I loved this book, but it is definitely not easy reading. The dialogue is frequently confusing - it is often difficult to determine who is saying what without any 'he-said' 'she-said'. This sparse, but emotion-loaded dialogue reminded me a lot of The Road. Chigurh is a great character; he is ruthless, true to his word, and a great philosopher and student of human emotion and behaviour.
I love the charged emotion in this scene where an unwitting gas station attendant finds himself flipping a coin for his life:
You know what date is on this coin?
No.
It's nineteen fifty-eight. It's been traveling twenty-two years to get here. And now it's here. And I'm here. And I've got my hand over it. And it's either heads or tails. And you have to say. Call it.
I don't know what it is I stand to win.
In the blue light the man's face was beaded thinly with sweat. He licked his upper lip.
You stand to win everything, Chigurh said. Everything.
Sheriff Bell has a brilliant, world-weary, beaten down sense of humour:
It's a mess, aint it Sheriff?
If it aint it'll do till a mess gets here.
Moss, despite some obvious very bad choices, is a smart guy. The way he hides and later retrieves the satchel from the airconditioning duct in the hotel is ingenious. I was surprised McCarthy chose to leave Moss's fate to a retrospective look from Sheriff Bell. I would have thought the encounter between Moss and Chigurh after so much cat-and-mouse would have been the climax.
A great read. Now I need to read Blood Meridian.
4.5 stars
I agree that sometimes the diaolgue is difficult. Especially when two character aren't really saying anything to each other - like Llewelyn and the hitchhiker. Huh? Seems a bit pointless, just for her to be bullet fodder.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that CM wanted to make Llewelyn and Chigurh the main focus of the story, so I think that's why Llewelyn dies 'off screen' - it's the Sheriff's disassociation with the violence that is the point at the end. I think that's why the 'natural' climax is treated that way.
Anyway...that's what I think. Great book though. First Cm I've read!
Even though the lack of attribution of dialogue was hard to follow, the book as a whole was a really easy read because of all the dialogue and because it was so engaging. I loved this book too - it gave such an amazing feel for a time and a place, intriguing characters, and brilliant dialogue.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to compare the end of No Country and going ahead to light the fire with the recurrent theme in the road, about "carrying the fire". I found 'All the pretty horses' to be harder to follow than this one with dialogue, but once you are immersed in it, it's easier. It is very sudden when Moss dies. I read past it and then went - what? And had to turn back and reread.
ReplyDeleteBlood Meridian is pretty grim - I have only read about a third of it and turned aside, but will get back into it at some stage.