‘No Country for Old Men’ is one of the late Cormac McCarthy’s best-known novels. Published in 2005, it was soon adapted for the big screen. The Coen brothers’ film of the same name was released in 2007. Unusually, both novel and film achieved critical acclaim.
Although McCarthy originally envisaged ‘No Country for Old Men’ as a screenplay, the resulting novel is undoubtedly a literary experience. It certainly doesn’t read like a novelisation of a movie. Rather, all of McCarthy’s well-known stylistic techniques are in evidence throughout. There is a non-linear narrative, interrupted periodically by italicised reflections on past events. Punctuation and grammar are sparse. Descriptions are terse. Not a word is wasted. There isn’t an ounce of fat to be found in this short and pithy book. Nevertheless, in only just over two hundred pages, McCarthy takes his reader on quite the adventure.
Close to the Mexican border in 1980, two rival cartels annihilate one another as a drug deal goes badly wrong. A young chancer called Llewelyn Moss finds a whole load of heroin and money at the scene. He grabs the cash and runs. Naively, he returns to the scene later, but is spotted. Having involved himself, taken the money and been caught, Moss flees. The rest of the novel deals with the fallout from his decision, which endangers not only his life but that of his young wife, Carla Jean.
There is a trinity of main characters in ‘No Country for Old Men’, and McCarthy switches viewpoints between them. Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, a complicated man who is haunted by the circumstances of a medal he earned for valour during the Second World War, is charged with investigating the drug crime. He sets out on Moss’ trail. Unusually, Moss’ best chance is the law catching up with him, because the other player in the deadly game of cat and mouse is a psychopathic mercenary named Anton Chigurh, who has been hired to recover the stolen money and tie up any loose ends. That includes Moss.
The set-up, of a drug deal going wrong between rival gangs, is well-trodden territory that has been used in every medium of popular culture for decades. Yet from the first to last page of ‘No Country for Old Men’, I was engrossed in the story. What brings it all to life is not the familiar premise but the characterisations. One of McCarthy’s greatest talents was his ability to create main and incidental characters that readers care about using few words but dialogue that rings true. One example is a young girl who takes the decision to travel with the fugitive Moss and share a beer with him at a motel. The reader is left with the dreadful feeling that she is an innocent who will become entangled in wider events large enough to consume her.
In essence, this is what the book is about: the actions you take have consequences. All of the characters are tied to a fate that results from perhaps a single decision they made, even years earlier. There is no escape from destiny.
Manifesting this central theme is the character of Anton Chigurh. In two memorable scenes in the novel, Chigurh asks someone to call the toss of a coin. The reader already has the measure of Chigurh. He uses a pressurised stungun for close kills and shows no mercy. His method of execution is less messy and quieter than a bullet. Whilst the other characters play along in ignorance, we know precisely what they are wagering on the single spin of a coin. Such moments, borne out through the actions of Chigurh, are what lift the book from the commonplace to greatness.
Cormac McCarthy was a master at creating compelling villains. There is nothing more fascinating and dangerous than charismatic evil. Chigurh ranks with the Judge in ‘Blood Meridian‘ as a character almost supernatural in his power and his menace. Every scene featuring Chigurh demands attention. He is the most urgent, alive and philosophical player in the game. Conversely, Sheriff Bell is weighed down under regret, rendered slower and less mobile by his burden of guilt.
In common with McCarthy’s other most-celebrated works, ‘No Country for Old Men’ is starkly and often gratuitously violent. Bloody deaths are described with the detachment of brevity, but they have a cumulative effect. The world that he creates is male-dominated, too. Carla Jean is a well-crafted character, but she is passive. The manhunt is precisely that. If you wish to immerse yourself in the cartel land of the US southern border in the late Twentieth Century, then ‘No Country for Old Men’ is undoubtedly a brilliant, provocative and sometimes troubling read.
The Folio Society’s new edition, which comes in hardback and with seven full-colour illustrations by Gerard DuBois, joins their previously-published titles by the same author, ‘Blood Meridian‘ and ‘The Road‘. This beautifully-produced edition of ‘No Country for Old Men’ is a fantastic way to celebrate the back catalogue of one of the greatest and most-acclaimed modern Western authors. This collectible edition is the perfect gift for dedicated readers of McCarthy’s canon.
Publisher: The Folio Society Publication date: October 2023 Buy ‘No Country for Old Men’
