No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

This book kinda snuck into my reading list. I was waiting for the SO to finish at the hairdresser’s and I had forgot my current read and couldn’t find my current read on the esteemed shelves of Borders, I picked up this fine book since I had recently seen the film and bought a copy from Waterstone’s at half price.

By the time hairdressing duties had been complete I had got so far into the book, I decided that I would continue after reading about Barney Thomson.

If you’ve seen the film you don’t need to read this review but suffice to say that the book is every bit as good as the Coen brothers’ fine opus.

The book is painted on the canvas of South West Texas near the border with Mexico and tells of mainly three individuals. Llewellyn Moss, a welder, who stumbles upon a big case of money at a drug deal gone wrong when he’s out hunting: Anton Chigurrh, a psychotic hitman who’s been engaged to find the money and Sheriff Ed Tom, the local lawman caught up in the trail of dead bodies while trying to find Moss and help him out.

The book runs very closely with the film and except for a couple of scenes and minor characters plays along on very similar lines. The characterisation of the three main characters is well drawn and brings these men alive. In particular, the character of Chigurrh is chilling. He plays as a man doing a job and if anyone gets in the way they will be quickly despatched without much debate. In addition, the way he deals with his injuries gained when going about his ‘job’ is very clinical and almost professional.

The denouement and ending of the film are very similar to the film and although I know a few people were disappointed with it, downbeat as it is. I think it was the best way for the story to play out.

The whole sorry tale of death and more death gives the background for the Sheriff to decide why his time is up and why he has no stomach for the kind of lifestyle law enforcement has now forced upon him. No wonder! You feel sorry for Moss, who is caught up in the trail of bodies purely by chance and wanting to give him and his wife a better life than the two bit trailer they live in. You just know he will meet his maker. The book tries to say that although his death is as important as any other, its just another corpse in the drug wars that are now rife in SW Texas. What’s more important is in the way that it becomes the final nail in the coffin of Ed Tom’s career, not the way it is visualised in the book or on the big screen. This part of the book is the Sheriff’s tale and no-one else’s.

Cormac McCarthy’s writing is very vivid but sparse and not surprisingly very well received in literary circles. His portrayal of the ‘new’ Wild West is a measure of his own style and character and is very recognisable.