Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5721 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 340 pages

Daily Telegraph
‘Nightmarish and bleak, this is both a meditation on our worst fears and a gripping thriller’

Observer
‘McCarthy’s muscular, minimalist style makes for a tense western’

Dean Koontz in the Daily Express
‘a lyrical, clear-eyed view of evil, delivering a knockout punch to modernism’

Customer Reviews

Modern American literature. Accomplished but hard to love
If you pick up this book because you loved the Coen brothers' film, then you will either adore it or loathe it. I'm torn between the two. 'No Country' is a mix of blunt-force trauma and philosophical debate. It's a study of how brutal, awful violence has pervaded American society, and how it blights the lives of the very ordinary people it touches. If you've seen the film then you'll know the plot and be familiar with the main characters -- all were faithfully drawn from the novel, although you get a deeper understanding of their back story and motivation in the book than you do in the film.

However, much as I love the plot, philosophy and characterisation, McCarthy's use of language drives me insane. He abandons large chunks of punctuation to capture, I assume, the speech patterns of the region. But attemping to read an entire novel written without speech marks in patois is extremely trying. It disrupted the whole flow of the text for me. I could just about manage the didnt couldnt wouldnt, but trying to understand whether a line was speech or not nearly ruined the book entirely. If you can cope with an entire novel written in text-message English then you'll be fine. But if I had not known the plot, and grit my teeth and determined to see it through, then I would have stopped reading after the first couple of chapters.
So it's left me feeling very wary of picking up any more books by Cormac McCarthy. Perhaps I'm just not cut out for modern American literature...
Either 1/10 or 9/10.

no fun for old men
I had to read a few reviews before i set down to write one for a very good reason -i wanted to know If I was the only one who didnt know what happened.
Spoilers here - beware.
I will be the first to admit I have been reading way to many kids books of late- but I am fairly well read and enjoy a challenging read.However after a very slow start - I started to get into the meat of the piece. I found the characters enjoyable If a bit stupid in there actions. I mean if you find 2.4 million and you intend to keep it- you high tail as far from your hometown as you can and leave a blur behind your tail - you do not dawdle on the outskirts of the state and make life hard for yourself.
Then when i finally think Im getting to grips with his writing style the author starts making leaps in narrative with no explanation of what has just occured - He invests your time with the character and then drops him off the page. I am sure their is deeper reason for this but Im not studying the book at school so I dont want to over analyse his symbolic slaughter of everything that moves.
And the preachy sheriff - much too preachy and i have no idea what his job involved he just seemed to appear at murder scenes and did a little home spinning on the philosphy of we have all gone to hell in a hand basket kind. Well excuse me but i do not own a gun and if you want to stop folks being shot there's your first order of business.
Mildly enjoyable - slightly confusing and i will not be reaching for the authors back catologue - if you want a great fun read set in the mid west try Stone Junction - its great.

Great Piece of Work
I was highly satisfied with this book. First item from McCarthy's collection i have read, undoubtedly won't be the last. Very intriguing, if somewhat complicated use of language in parts. Would definately recommend reading.