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A review by hernamewaslily
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
4.0
Having read and thoroughly enjoyed ‘Blood Meridian’ earlier this year — my first McCarthy - I decided that I would embark on reading the whole of his catalogue and the second instalment just so happened to be ‘No Country for Old Men.’ Both are arguably about the same topic — the decline of the American west — but they are rendered in contrasting ways: ‘Blood Meridian’ is a brutal, slow-placed, and meditative picaresque whilst ‘No Country for Old Men’ is a page-turning, pulpy, action-thriller — and both are equally as impressive.
In ‘No Country for Old Men,’ a hunter named Llewellyn Moss discovers a pickup truck surrounded by dead men, a package of heroin, and a briefcase full of cash. Moss grabs the cash, which would see him set for life, but little does he know that the psychotic Anton Chigurh - one of the most menacing characters in American literature — is following his every move, armed with a cattle stun gun. What follows is an intense and violent game of cat-and-mouse where Moss becomes the prey. Interspersed within this central narrative are passages by the town’s sheriff, Ed Tom Bell, who is haunted by his experiences of World War 2. These passages act as a meditation on the morality of violence and the senselessness of it all.
This novel enthralled me — it’s no wonder it was adapted into film as it is incredibly entertaining. It is dark and violent and gritty and masculine; which is exactly why I was drawn to McCarthy’s work in the first place. A good place to start for those wanting to dip their toe into the murky, blood-stained waters of McCarthy’s oeuvre.
In ‘No Country for Old Men,’ a hunter named Llewellyn Moss discovers a pickup truck surrounded by dead men, a package of heroin, and a briefcase full of cash. Moss grabs the cash, which would see him set for life, but little does he know that the psychotic Anton Chigurh - one of the most menacing characters in American literature — is following his every move, armed with a cattle stun gun. What follows is an intense and violent game of cat-and-mouse where Moss becomes the prey. Interspersed within this central narrative are passages by the town’s sheriff, Ed Tom Bell, who is haunted by his experiences of World War 2. These passages act as a meditation on the morality of violence and the senselessness of it all.
This novel enthralled me — it’s no wonder it was adapted into film as it is incredibly entertaining. It is dark and violent and gritty and masculine; which is exactly why I was drawn to McCarthy’s work in the first place. A good place to start for those wanting to dip their toe into the murky, blood-stained waters of McCarthy’s oeuvre.