No Country for Old Men

By: Cormac McCarthy

Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte

Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

Cormac McCarthy, best-selling author of National Book Award winner All the Pretty Horses, delivers his first new novel in seven years. Written in muscular prose, No Country for Old Men is a powerful tale of the West that moves at a blistering pace.

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 haunted. 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.

Raw and lean, No Country for Old Men is another masterpiece from one of America's acclaimed novelists.

©2005 Cormac McCarthy (P)2005 Recorded Books, LCC

Critic reviews

"No Country for Old Men gets off to a riveting start as a sort of new wave, hard-boiled Western....Harrowing, propulsive drama." (The New York Times)
"A mesmerizing modern-day western....While the action of the novel thrills, it's the sensitivity and wisdom of Sheriff Bell that makes the book a profound meditation on the battle between good and evil and the roles choice and chance play in the shaping of a life." (Publishers Weekly)
"Shades of Dostoyevsky, Hemingway, and Faulkner resonate in McCarthy's blend of lyrical narrative, staccato dialogue, and action-packed scenes splattered with bullets and blood. McCarthy fans will revel in the author's renderings of the raw landscapes of Mexico and the Southwest and the precarious souls scattered along the border that separates the two." (Booklist)

Great story!

Really enjoyed this one. Couldn't put it down, in fact. My favorite reads are thrillers but I do have a taste for good writing and I try to familiarize myself with those folks deemed "great writers".

I had read "All the pretty horses" and, frankly, missed the point. "No Country.." offered McCarthy's great style with a plot line that kept me riveted.

Be warned, this is not a conventional thriller and you will not find a neatly packaged ending. If you'd like to try a thriller with a bit more literary content, this is a great choice.

Super narrator, as well!

Genius

This is my first "reading" of Cormac McCarthy. I have rarely been so moved by words - I am still not sure if it is McCarthy, or the artfull reading by Tom Stechschulte, but either way I was enveloped by McCarthy's world and embraced both Bell and Moss as well-repected personal friends.

In a world of that demands black and white, I appreciate a writer that can draw onw into the gray and ask the question -- what would I do?

Give me more of both writer and narrator.

Better than the movie

Excellent read from start to finish. Love the country wisdom and how intense the whole book is. Great performance by the narrator!

Scratching at the surface of a menacing landscape to find a deeper menace

Master filmmakers the Coen brothers, of course, made a film out of this. Halfway through you realize just how close they get to the book itself, to the point where you almost wonder, why?? Thing is this book is pretty great, the use of language tying brutality to the history of the land, and forces at play somehow over and through it all that are impossible to comprehend, and simple American folks in the midst of it, while being an exciting tale through it all that keeps your attention, and keeps you engrossed in its atmosphere. If you’re familiar with the Coen bros films, you can understand how these themes would draw them to this material. But if a work is so well realized, what’s the point of doing it again? In the end though, I think the movie and the film both compliment each other. The novelist and the filmmakers do not have the exact same vision, but they build off of one another’s, enhancing both. Where McCarthy scopes in on brutality, the Coen brothers focus more on absurdity. Still, absurdity and brutality loom large in both the book and the film (they just switch lead roles).
I address the film because it’s interesting, but also because it is most likely most people’s context for the book at this point. With all that said, the book by itself is rich, engrossing and powerful. It proves to be a good entry into the worlds of Cormac McCarthy. I’ve begun both The Road and Blood Meridian, but didn’t get too far in either. Now, after this book, when I have a better understanding of what he’s doing in joining characters to a landscape, I am much more inclined to give those books another go round.

story

very interesting, says a lot about life and humanity, and how different everyone is and if that is a good thing or not

Believable Characters and Story, a must read!

This book was wonderfully terrible.  Many associate older people with a simpler time, a time where people respected each other to the point they could leave their door unlocked when they left home.  Because really, who would enter someone else's house without permission?  Where strangers nod to each other as they pass on the street.  Manners and human kindness meant more than a name or name brand on your back.  The title seems to indicate that those times are long gone and the people from those times are no longer welcome and there is a new kind of villain.  A villain with no boundaries and no respect for the living and they act as there are no consequences for their deeds.  I believe this quote in the book says it all;

“They dont have no respect for the law? That aint half of it. They dont even think about the law. It dont seem to even concern em.” – Sheriff Bell, page 216.

Cormac McCarthy writes in such a way he can tell an entire story in a sentence. He is deliberate in the words he chooses.   This book was hard to put down once I began reading it.  It was surprisingly easy to read since there were no semicolons, quotations, or colons  Cormac once said those things made the story too messy.  Although he did periods and a comma here and there.

His words are straightforward which really brings the characters to life.  I saw the movie that included Josh Brolin as Llewelyn Moss,  an awesome Javier Bardem as Chigurh, and Tommy Lee Jones as Sheriff Bell and a smaller part, Carson Wells played by Woody Harrelson.  Javier Bardem was ruthless and awesome to watch.  I enjoyed how he interacted with the older people like the man at the register at the gas station who called a coin toss for his life without knowing it.  Also, the office manager where Moss lived.  In the movie, she copped an attitude when Chigurh began asking questions about Moss.  The office manager had no idea who she was dealing with and this was not in the book.  Chigurh paid attention to their answers when he asked questions.  It showed they were from different times which was also a nod to the title.

Believable characters, a must read.

Fantastic.

I will listen to this again, and again, and again... the story, writing style of the author, and performance by the narrator could not be better matched. I will listen to this again.

Unstoppable tension

Great narration of a great story. Listen to it even if you've already seen the movie.

good story and very profound insights

the narration is superb! he is able to capture each character so well. it's just how you'd imagine 1980s Texans

Interesting exploration of honor and personal code

What did you love best about No Country for Old Men?

McCarthy tells the story of several lives that interact because Moss, a Vietnam Vet, while out hunting comes upon a drug deal gone bad and takes a case of money. He ends up pursued by drug dealers, the law and a philosophical killer named Chigurh.

The story moves quickly and the bodies pile up. Woven throughout are the thoughts of Bell, the Sheriff who investigates the whole thing and tries to help Moss. Bell reflects on his life and how the world has changed as he finds himself always two steps behind and unable to do what he sees as his job.

The prose is tight, moves quickly, and the dialog helps build the characters. (I listened to the audio version and the narration was well done, just adjusting enough for each character to be distinct.) Chigurh is creepy and yet intense in his own philosophical outlook on life and death. Moss is sympathetic and Bell holds it all together. McCarthy doesn't write happy endings, but it is a good story that questions the ideas of honor, and luck, and how personal codes can drive individuals to extremes that end up lead to a sense of inevitability .

McCarthy intersperses Bell's first person thoughts with the third person narration of the remainder of the book. Even the narrative distance moves in and out depending on who the focus is - Chigurh most distant, while Moss and Bell are in tight, giving a sense of connection that adds to the strange, frightening sense of doom that Chigurh brings.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and having seen the movie years ago, will say that the film managed to bring a difficult story to the screen.

What was one of the most memorable moments of No Country for Old Men?

The first description of Chigurh's decision to leave a man's fate to a coin toss - frightening but a glimpse into a dark philosophy that drives the killer.