No Country For Old Men

Cormac McCarthy, “No Country For Old Men”, Alfred A. Knoff (2005) 309 pp.

I saw the movie “No Country For Old Men” about a year ago and remember thinking at the time that the violence was excessive and preposterous.  So why read the book?  Well…I listen to various podcasts on my Ipod when walking and one of those is “The Partially Examined Life”.  This particular podcast involves approximately one hour episodes examining various philosophical topics.  For whatever reason, the organizers of this podcast decided to pursue philosophy for a couple episodes through literature.  They chose Voltaire’s “Candide” and, drumroll…  “No Country For Old Men”.  I thought this latter a peculiar choice and curiosity drove me to read this book.   I discovered that I just might read some of his other works.

Plot:

The novel is set on the Texas-Mexico border in current time.  Instead of rustlers we have drug-runners.  One of the main characters, Llewellyn Moss, comes across a pickup truck surrounded by dead men, 2.3 million in unmarked bills, and a load of heroin.  Moss cannot resist taking the money which sets off a chain of violence that another main character, Sherriff Bell, cannot comprehend, in spite of his 30 plus years of experience.

As Moss tries to evade his pursuers–in particular a mysterious mastermind who flips coins for human lives–Chigurh (pronounced SUGAR).  Chigurh is described to Llewellyn Moss by a prior acquaintance on 

pg. 153:  You can’t make a deal with him.  Let me say it again.  Even if you gave him the money he’d still kill you.  There’s no one alive on this planet that’s ever had even a cross word with.  They’re all dead.  These are not good odds.  He’s a peculiar man.  You could even say that he has principles.  Principles that transcend money or drugs or anything like that.

Anyway: I recommend the podcast “The Partially Examined Life” and what else it may lead you to, such as this book.

My Notes:

Pg. 124:  In the paper the other day they described finding this couple out in California they would rent out rooms to old people and then kill em and bury em in the yard and cash their social security checks.  They’d torture em first, I don’t know why.  Maybe their television was broke.

Pg. 278:  Sheriff Bell is a decorated war hero from WWII.  However, as he confided to his uncle, he really wasn’t a hero.  As soon as darkness had come, those many years before, he had run as fast as he could, even though he could hear some of his comrades still groaning from wounds suffered during the earlier attack.  Bell knew the Germans would be back and did not want to die.  This is the background for this following reflection some 30 years later: “I didn’t know you could steal your own life.  And I didn’t know that it would being you no more benefit than about anything else you might steal.  I think I done the best with it I knew how but it still wasn’t mine.  It never has been.”