No Country for Old Men

The 2007 movie of the same name directed by the Coen brothers is outstanding - I've watched it multiple times - being arguably better than the book because it cuts out the italicized musings at the beginning of each chapter that are abstract and introspective as they gradually get longer.

Other than that, the movie and book are extremely close relatives but equally ambiguous about the fate of Llewelyn Moss and the way his destiny unfolds - the only demerit point I can really find in this amazing tale.

Cormac McCarthy is an incredible storyteller who draws you into his characters and makes them feel alive and Anton Chigurh is without doubt one of the strangest and most menacing personalities ever created as the epitome of unrelenting and implacable mafia, a sort of human terminator that never stops or gives up, in the mold of Luca Brasi from the Godfather.

His logic is based on the flip of a coin or a loose promise given under duress, emphasizing his diabolical and scary madness.

A flowing degree of existentialism unfurls as the story unfolds, constantly going back over character actions, especially Moss, and questioning his decisions and debating that if he'd done something different or thought about certain possibilities, how events could be better instead of rashly dashing for the finish line - it's very clever storytelling and reminiscent of the movie Fargo (also directed by the Coen brothers) - and the constantly bungling escapades that make you tear your hair out in frustration.

Although Moss makes some ropey decisions, his ability to rationalize, survive and fight back are also an incredible part of the story, especially as one of the book's subplots is the constant ineptitude of the police force who seem to pick up the pieces, arrive too late and don't have much of a clue about what's going on or how the bodies keep on piling up.

No Country for Old Men is Cormac McCarthy brilliance - menacing, unrelenting, dirty and nasty, fighting tooth and nail for every last breath, but with a maddening ineptitude going on in the background.

This is my third Cormac McCarthy book after The Road and Blood Meridian and I can't really tell them apart as to how much I love them, which means only one thing - more of his books in the future: Suttree, Child of God, and The Border trilogy.