No Country for Old Men

I started reading this book about 9:30 this morning. Intended to take an hour, ended up finally finishing it around 12:05.

I feel like crying. I just want to sit for the rest of the day and not do or say or think anything, but just cry a little. It's a feeling like you've been punched in the chest for no good reason except that you believed the world was an okay place but it's really not, and I could say a bunch of self-indulgent pretentious things here, but what good would it do?

I mean, I like reading things that make me feel, but I think I got a bit more than I bargained for here. And it's not like a fullness of feeling, it's like a sheer empty wasteland of feeling. It takes your feels out in the desert and guns them down in cold blood then comes back and kicks you in the teeth for having feels in the first place, how dare you.

I need to go hug some puppies or something. On a side note, the movie was an incredibly good adaptation.

Not sure what else to say. Just kinda feel like I've lost something I didn't even know I had.

The book was originally written as a screenplay, evident in McCarthy's restrained prose allowing for action and story to take center stage. The story itself is basic, stripping down the genre conventions down to its basic tropes and its archetypes (the psychopath after the money, the old cop, and the action survivor) but playing them straight, deconstructing them by taking them to their logical extreme when placed in a real world. It depicts senseless violence and nihilism so bleak and extreme that it becomes a critique of the genre as a whole. No matter what their intentions may be, they cannot escape their fates. Anybody could die, and McCarthy finds a way to balance the macabre as to not make it gratuitous; every death means something upon analyzing the text. There is more nuance to the story than what appears on the surface; every character acts as a symbol commenting on McCarthy's worldview of society.

What really stood out to me was the way that McCarthy wrote: seldom any run-on sentences, with as little as punctuation as he can fit. It does make for slightly confusing reading as when it pertains to dialogue, but it works as for what he is going for: restraint. It imbues a sense of urgency to every sentence, as he starts incredibly late in the story - within pages of introducing Moss, he finds the money that everyone is after; Chigurh immediately is committing murder; Bell, though the slowest, finds the crime almost as soon as the plot happens. It calls for a style that enhances the urgency of the plot, no time should be made to distract with prose or descriptions of scenery. The style of minimalist sentences enhances the suspense, making use of dramatic irony and relying on only bits of information given.

However, my only complaint pertains to something outside the book: the adaptation, in which in my own personal case, I believe does it better. The movie is doggedly faithful to the book, translating seamlessly to the medium without much compromise. But what the Coens excise from the book actually serves it better, less being more. Especially true in the ending, where the book just drags that while the film wraps up as neatly as it could.

In my experience of watching the film first, I couldn't help but compare throughout my reading; I should judge it by its own merits, but my brain is a jerk like that. It only slightly lessened my enjoyment. No Country for Old Men is still a masterpiece nonetheless, brilliant in its subtle critique of the world and being a masterclass in suspense.

When I came into your life your life was over. It had a beginning, a middle, and an end. This is the end. You can say that things could have turned out differently. That they could have been some other way. But what does that mean? They are not some other way. They are this way. You're asking that I second say the world. Do you see?
Yes, she said, sobbing. I do. I truly do.
Good, he said. That's good. Then he shot her.

No country for old men tells the story of a violent cat-and-mouse chase between a Vietnam veteran, a ruthless hitman, and a sheriff in the desolate landscape of West Texas. The novel seems modeled after a modern western, with its themes of justice, morality, and fate, and its sparse and gritty style. The author creates a vivid and realistic atmosphere with his descriptions of the settings and the characters, and his use of dialogue that reflects the Texan accent and dialect. However, this can also make it difficult for non-native readers to follow the story, especially combined with the writing style that often omits punctuation marks and quotation marks.

The plot of the novel explores the consequences of greed, violence, and chance in a changing world. The novel raises questions about the nature of evil, the role of law, and the meaning of life. The characters are complex and conflicted, each with their own motivations and perspectives. The novel also has a surprising and unconventional ending, which fitted the story perfectly I think.

Cormac McCarthy created a bleak harsh world, where chaos and violence are integrated parts of this world and seems to be inevitable.
For now I rate this as 4 stars, but this might change after a reread.

I'm just going to come right out and say it - I enjoyed the movie a lot more. This is, no doubt, partially because the film was such a good adaptation of the story, which is less a heist thriller and more a tale of divine justice gone horribly, horribly wrong. So the only ‘new' thing left to me with the book was the author's writing style, which only served to irritate me with it's faux-hardboiled posturing and overly-liberal interpretations of the rules of punctuation. I suppose cowboys don't need to use apostrophes, but for me it served to take me away from the story.

Honestly I went into this without expectations. Yes, I've seen the movie. I really adore the movie. Finally got around to reading the book, and it does do a better job in telling it's story and making the point that Cormac was going for. The writing does flow well, though I did not enjoy the scenes with and between almost every word, but that's alright. Where it does fall short for me a bit is with the drawn out monologues with Bell. He was a fine character of course, very witty and seemingly still figuring it all out which was relatable and endearing in a way. This book is a classic, I will agree with that. Just a little too wordy at times.

SNORE. This book was so disappointing! D: I've never read a “western” style book and this wasn't exactly a good introduction to the genre. The whole time I was reading it I was thinking “show, don't tell!” The majority of the book was written like “he did this, and then he did this and then this happened”. That kind of writing is so dull and does not hold my attention AT ALL. I like books that go into the characters' minds at least a little bit but this book was mostly action-based. It made the characters seem flat to me. The only thing I sort of liked was that the author played with formatting. The book was in third AND first person and he also utilized dialects pretty well. The no-quotation mark thing was a little questionable though. Sometimes I had a hard time keeping up with conversations and forgot who was talking. I thought I would like that the book was partially about a serial killer because serial killers are fascinating (Devil in the White City anyone?) but NOPE. I found him pretty boring and he didn't have much dialogue or many “scenes” that stood out to me. I can already tell that I will like the movie better than the book because the book was written like a movie! At least the movie will probably have some interesting visuals and good acting.

Full review is at http://bookwi.se/no-country-for-old-men-by-cormac-mccarthy/

Short review: I have seen the movie before, but the audiobook is much better than what I thought it would be. I listened to it free from Overdrive and the voices were amazing. They perfectly matched the characters (this was done before the movie.)

This is not an easy book to listen to, there is clear violence and the descriptions are detailed. There is also a lot of time jumping without much preparation. So you don't really know you are in a different time or character, until there is enough detail to tell you. If you were reading there might be a chapter marking or something that tells you, but in the audiobook there is nothing. Other than those minor flaws this is an excellent book.

Once and again McCarthy delivers a masterpiece where hopelessness and emptiness reign. I am still impressed. Some characters political remarks throughout the book made me unsure about what to think/feel, some made me feel uncomfortable and at the same time question their need on the book. But later it felt right, it contributed to the feeling of hopelessness. Also, while researching about the author I found that he was never clear about his political beliefs and on his works they always depended on the point of view of the reader, turning his works even more interesting.

In questo libro probabilmente si muove uno dei personaggi più cattivi della letteratura moderna.

I personaggi sono tre, impegnati in una corsa senza tregua alcuna, che lascia incollati alle pagine. Moss è l'uomo qualunque, che si trova suo malgrado ad affrontare qualcosa di più grande di lui; lo sceriffo Bell, uomo che ancora crede alla giustizia ma che si rende conto che il mondo è cambiato e lui è rimasto troppo ancorato a quello che adesso non c'è più, e adesso i cattivi, oltre a essere cattivi sono anche crudeli e di una spietatezza sconosciuta. Infine Chigurh, il killer psicopatico, quello che secondo me è il personaggio più riuscito, dotato di una sua morale che va della mera brutalità.

Un killer spietato ma con una sua “morale” ben definita. Un personaggio nero, violento allo stato puro, che uccide senza pietà ma offre la possibilità di salvarsi lasciando il caso ad una monetina, ma non a tutti viene offerta questa possibilità, solo a chi forse merita di vivere secondo la sua logica impazzita. Un uomo che non ha nemici, semplicemente perchè come da lui citato “non permetto che esistano”. Si muove in un ambiente duro e crudo, siamo nel Texas al confine con il Messico, vaste pianure di terra brulla spaccata dal sole contornato da trafficanti di droga, uno sceriffo che sembra sospeso da questa realtà che non gli appartiene più e un uomo che decide “di fare una cazzata, ma la farò lo stesso”.

La prosa di McCarthy non è certo facile da seguire: veloce, dura e senza respiro ma densa di immagini evocative. Il libro è scritto con una prosa scarna e immediata, senza orpelli ne fronzoli. Un'opera che ti prende e ti butta a forza dentro questo mondo impazzito, dove non c'è speranza di sfuggire al proprio destino, dove ti aspetta un uomo con una monetina che volteggia in aria e ti dice di scegliere...

I set down to read this book never reading McCarthy before. Never once. His writing style was right hard. But once I got used to it it made sense you know. The punctuation and grammar don't bother me like they used to. No sir. A real thriller. Both in its scary unstoppable villain and in its vision of where we are headed. I liked it a lot.

Age range: 16+
Too scary, too violent, and too confusing for younger readers.