I finished reading this book (the third that I have read by McCarthy), turned back to page one and started reading it again start to finish. ( )

Brutal dialogue-driven crime novels are the established preserve of the likes of Robert B. Parker. McCarthy takes a more clinical approach to the violence and declines to leaven it with any humour. The plot is not confused with any subplotting but the overall effect is confusing. This is not because there are two dominant voices (an anonymous third person narrator and the internal monologue of the ageing sheriff bemoaning social change); it arises from the lack of distinctive differences between the characters. Everybody speaks a flat cod Texan. Few characters use any analogies or metaphors so their language is similar in its objectivity. Furthermore, in a book so dedicated to a brutal realism there is a substantial demand for a suspension of disbelief. Ruthless hypereffective characters are nothing new but they are incongruous in such a context. Richard Stark's Parker makes small mistakes; here, Chigurgh is infallible. The product of all these wrinkles is a book more interesting than it was enjoyable. ( )

I didn't enjoy it, although I appreciated McCarthy's premise for the novel and wish he had built his story in a more believable manner. I didn't find Chigurgh to instill any real feeling of "fear', his charachter just wasn't built up enough, not enough "mood" or description. he just seemed like a cardboard character- The representations of evil in a Steven King's "It" by far imparted a representation of evil embodied. I found him almost likable, and thought the passage of banter between Chigurh and the gas station owner brilliant, the best in the novel. Chigurh's contemp for the robotic, repeating answers was evident.
I also didn't care for the stab at "Texan" vernacular- I highlighted several passages of Bell, which I felt could not be thoughts of the same charachter- sometimes he sounded like a "boy from the hood" and other times like a deep, philosophical thinker with a classical education ( ok, those passages were few and far between). I also found a few passages with phrases uttered by Bell, "That's all I got to say about that", very Forrest Gumpesque...
Little things were irritating, like why didn't Moss and Carla Jean just leve together on Sunday for New York on a plane or something? How did Chugarh get up to the "secure" office accessible only by a 'code"...if there were stairs that he climbed, according to the novel, well, anyone could have accessed the office, but Wells was told the only way in was with a code, that changed with each access.
I plan to read "The Road" and further think on McCarthy. ( )

Another good book by McCarthy. Moss comes across the scene of a drug shooting and finds a briefcase full of money. He realises that he is making the decision of his life, for better or worse, when he takes it. Chigurh is after him and the money, a psychopathic killer with sniper tracking abilities. ( )

Dark again, starting in the middle of nowhere, with empty trucks and dead men. Moss comes buy and finds millions of dollars in one of the trucks. When he decides to keep it, he is hunted by two parties. Will it be possible to survive?

The book is heavy, but once you're in, you want to read more. Nice in between the main story, is the dairy of the sherrif, reflecting on the growing amount of violence in society.

http://boekenwijs.blogspot.com/2009/1... ( )