Wednesday, November 29, 2006

No Country for Old Men

No Country for Old Men
by Cormack McCarthy

4 of 5 stars

No Country for Old Men contains the themes you'd expect to find in most Cormack McCarthy novels, but I found the language more accessible, like McCarthy stripped his usual prose down to its fighting weight. I think this works for and against the book. It makes it more of a page turner and less like--as Todd says--"taking your medicine" than his other books, but it loses some of its poetry, depth, and charm. Either way, No Country for Old Men tells a vivid story about the effects of drugs, money, and modern life on humankind. Death, in the form of a hired gun named Chigurh, is relentless and unforgiving. Truth and justice are tired old men of little consequence. My recommendation: Read this book whilst drowning the troubles of daily life in a Corona in a border town.