No Country for Old Men

By: Cormac McCarthy

Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte

Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

Cormac McCarthy, best-selling author of National Book Award winner All the Pretty Horses, delivers his first new novel in seven years. Written in muscular prose, No Country for Old Men is a powerful tale of the West that moves at a blistering pace.

Llewelyn Moss is hunting antelope near the Texas-Mexico border when he stumbles upon several dead men, a big stash of heroin, and more than two million dollars in cash. He takes off with the money, and the hunter becomes the haunted. A drug cartel hires a former Special Forces agent to track down the loot, and a ruthless killer joins the chase as well. Also looking for Moss is the aging Sheriff Bell, a World War II veteran who may be Moss' only hope for survival.

Raw and lean, No Country for Old Men is another masterpiece from one of America's acclaimed novelists.

©2005 Cormac McCarthy (P)2005 Recorded Books, LCC

Critic reviews

"No Country for Old Men gets off to a riveting start as a sort of new wave, hard-boiled Western....Harrowing, propulsive drama." (The New York Times)
"A mesmerizing modern-day western....While the action of the novel thrills, it's the sensitivity and wisdom of Sheriff Bell that makes the book a profound meditation on the battle between good and evil and the roles choice and chance play in the shaping of a life." (Publishers Weekly)
"Shades of Dostoyevsky, Hemingway, and Faulkner resonate in McCarthy's blend of lyrical narrative, staccato dialogue, and action-packed scenes splattered with bullets and blood. McCarthy fans will revel in the author's renderings of the raw landscapes of Mexico and the Southwest and the precarious souls scattered along the border that separates the two." (Booklist)

Makes you think

Well written and well read. The story meanders a little and isn't a simple story arc. I found it a little hard to figure out who the main character was, and who I was supposed to identify with, but I'd listen to this one a couple times, so I think it is worhty of full marks.

Excellent

I loved this book. At first I thought I was simply reading a story about herion, two million dollars, and a couple of outlaws. But, it's so much more than that. Fate, luck, God, good, and evil are all at play in this work of art.

A Good Read

Normally, I don't read stories this dark, but after reading "The Road," I wanted to read rather than seeing the movie.

It was a good story and wonderfully narrated. The main character was well portrayed and the story kept me on the edge of my seat. I kept a hope that there would be a "happy ending," but sadly there wasn't. I do intend to explore more works by this author.

Very Entertaining!

This is a really great simple story built on characters and the personalities that they bring to the story.
You do not need a thesaurus at hand to enjoy this book... and I mean that as a compliment.

Better than the movie

What made the experience of listening to No Country for Old Men the most enjoyable?

I loved the narration. It really sold me and transported me to another time and place. The story was slow going but I couldn't stop reading.

Great

I can't stop listening to it,
over and over and over and over. And over.

Just put it in your paaawkut...

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

The book is incredible. The spare, run-on writing style: I loved the sentences like "He took the key, and got out of the car, and opened the door, and walked in the room, and sat down, and turned on the TV." (That's not a quote, just an imitation...) The plot is a great mix of cliche and subverting expectations. Do not expect the book to deliver on conventional terms.

Have you listened to any of Tom Stechschulte’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

The only thing though, is the way the narrator says the word "pocket", and he says it a lot! It's one of the most irritating things I've ever heard and it distracted me every time he said it. Other than that, he did a good job.

Modern Philosophy Embedded in Feasibility

This book rooked me right in from the start. The performance was outstanding and the story felt real. I haven't seen the film yet but I want to now.

No country for old men

Great movie better book. Enjoyed it immensely...could picture everyone...in their roles. Violent but I already knew that....

Grim and amazingly well told

An extraordinary well-told novel, the story is grim, but there is a moment of hope, which mostly doesn't exist in other McCarthy's books like Blood Meridian. It is curious when you see the movie Moss looks like the main character. Of course, in the movie he is the one we follow most, along with Sheriff Bell and Sugar... but the book tells you who is with the opening scenes:

Bell is your narrator, is the one interrupting the flow to give us a moral lesson, to explain the world around him... but the first scene is Anton Sugar murdering someone... "No Country for Old Men" is his story, he is Destiny personified, as Wells says "the people who meet him don't have long futures or any at all."

So, while we root for Moss, as he is the good guy, he is doing the "mostly" right thing in most of the story, ultimately the lesson is that the harsh world where he entered is not for good people... being good and nice got him hurt, and ultimately death. It is shown differently in the movie, as they focus there in some different scenes, but in the end, it's where it's headed.

Abut Bell in the movie he is shown as having fear but is not that, he is tired, he is not a man of the old times, he is very much of the new ones, but he is tired of them, and finding something as monstrous as Anton Sugar and seeing Moss dead brek something in him, the old Sheriff just gives up, not for fear, but because he knows there is not much good he can do anymore.