No Country for Old Men

[SeattleUte]

I finally got around to reading McCarthy's latest, No Country for Old Men. I highly recommend it. It's a great novel. The critics haven't known what to make of it because it's a quite a bit easier read than his other books. I read one critic that called it a "stripped down thriller." That's not an accurate description. It bears few hallmarks of the standard thriller; if anyting it totally subverts the thriller genre. I think it's a very deep and deeply misunderstood book. It's also shocking and disturbing sort of in the way Blood Meridian is. Another critic (NYT) who misread the book questioned whether McCarthy's God fearing narrator was a parody of red staters. As somebody who shares McCarthy's outlook about most things I can say that nothing could be further from the truth.

No Country is a worthy entrant to the McCarthy pantheon and as has occurred with McCarthy's other books people will appreciate it more as time passes.

By the way, Joel and Ethan Coen have bought the rights to film it, and aparently they are on their way to actually producing a movie version of the book.

[Robin]

Originally Posted by SeattleUte

I finally got around to reading McCarthy's latest, No Country for Old Men. I highly recommend it. It's a great novel. The critics haven't known what to make of it because it's a quite a bit easier read than his other books. I read one critic that called it a "stripped down thriller." That's not an accurate description. It bears few hallmarks of the standard thriller; if anyting it totally subverts the thriller genre. I think it's a very deep and deeply misunderstood book. It's also shocking and disturbing sort of in the way Blood Meridian is. Another critic (NYT) who misread the book questioned whether McCarthy's God fearing narrator was a parody of red staters. As somebody who shares McCarthy's outlook about most things I can say that nothing could be further from the truth.

No Country is a worthy entrant to the McCarthy pantheon and as has occurred with McCarthy's other books people will appreciate it more as time passes.

By the way, Joel and Ethan Coen have bought the rights to film it, and aparently they are on their way to actually producing a movie version of the book.

I own this book, and it has been sitting on my bookshelf ever since it first came out. Sounds like I better get around to actually reading it.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Thanks. I hope to get to it later this summer.

And that is excellent news about the Coen brothers. Obviously, I am a big fan of their work.

[fusnik11]

I read it about a month ago, I found myself shockingly entertained. It is amazingly graphic at times, amazingly suttle, flows uneasy and has a dark feeling to it as it describes a portion of society that is very real, very evil, and at times at our doorstep.

Favorite part of the book is the conversation Chugirh has with the gas station worker, where you, the reader, know what will happen to the unsuspecting worker if he chooses the wrong side of the coin on the proposed flip, an absolute great piece of writing.

First encounter with Cormac and am excited to read Blook Meridian.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Originally Posted by fusnik11

I read it about a month ago, I found myself shockingly entertained. It is amazingly graphic at times, amazingly suttle, flows uneasy and has a dark feeling to it as it describes a portion of society that is very real, very evil, and at times at our doorstep.

Favorite part of the book is the conversation Chugirh has with the gas station worker, where you, the reader, know what will happen to the unsuspecting worker if he chooses the wrong side of the coin on the proposed flip, an absolute great piece of writing.

First encounter with Cormac and am excited to read Blook Meridian.

Blood Meridian is good. But my favorite book of his is still "All the Pretty Horses".

[fusnik11]

Originally Posted by homeboy

Blood Meridian is good. But my favorite book of his is still "All the Pretty Horses".

I can't believe I have not read more McCarthy. It was interesting, I had read so many church/pseudo-religious books prior to 'No Country' I welcomed the change to something different, as soon as I put down the book I felt so uneasy I immediately started and devourted another religious book.

I highly recommend 'No Country' and am interested to read what people around here think of the book.

[Robin]

Originally Posted by homeboy

Blood Meridian is good. But my favorite book of his is still "All the Pretty Horses".

Blood Meridian tops my all-time favorite books list right now.

All the Pretty Horses was fun... I still have to read the other two in the Border Trilogy.

[SeattleUte]

Originally Posted by homeboy

Blood Meridian is good. But my favorite book of his is still "All the Pretty Horses".

Honestly, I think what happened is that McCarthy's agent said, "Cormac, all these high toned university professors, not to mention Faulkner and Ellison (when they were alive) have been saying that you're adding to the Western Canon, but still you're eating beans out of a can. Please, write something with a nice, likeable hero who ends up more or less happy and whole, employing your formiddable talents, and let's make a little money." So he wrote All the Pretty Horses, won the National Book Award, made the NY Times bestseller list, made millions on movie rights.

Honestly, I think even No Country for Old Men is bettter than All the Pretty Horses. I think most McCarthy disciples consider All the Pretty Horses kind of a sell out, though I liked it a lot. But Blood Meridian in my opinion is in an altogether different class. Something supernatural took hold of McCarthy when he created the character of the judge. I agreee with Harold Bloom that it is the best novel written by any living American. I wish I would/could have written it.

[SeattleUte]

Originally Posted by fusnik11

I can't believe I have not read more McCarthy. It was interesting, I had read so many church/pseudo-religious books prior to 'No Country' I welcomed the change to something different, as soon as I put down the book I felt so uneasy I immediately started and devourted another religious book.

I highly recommend 'No Country' and am interested to read what people around here think of the book.

If you liked No Country, Blood Meridian will blow your mind. Though I concede it's not for everybody. I buy my wife many of her books, she liked All the Pretty Horses, but I've told her she'd better steer clear of Blood Meridian as enthusiastic as I am about it.

[SeattleUte]

Originally Posted by Robin

Blood Meridian tops my all-time favorite books list right now.

All the Pretty Horses was fun... I still have to read the other two in the Border Trilogy.

My all-time favorite novel is War and Peace. But you can discern a common thread running through Tostoy, Dostoyevsky, Melville, and McCarthy if you look closely enough. All of them apostatized from the religion of their respective youths, but religion is everywhere in their works.