No Country for Old Men (Vintage International)

Started off like a house afire, but petered out at the end. Perhaps I was just hoping for poetic justice, but the virtual deification of Chigurh left me with a bad taste in my mouth. So, a bit of sour grapes on my part, but other than that I really loved the book. McCarthy has captured me both with this book and "The Road." Tons of violence here but allow yourself to use it as fodder for...more

Started off like a house afire, but petered out at the end. Perhaps I was just hoping for poetic justice, but the virtual deification of Chigurh left me with a bad taste in my mouth. So, a bit of sour grapes on my part, but other than that I really loved the book. McCarthy has captured me both with this book and "The Road." Tons of violence here but allow yourself to use it as fodder for thought, and those thoughts can be very worthwhile. Though Bell's musings are never quite fleshed out it allows the reader to exercise mental judgment and take Bell's comments to a logical conclusion for the reader. McCarthy does a tremendous job of allowing the reader to use the book only as a story or to choose to make the book's themes the objects of deeper pondering. Extremely worthwhile from that perspective, but as a story it really lost steam over the last 30 - 50 pages.   hide

First there was a book. Didn't really even have a glimpse in mind of Javier Bardem.

This will have to suffice for my love of all McCarthys' books. I've read it more times than any of the others, at any rate. As always the author manages to craft a masterful sense of frailty in the toughest of characters, and a thrilling toughness in the unlikeliest of protagonists. The details are gory, the plot unflinching without needing to dwell on the conventional flashy elements of the...more

This will have to suffice for my love of all McCarthys' books. I've read it more times than any of the others, at any rate. As always the author manages to craft a masterful sense of frailty in the toughest of characters, and a thrilling toughness in the unlikeliest of protagonists. The details are gory, the plot unflinching without needing to dwell on the conventional flashy elements of the story. Like a David Lynch movie, the devil is in the details with McCarthy; Chigurh and Moss's various exchanges with retail employees throughout the novel are as alternately chilling, hilarious and heartwarming as any more laborious characterization by a lesser writer.   hide

Extract from an e-mail I wrote to a film-maker friend of mine - "Okay so just finished the book and I gotta say it was great. I think Tommy Lee Jones failed to fully convey the gravitas and tragedy of his character. Javier Bardem was spot on. Josh Brolin was okay. Also I feel that the movie was dark in a very self-conscious Hollywood way. Its almost like "Ooh look at me, I'm so dark...more

Extract from an e-mail I wrote to a film-maker friend of mine - "Okay so just finished the book and I gotta say it was great. I think Tommy Lee Jones failed to fully convey the gravitas and tragedy of his character. Javier Bardem was spot on. Josh Brolin was okay. Also I feel that the movie was dark in a very self-conscious Hollywood way. Its almost like "Ooh look at me, I'm so dark and sad." The beauty of the tragedy in the book is how it unravels itself as a natural course and thereby delivers a stinging criticism of humankind. I frankly hated the pessimism of it all but I understand it when I look at it through the eyes of Sheriff Bell." A bleak picture of humankind. The author achieves maximum effect with simple brushstrokes. A bit slow at the start at towards the end but the pace is quite superb. Much better than the movie I thought.   hide

Cormac McCarthy's "No Country for Old Men" is a tale on many levels. On the literal level, it is a simple plot of a man who finds $2.4 million in cash after a drug-deal gone wrong and his race to hide from the man trying to get the money from him (Anton Chigurgh). A splendid cat-and-mouse game, the novel progresses with each stop that Moss makes on his journey to get further away...more

Cormac McCarthy's "No Country for Old Men" is a tale on many levels. On the literal level, it is a simple plot of a man who finds $2.4 million in cash after a drug-deal gone wrong and his race to hide from the man trying to get the money from him (Anton Chigurgh). A splendid cat-and-mouse game, the novel progresses with each stop that Moss makes on his journey to get further away from Anton. Stuck in the middle is Sheriff Thom Bell. The sheriff, who is an "old-timer", is new to this string of violence that he is investigating. Disguised as almost as a Western/crime/thriller novel, "No Country for Old Men" tells the story of a man becoming aware of the changes in society and realizing that maybe he isn't fit for what's up ahead. I believe this book is perfect for when it was written, as we are now at a turning point in our society and the problems that we face now and will face up ahead are going to need to be solved by those who are willing to accept new ideas and make compromises. This society certainly has become a country not fit for old men. (There is a poem by William Butler Years called "Sailing to Byzantium" and the first line is "That is no country for old men..." although I'm about 75% sure this is where McCarthy got the title of the book from, I'd like for someone to confirm it for me.) "No Country for Old Men", in my opinion, will go down as a book that will be remembered as a staple of our society's changing face.   hide

The astonishing thing about this masterwork is how everyone in it...the lawman, the tempted screw-up, the secondary characters, and the angel of death himself...they all live with a sense of absolute integrity. And it does not a one of them a lick of good, as Sheriff Bell might say. If you've ever taken up the idea of wanting to write, this might scar you for life. It's that good. ...more

The astonishing thing about this masterwork is how everyone in it...the lawman, the tempted screw-up, the secondary characters, and the angel of death himself...they all live with a sense of absolute integrity. And it does not a one of them a lick of good, as Sheriff Bell might say. If you've ever taken up the idea of wanting to write, this might scar you for life. It's that good. It will also make you want to go to Texas, just in the hope to soak up a dollop of the plainspoken wisdom of the desert down there.   hide

This was an amazing piece of gritty fiction. Before reading No Country For Old Men I had never read anything by Cormac McCarthy. What an amazing author! I only picked up this book because I wanted to read about outlaws etc. This book delivered on SO many fronts. T...his character, Anton Chigurh is probably the coldest, non-feeling, scariest characters I've ever read. There were moments in this...more

This was an amazing piece of gritty fiction. Before reading No Country For Old Men I had never read anything by Cormac McCarthy. What an amazing author! I only picked up this book because I wanted to read about outlaws etc. This book delivered on SO many fronts. T...his character, Anton Chigurh is probably the coldest, non-feeling, scariest characters I've ever read. There were moments in this book where I didn't want to read anymore because the character made me so uncomfortable. As a writer, to pull off a character like that... it was brilliantly done! I just wanted the SOB DEAD! LOL. I will definitely be reading more Cormac McCarthy! He is also an interesting author because he doesn't use quotes in dialogue.   hide

Yeah, so overall this was a good one, but the author's writing style is something... new to me. Reading with some missing punctuation is a little hard to get used to, and provides some confusion. Especially when he doesn't identify the "he" right away, so sometimes I didn't know what the chapter was about. However, I think it's still worth a read. There's a pretty good story in there if you can...more

Yeah, so overall this was a good one, but the author's writing style is something... new to me. Reading with some missing punctuation is a little hard to get used to, and provides some confusion. Especially when he doesn't identify the "he" right away, so sometimes I didn't know what the chapter was about. However, I think it's still worth a read. There's a pretty good story in there if you can find it.   hide

The writing adage, "Show, don't tell," must have escaped McCarthy and his editors. Several passages were 'this and then he did this, then this, and then this, etc.'. There was so much in some of the sentences that it was easy to get lost. The only plus to this is that I sometimes do this very thing when I write (and I quickly edit myself because it drives me crazy),...more

The writing adage, "Show, don't tell," must have escaped McCarthy and his editors. Several passages were 'this and then he did this, then this, and then this, etc.'. There was so much in some of the sentences that it was easy to get lost. The only plus to this is that I sometimes do this very thing when I write (and I quickly edit myself because it drives me crazy), so maybe it's not as bad as I thought it was since this guy has won several awards. I will definitely re-read it in t...more The writing adage, "Show, don't tell," must have escaped McCarthy and his editors. Several passages were 'this and then he did this, then this, and then this, etc.'. There was so much in some of the sentences that it was easy to get lost. The only plus to this is that I sometimes do this very thing when I write (and I quickly edit myself because it drives me crazy), so maybe it's not as bad as I thought it was since this guy has won several awards. I will definitely re-read it in the near future. I think it's one of those books that you'll get a lot more out of with a second read. Overall, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a thriller and is fascinated by the human condition.   hide