What a book. A chilling, action packed, and wonderfully structured story that displays the hallmarks of a modern master of literature.
Cormac McCarthy, so we know it's going to be brutal and dark right? Yeah it is, though not quite as brutal as Blood Meridian (and with easier to read prose) nor as unceasingly dark as The Road.
We have a violent interconnected crime caper set along the Texan-Mexican border in the early 80s. As a portent of things to come it has been bang on. But it is through the motivations and actions of the three main protagonists where this work is elevated to something else. Something great.
The structure also plays an active and philosophical role itself at several points. It is actively jarring in at least two parts, one an pivotal moment that happens 'off screen' and another seemingly random accident. These major incidents provide deeper context to the characters and help tease out the larger questions of good and evil, choice or fate.
Anton Chigurh is a master killer, for a lesser writer a force of pure destruction and evil to be defeated, yet here we learn that while in some aspects that is true, his is driven by ironclad values and principles. He see the world clearly, and sees the weakness changes in circumstance cause in others - stating men overestimate themselves when large amounts of money are involved. He 'honorably' kills for his word. He is acting as a function of a deterministic world - events set in motion by causes outside of his - even their - control. Even the coin tosses, random events (brilliantly written), he forces a choice from them, sets a path in motion and follows the rules.
You don't have to do this - yes I do.
Yet he also knows about art, and has a plan that extends past the story of the book, he is not simply the bad guy, he is the future, in that line of business at least.
On the other side we have the Sheriff. Seemingly a caricature of the elder American stereotype, lamenting the youth of the day, seeing decline all around, what today we immediately see as right wing Fox news fodder. Again, a lesser writer would have left that there, but instead we get the nuance, the meta commentary on American values, myths, lies.
"I don't believe in what it is (America) anymore, and I failed to hold up to the values when I did (during the war)."
"This country has a lot to answer for, will kill you in a heartbeat yet people love it."
The story won't play how the audience expects, but the Sherrif is not simply the good guy, or the hero. He is not driven by order, responsibility, or goodness (or not only them) but by hidden shame of actions many decades ago and a final recognition of who he is - a man of his time not from a idealised past. Maybe one that can't carry on as before.
"It's a life's work to see yourself for what you really are, even then you might be wrong."
Some touching father son sections too, a theme also explored in The Road of course.
Through the Sherrif we also have some genuinely funny moments, one line around abortion and euthanasia stands out in particular. These are the light moments in the book!
Moss, on first meeting our hero/anti hero. The aforementioned structure will see to that though.
A man stuck between good and evil, a man who has made choices and acted, for both positive and negitive reasons. Driven by chance and hope, yet a man who does overestimate his abilities in the face of a big prize. A man who writes off fresh starts, stating how you are always hinged on your past, can't escape it. He won't. His young wife will call money a false god, he says real money. Real trouble too. Lots of human tragedy surrounding his story wedged between the forces persuing and driving him.
I had seen the excellent film many years ago, to my recollection it is very faithful, omitting only several (important to the book) scenes and some dialogue. There are more answers and time for deeper reflection in the book - as always.