At first glance, there are many reasons why the directing team of Joel and Ethan Coen has decided to direct an adaptation of \No Country for Old Men,"" the first novel in seven years from author Cormac McCarthy. McCarthy fills ""Country"" with the unique characters and flowing dialogue inherent to a Coen film.
""Country's"" distinctive cast includes a Vietnam veteran, a Mexican hitman and a straightforward sheriff. McCarthy infuses the text with dialogue that is instantly quotable, as well as a setting that begs for expansive camera angles.
But more than that, ""No Country for Old Men"" follows a key theme the Coens touched on in ""Fargo""-a lot can happen in the middle of nowhere. In McCarthy's case, nowhere is his stamping ground of southern Texas and what happens is a drug deal gone bad with $2.4 million recovered among the corpses by Vietnam vet Llewelyn Moss.
After seven years, McCarthy has returned to the landscape he visited in ""All the Pretty Horses,"" but this time his tight and natural prose is aimed at achieving pure suspense. McCarthy doesn't waste time with rambling speeches and run-on sentences. McCarthy puts the story in a lively present tense where there's no time to think before the next event occurs.
The vividness of McCarthy's style contributes greatly to his main characters, who, in the hands of a lesser writer, could be reduced to stereotypes of running man and psychopath. Moss moves across the state like a drifter, noticing nothing beyond what he needs to survive, while the pursuing hitman, Chigurh, can spend pages examining details such as the smell of milk and dust near the air vent.
Although Sheriff Bell comes in after Moss and Chigurh and spends the whole book trying to catch up with the body count, his presence somehow bears more weight than either character. Every section of the book opens with his reflections on topics such as World War II, law enforcement technology and death row. With Bell, McCarthy evokes the image of an old man smoking his pipe on the front porch explaining a long-lost tale to his grandchildren.
""Country's"" dialogue can go on for pages and pages with barely any details of the outside world, and while readers may have to count lines to figure out who said what, it feels so much like movie dialogue that the Coens may not even need to rewrite.
Unfortunately, by the end of the book it's clear that the speed of bloodshed and heartache has drained Bell of his spirit, and once again McCarthy seems to share his protagonist's viewpoint. There is no great shoot-out confrontation between the main characters and McCarthy leaves many questions unresolved.
While he may be saving up material for a sequel, this sudden tired attitude throws a wrench into the book's finale.
The weak ending cannot offset the sense of satisfaction this book provides; McCarthy has brought life and death into focus better than most writers in years. He has written a story readers cannot help but finish-and with its sharp, witty language, the Coens will have a field day with ""Country.\
