both an easy read and a fascinating one. Lots of scene changes, with no warning, but still very clear who you a dealing with. Like Blood Meridian, I think this book will require a 2nd reading to properly grasp it's heavyosity. ( )

Definitely 3.5, with the only thing holding it back from being higher is the style in which it’s written. Otherwise, who doesn’t enjoy an old timey western shoot ‘em up with a psychopathic killer, bounty hunters, drug deals and more gun battles than you can shake a stick at. I definitely did. ( )

No Country for Old Men focuses on a drug deal gone wrong and features three main protagonists: a sheriff (Bell), a man on the run with a boatload of drug money (Moss), and a psychopath who is attempting to recover the money (Chigurh).

The book features some of the things that made me love The Road so much. The prose is very tight and actually ratchets up the tension in a plot that is already filled with tension. I really like McCarthy's writing style in general although I am knocking off a star because I found myself a little confused about who was doing what at a couple of points. There's a lot going on. Sometimes a few more words are actually needed.

If you are averse to books having uplifting messages or sugarcoating real life issues, no fear of that here. This book is unapologetically dark . . .plot, characters, theme . . .all of it. We all know I love a good dark book. It's also very violent.

To me, the pace slowed somewhat as the Sheriff becomes more introspective about his life and his failure to really make much of a difference in the world. I think this was meant to be more emotionally moving than it actually was.

Other scenes in the book struck me as really strong, especially the ones between Moss and the young hitchhiker he picks up. I liked McCarthy's use of dialogue, and actually almost all my favorite parts of this book involved dialogue.



( )

CW: Extreme violence ( )

Took me a while to get through (one I read for class), and I'm a speed reader. The lack of dialogue quotes made it a bit confusing to know who was talking and when at times making me have to backtrack to learn who was speaking, but as for the characters, it's a very basic analysis of Good, Bad, and the everyman in-between.

Great book. ( )