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for Old Men by Cormac Mccarthy Review
Welcome to the No Country for Old
Men Review page:
When I first read that a new work by Cormac McCarthy was
ready to publish, I was excited. Given it's focus, however, a thriller, caused
me to teeter at the keyboard. Would he, who created the Glanton Gang, John Grady
Cole of ALL THE PRETTY HORSES, Holme of OUTER DARK, pull-off such a maligned genre
attempt worth reading and still maintain his status, in my world, as the most
original, accomplished story teller of my time? Instinct prodded me on, I bit,
paid the hardcover price and waited.
It was a weekend, cover to cover,
page turner, a two for one offering: Genre action, suspense, a blood and guts
spectacle coupled with a literary requiem of an underlying examination of what
this country has evolved into since Vietnam. Vintage McCarthy, as only he can,
unfolds a story complete with his usual cast of deep, multidimensional characters
laced with stirring cords of conflict, reflection and tell-it-like-it-is action.
This is not a feel good book. Just know that virtue does not win in this book.
But isn't life similar?
No doubt inspired by Peckenpah, he places this
story on the dusty plains of S. Texas where a young war vet, Llewelyn Moss, stumbles
across the remains of a bloody drug deal gone bad in the sand hills. The story
unfolds into a chase, desperate, fast paced and unpredictable. An over-the-hill
Sheriff with a fixation for "taking care" of the tax payers who've hired him patiently
tries to protect Moss and his wife. He is a kind man who reflects on the changing
landscape of the country, for the seeping wounds of past wars and on his waning
zeal for the job. His reflections steer the underlying story, delicately place
amid the blood and tissue of mob warfare.
Anyone who appreciates the depth
of McCarthy's rich appetite for investing in brilliant prose and brute characters
will be treated to an unvarnished gnostic good against evil struggle. McCarthy
goes to his well of successes effectively. Several of the psycho and socio-pathic
profiles from his dark stories of the past surface with their overwhelming motifs:
thrusting violence, nihilistic sermons, primal horror and dark ironies. In this
new work, the shockingly savage Chigurh marches through the pages as did Judge
Holden wading through his border rampages with cruelty and lunatic principles.
Llewelyn Moss, in NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, one of the protagonists, is cut from
the same bolt of cloth as was John Grady Cole and Boyd from the CROSSING (my favorite);
arrogant, principled, obstinate, monosyllabic, yet terminally stupid.
McCarthy
embeds Vietnam era parallels, biblical parables and occasional gems of former
novels. When asked in ALL THE PRETTY HORSES, where Blevens got his gun he quipped:
"At the getting place." When asked where Llewelyn got his gun he cracks: "At the
getting place." The line works both times.
Where McCarthy noticeably strays
into new ground is to give more depth to his women characters and to further refine
his minimalist prose. His incredible vocabulary takes a back seat to a more simplistic
straight forward narrative and of course his hallmark dialogue: direct, caustic,
clear and authentic.
If one has never read McCarthy this new novel might
be an easy plunge into his fantastic realm of dark fiction. If one appreciates
McCarthy's rich ideas, beautiful writing and abstract stories, this shouldn't
disappoint.
Buy No Country for Old Men
