A Quick Note On This Review: This article includes affiliate links to Bookshop.org as a way of supporting both local bookshops and my own ability to write.
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy tells the story of a welder called Llewelyn Moss who stumbles on a briefcase full of money from the scene of a drug deal gone bad. Moss then flees from both the drug dealers and a psychopathic fixer named Anton Chigurh who’s been sent to track down the briefcase and return it to its owner. It quickly turns into a life and death game of cat and mouse with Moss who tries to remain a moral man while protecting everything he loves.
I admit that I picked up this audiobook because the recent passing of McCarthy and reviews of his work had me curious about what it was like to read his prose. Before listening to the audiobook, I had only seen the movie version of No Country for Old Men, and like most stories that are seen before we’re old enough to recognize the value of it, I was indifferent to its quality. However, on finishing the novel, it was striking how McCarthy was able to conjure terror throughout the book without actually calling it out. At no point did anyone of the major characters (save Moss’s wife) express fear over the gunfights that were taking place, the horrific murders, or the rampant criminality of the acts taking place. Yet, despite this lack of explicit evocation of fear, there were moments throughout the novel where adrenaline spiked and fear for characters indifferent to their own existence was felt. I felt horrified at the actions of Chigurh, even though every character in the novel talked about it as if it was just another day.
Thematically, No Country for Old Men dissects what it means to live a hard life in a country indifferent to your needs and wants. There’s love in there – Moss is portrayed as a good man who loves his wife up until the very end – but the dominating feature of this novel is that good people don’t win in the end, and love isn’t enough to save us. This reality feels cold, and it’s even colder as one hears or reads Chigurh’s monologues about the only thing that matters is the moment, and all the little decisions that we make in the moment that leads us to our ultimate destinations. No one has any good fortune come to them that they don’t have to pay the ultimate price for.
From the perspective of entertainment, people who enjoy crime novels may like No Country for Old Men far better than The Investigator by John Sanford because there’s a lot more substance to the mystery and thrills than simply detailing the specifications of firearms. However, I do think McCarthy’s work strays into the philosophical more than traditional crime novel fans would like, but if given the chance, this philosophical bent adds an additional layer of creepiness to the prose and Chiguh’s characterization.
Any writer who is looking for ways to build tension into their novels without relying on specific mentions of fear would do well to read this novel. Further, characters like Chigurh provide a blueprint for anyone who wants to include psychopathic characters within their works, but especially if the goal is to show how indifference to one’s own life or the lives of others may ensure survival, but won’t enable someone to feel like they’re truly living.
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What’s Next?
I am an avid reader and have quite a few thoughts on how some books could benefit both people that want to be entertained and those looking to sharpen their literary skills.
If you’re interested in finding out more about what I’ve been reading – and how it could benefit you – I will be publishing those thoughts on Fridays on a weekly basis. Check back next week for a discussion of Travis Baldree’s Legends and Lattes!
The Writerly Review 