A friend of mine, after watching the movie version of No Country for Old Men, told me that the violence is so tense that when the action occasionally pauses for the Sheriff to go into a monologue, that your tendency as a watcher is to relax, to let your mind wander, to recover for the next violent scene.  He said he’ll need to watch the movie again just to listen to the Sheriff.

The book is actually pretty similar with regard to violence and monologues.  (The tense chase at the opening is one of the more fun reading experiences I’ve had recently.) However, because of my friend’s advice, I made sure not to let my mind from wander during the rambling monologues.  The result? Unfortunately, even paying attention, I didn’t find much deep meaning within them.

One problem (which could’ve easily been a part of my lack of deep understanding) I had with the book was character differentiation.  The book is composed of three separate/intertwined narratives (plus the italicized monologues) and I initially struggled to figure out who-was-who and what was happening.  Making things more difficult, McCarthy doesn’t use quotation marks and the dialogue is so southern/country that I often tripped over the words reading it. (I wouldn’t ask him to change the dialogue, though; it was amazingly well done.)  To avoid confusion from the narratives, the dialogue, and the multiple characters, I’d recommend reading a plot summary before actually reading the book so that you can familiarize yourself with the story/character-names and enjoy McCarthy’s prose without worrying about keeping up with the details of the plot or who’s-who.

A couple more take aways, then some quotes:

• The intensity of the action scenes is really impressive.  Just great flow.
• This is very likely an odd-ball comparison, but I have to make it: Anton Chigurh reminded me of Dwight Schrute from The Office.  Seriously.  They are both ‘rationally insane.’  Chigurh is like all of Dwight’s violent tendencies exposed.
• On a personal note, the book made me realize how ill-prepared I am to take on vast wilderness.  I consider myself ‘book smart’ … somewhat ’street smart’ … but in no way am I ‘country smart.’
• The absence of the scene where Moss is killed at the hotel is very odd.  Moss is a central character and it’s a pretty big moment in the story … so why is it not shown?  (It is only told in passing in the Sheriff’s story.) I’m sure there’s some reasoning behind the decision … what is it?
• I spoke with a friend about the movie and realized there were a lot of differences.  Some that were pretty big (there’s no hitchhiker in the movie, and the ending of the movie is unclear.) I think it may be time for a ‘book or movie’ comparison…

Finally, here are a couple quotes that stood out to me.  The punctuation below is just as in the book … it’s pretty amazing/jarring to see the dialect written so accurately …

• “I know they’s a lots of things in a family history that just plain aint so.  Any family.  The stories gets passed on and the truth gets passed over. As the sayin goes.  Which I reckon some would take as meaning that the truth cant compete.  But I dont believe that.  I think that when the lies are all told and forgot the truth will be there yet.  It dont move about from place to place and it dont change from time to time. You cant corrupt it any more than you can salt salt. You cant corrupt it because that’s what it is.  It’s the thing you’re talkin about.” -123
• “He [satan] explains a lot of things that otherwise dont have no explanation. Or not to me they dont.” -218
• “I’ve told my deputies more than once that you fix what you can and you let the rest go. If there aint nothin to be done about it it aint even a problem.  It’s just a aggravation.” -283
• “Part of it was I always thought I could at least someway put things right and I guess I just don’t feel that way no more. I don’t know what I do feel like. I feel like them old people I was talkin about.” -296
• “There’s two kinds of people that don’t ask questions. One is too dumb to and the other dont need to.” -298
• “It’s not about knowin where you are. It’s about thinkin you got there without takin anythin with you. Your notions about startin over. Or anybody’s. You dont start over. That’s what it’s about. Ever step forward is forever. You cant make it go away. None of it.” - 227

That’s all I got.

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