No Country For Old Men Part 1: Book

Like many avid readers, I prefer reading an original text before I see any adaptation of it in order to avoid having either odd casting in my own mental imaging (Angelina Jolie as Grendel's Mom?) or completely altered plot details (Roy Hobbs is a hero?). I read The Road over the summer and was very impressed--impressed in that way that makes me wish I'd picked up McCarthy earlier--so I was eager to read No Country for Old Men in time to catch the adaptation, which has come much recommended. Philosophically and stylistically consistent with the later novel, NCFOM demonstrates the type of plot construction and wordsmithery that is simultaneously inspiring and discouraging. McCarthy's distinctive style and knack for characterization create a unique world in which the reader is swept away, and his great talent is his ability to bring things to an inexorable and wholly likely close while simultaneously leaving the reader with a sense of inevitability and surprise. Like Oedipus and Hamlet, you know how these stories are going to turn out, but you still can't believe art can so closely imitate the final cruelty of life and the undaunted march of humankind in the face of fate's obstinate callousness.