Name: No Country for Old Men
Rating: 4.145238095238096 (210 reviews)
ISBN: 0375435042

Cormac McCarthy

No Country for Old Men

Tim Pendry

This is a great book on two levels - style and content. You have to enter into the laconic vernacular of the border country and see how McCarthy uses it to show how a few words in the right context can get you deeper into the emotions (or lack of them) of the main protagonists than long-winded description of feelings. He manages the rare feat of showing how a basic decency, a sentimental decency, triumphs morally over cunning and intellect. He reminds us that 'sentiment', that is feeling one's values as givens without too much analysis, is not to be despised by those whose default mode is knowing irony. There is nothing post-modern about this book. As for the content, this is a deeply political book without once mentioning politics, as most readers would understand it. It implies not so much the regret for lost values that other reviewers have noted and which may be obvious in the text (but which it is arguable provided a mere interlude of integrity between the normal condition of self-centred violence in the American West) but a gentle questioning of patriotism when your country has drifted far away from your own ideals and understanding, when you don't know what you are fighting for (and putting ourself at risk for) any more, when it asks too much and gives so little in return. The American working man's experiences in America's wars overseas is a running theme 'sotto voce', underpinning the account of one incident in what is really a civil war in all but name, one in which government agents and drug runners seem to be fighting over who actually represents the will of the American people. The Sheriff seems to sense that urban America has chosen the other side to his by providing markets for the 'criminals'. The killer Chigurh is almost a parody of the Ayn Rand libertarian in his peculiar a-social determination to 'succeed' on his own terms. He is out of the 'Fountainhead' but with crime rather than architecture and art the model. He should be fascinating but is merely chilling - a half person compared to the much weaker hero. This book might appear to be an elegy for an older America which has been left behind (that is how most would like to interpret it), but this reader detected a darker mood, an implied anger that the betrayal of simpler souls in matters of war and peace starts to return home at the border between America and the world outside. A cold hell (represented by Chigurh) has seeped into the homeland, looking for opportunity. Of course, nothing is made quite that clear - but that is what happens in great art, and this is great art.

Stumbling upon a bloody massacre, a cache of heroin, and more than two million in cash during a hunting trip, Llewelyn Moss removes the money, a decision that draws him and his young wife into the middle of a violent confrontation.

My Tesla OCD flared when I saw this was leaving the Audible+. (TOCDA+)

I really miss movies. Teenage me would be proud I've read this. It's men with their destroying and unable to anything else. 

martian1138

My Tesla OCD flared when I saw this was leaving the Audible+. (TOCDA+)

I really miss movies. Teenage me would be proud I've read this. It's men with their destroying and unable to anything else. 

Kein Land für alte Männer

My first Western and i quite enjoyed following the different perspectives throughout it. i thought the pacing was great until the climax, but i felt the last few chapters were drawn out despite liking liking where it ended. chigurh is an incredible antagonist and it was tough to find who to root for between moss and bell as the story unfolds. this is a great book, but i don’t think McCarthy’s style of writing is really for me. 

james cao

Adapted by the Coen Brothers into an Academy Award winning film, No Country For Old Men is a dark and suspenseful novel from Cormac McCarthy, author of The Road. Llewelyn Moss, hunting antelope near the Rio Grande, stumbles upon a transaction gone horribly wrong. Finding bullet-ridden bodies, several kilos of heroin, and a caseload of cash, he faces a choice – leave the scene as he found it, or cut the money and run. Choosing the latter, he knows, will change everything. And so begins a terrifying chain of events, in which each participant seems determined to answer the question that one asks another: how does a man decide in what order to abandon his life?

such a stunning depiction of man and mortality the maze of ‘merican masculinity 

Truman M Halladay

No country for old men

Patrick Book

Elena Voytilla

** spoiler alert **
           I actually ended up abandoning this particular book not because I didn't love it but because I needed to return it to the owner. If i get the opportunity to pick up this book again I would but for right now it is on the back burner. I love the movie and was curious to see how the books compares. The books are always better in my opinion.

Tobias V. Langhoff

After reading the Border trilogy by McCarthy, it was actually kind of refreshing to read a book with a fairly traditional plot structure. Like McCarthy’s other books, it’s violent and unrelenting, although it’s more pulpy than his other work, and more straight-forward. It has, after all, been adapted for film, although it’s not alone in that regard; I had not watched the movie before reading the book, but have since done so, and it was very true to the book.

The book takes place in the 80’s, and its title refers to how the United States has become an unrecognizable country of blind violence after the Vietnam war and the disintegration of early-to-mid 20th century morals, told from the perspective of an aging Texan sheriff (who clearly has not read up on the tales of his countrymen in Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West) who tries to make sense of a trail of drug cartel-related murders in his town. Caught up in the mess is Llewelyn Moss, a good-natured everyman who happens upon and escapes with a satchel full of money after a failed drug trade. He is resourceful and intelligent, but makes a few questionable choices, and is pursued and outmatched by the second greatest psychopath killer McCarthy has written, Anton Chigurh, played masterfully by Javier Bardem in the film, and of course second only to The Judge of the aforementioned Blood Meridian; both men are evil incarnate, with interesting philosophical views on the world.

It was legitimately exciting and exhilarating to follow the game of cat and mouse unfold, Moss pursued by both Mexican cartel members and Chigurh, and the sheriff always one step behind. Stalking motel rooms, shootouts in the street, close escapes and near escapes, and always Chigurh’s slow, methodical and determined approach, not rushing, knowing he will get what he wants in the end.

Listening to the audiobook was my first encounter with the narration of Tom Stechschulte, and it was great. Stechschulte (who also narrated The Road, which I read but did not listen to) fits McCarthy perfectly, and his range and Southern drawl had subtle differences between the characters.

Jackie Lu

** spoiler alert **
           bits of the book can be a bit confusing to read but overall I love the action and I love the ending

Llewelyn Moss is hunting antelope near the Texas/Mexico border when he stumbles upon several dead men, a big stash of heroin, and more than two million dollars in cash. He takes off with the money -- and the hunter becomes the hunted. A drug cartel hires a former Special Forces agent to track down the loot, and a ruthless killer joins the chase as well. Also looking for Moss is the aging Sheriff Bell, a World War II veteran who may be Moss' only hope for survival.

Shannon Smith 

No Country For Old Men was an amazing read. McCarthy's sparse use of punctuation was off-putting to me upon flipping through his books originally. Now after having read this and The Road it is his minimalist style that has pulled me in and made me a diehard fan. I consider his work to be the modern equivalent of epic poetry. He said in his interview with Oprah that he does not plot out a story. Instead he dictates from his unconscious. This accounts for the many readers who feel unfulfilled with the lack of a typical bad guy brought to justice ending. It also explains why his writing seems to resinate in such a personal way with so many people. He is speaking to us through a collective psyche that stems to the dawn of human existence.

A fav movie of mine. Had to read the book eventually. It reads like a script and is as suspenseful and reflective as I thought it would be. 

I had seen the movie, yet the book was a real page-turner that I read in just a few days. McCarthy proves that he is a masterful writer, using simple, direct language to create a complex picture.

Lucas Dietrich

Michael Springer

There are some cliche things that reviewers like to say about exciting stuff: riveting. A tour-de-force. The next Twilight. I could say all of that about No Country For Old Men (barring the Twilight thing), but I won't. 

What I'll say instead is that I breezed through this 300-page novel in about a day and a half. As with all of Cormac McCarthy's books, the writing is very good and the characters are engaging. Even though I had already seen the movie, I really really wanted to know what was going to happen. 

If you haven't read anything by Cormac McCarthy, do so. "All the Pretty Horses" would be a good one to start with, although it is an uncharacteristic book for him. "No Country For Old Men" would also be a good starting place, even though it might be his only book set in the present day. 

A big theme that runs through his work is man's struggle against his own inherent evil. And, when I say "man," I do mean "man": McCarthy's works contain women, but male characters seem to be the primary driving force of evil. 

In No Country For Old Men, Llewelyn Moss is in the desert hunting antilope and stumbles across the scene of a drug deal gone awry. Bodies are everywhere. He finds a suitcase full of strapped hundreds that comes out to more than two million. He takes it. He runs.

An elderly sheriff follows his trail, hoping to convince him to turn the money in. 

A mercenary also follows his trail. This mercenary has no enemies because he doesn't leave anyone alive who might become one. 

This book has all the tension of a thriller, but it is more than just a fun ride. It is also pretty damned disturbing. This book is anything but optimistic. 

In this book, McCarthy's conservative politics are more obvious than the others I've read by him. Because of this, I cringed during a few overtly political passages. But, politics weren't prevalent enough in the book to make it unenjoyable. So, I highly recommend this riveting tour-de-force of a page-turner. Just don't read it when you're in the mood for something cheerful.

Verwarrend geschreven, maar het verhaal en einde is heel goed

Bart Veldhuijsen 

Dave | Storyphoria

Was a big fan of the film already and finally had a chance to read the book. It's amazing how much the book is different in some parts and then almost word for word the same as the film in many others. Excellent read, and a rare case of neither the movie or the book being better than the other. I think they hold up together extremely well.

Ryan LaFerney

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.

Jayme Bosio

I was impressed by how well the movie followed the book, and how well Tommy Lee Jones captured the character of Sheriff Bell. This is one of the first books I've read in a long time where I wanted to pull my car off the side of the road to finish reading it. It's a quick read, but it's not an easy one. It really makes you think about humanity and the road we're taking.

No Country for Old Men

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