Summary
Llewelyn Moss, a small town welder, stumbles on a briefcase full of cash in the middle of the desert. Taking the briefcase triggers a series of events that forever links the fates of him, an aging sheriff, and a hitman.
Thoughts
This is the third Cormac McCarthy book I’ve read this year and it may be my favorite. He wrote it a year before The Road, you can see the two stories as connected in an interesting way, but more on that later. This book is one of McCarthy’s least “fancy” book, you aren’t going to get much of his unique pacing or Hemingway-esque prose that was prominent in his border trilogy. For some, this is a loss; for others, it’s a welcome relief. Llewelyn Moss, quickly revealed to be out of his depth, knows this yet persistently tries to convince himself and others of his capability. Sheriff Bell is of course, one of the men that are too old for this country, whenever the book switches to his perspective we are usually met with a memory or utter consternation at the direction the world seems to be heading. Bell is a sheriff that everyone would consider to be an “old timer”, but he secretly knows he is not. He’s got all the common sense of the older generation but can’t manage to have the same beliefs, and this bothers him to no end. Bell’s wife acts like Dante’s Beatrice, a guide and anchor to life that he would be completely lost without. The antagonist, Anton Chigurh, a representation of fate, the unyielding code, and the inevitable end, seamlessly weaves in and out of the narrative. He embodies the universe, one that defies reasoning through its own inexorable logic.
When I came into your life your life was over. It had a beginning, a middle, and an end. This is the end. You can say that things could have turned out differently. That there could have been some other way. But what does that mean? They are not some other way. They are this way. You’re asking that I second say the world. Do you see?
Chigurh is a literary archetype of a true nihilists that embraces the idea of being a cog in the machine and takes it to its limits.
Most people don’t believe that there can be such a person. You see what a problem that must be for them.
In this way he is one of the most principled persons in book, unlike everyone else he never stops and asks “why is this happening to me?” he already knows. This character is so well written that even though he is a sociopath, you can’t help but wonder what he is going to do next, and I found myself cheering for him when he was being chased by another hitman. I guess any principles, even bad ones, seem to be preferable to those unaware of the ways they are lying to themselves.
Near the end of this book Sheriff Bell has a dream of his dead father. In the dream his father had rode ahead into the darkness and the Sheriff knew that there would be a fire burning for him. This idea of keeping the fire burning is the mantra of the main character of McCarthy’s next book ‘The Road’. You could imagine that this series of events happened, and the world did end up “going to hell” and that is where The Road picks up. Unfortunately, for the father in ‘The Road’ his Beatrice is not there, so instead his son becomes his guide.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommend it to your lists.
People/Cormac McCarthy