Not particularly taken with this novel, though the story works since it’s not all that strange. A young man, Llewelyn Moss, comes upon a drug deal gone bad, dead dealers and deader cars, but a stash of heroin and two million bucks. He takes the money and obviously needs to run from pissed-off dealers and the law. Interwoven is a story of the lawman who tries to find him, Sheriff Bell, and one bad dude named Chigurh.
So far, very typical of McCarthy’s stories: three men wandering half the book towards each other without realizing it. That’s conflict, and it’s building because they’re bound to meet up.
What’s very unMcCarthy is the short sentence structure, the depth he brings to his characters without holding back about whether they’re good guys or bad guys. How long did it take me to see Blood Meridian’s Judge as evil? My opinion of Suttree kept threatening to change. Even in the Orchard Keeper I reserved full judgement until I’d stood by and watched a few too many folks get killed. There’s a lot of dialogue in this novel as well, and it’s directly progressing the story, and it’s short sentence-structure–very realistic I would say.
One more thing that’s different. It’s accessible. Unless McCarthy has buried meaning so deep below the surface that I just can’t find it, I don’t really see too much beyond a good story right now. An adventure story, with good characters, and a good plot.
But where’s the beef?
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology