no country for old men

I actually bought this book for Toby for Christmas because Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian is his all time favorite book. I decided I'd start with this book because it seemed a bit more accessible than Blood Meridian - just reading the back cover of that book depresses me. I read McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses years ago, long enough that I'm fuzzy on most of that story. So I figured I'd reintroduce myself to McCarthy with this book, especially since the movie has gotten such great reviews and now, since Toby and I have both read the book, we can go see it together. Cormac McCarthy is masterful at writing in a style that is pared down and spare, just like the austere landscape of Texas and Mexico, where this story takes place. His writing could easily be compared to Hemingway, they're both manly writers with short, muscular sentences, although I think Hemingway writes from his heart whereas McCarthy writes from his head (any lit critics who stumble upon this can feel free to disagree with me). This book is very well done. At first glance it seems to be a hard-boiled, man on the run story. It is action packed and adrenaline rich. But there are also significant questions of good and evil, predestination and morality, especially good people making not the best choices that chart the course of their life. I took a 1/2 plum off because the ending made me feel like a helium balloon after it's been sitting around for a week; you know how they get, small and puckered, hovering a foot off the ground. The ending is really depressing but it would be hard to end it any other way without it seeming like a Hollywood happy ending. It's easy to get sucked into this story and you'll stumble out at the end of the book with the wind knocked out of you.