5/12/2023 0 Comments No country for old men paperbackCain, Jim Thompson and their gloomy paperback peers, the crime novel aimed its cheap handgun at the heart of America's most prized beliefs about its destiny: that the loot we've scooped up will belong to us forever and that history allows clean getaways.Ĭormac McCarthy's "No Country for Old Men" is as bracing a variation on these noir orthodoxies as any fan of the genre could expect, although his admirers may not be sure at first about quite how to take the book, which doesn't bend its genre or transcend it but determinedly straightens it back out. Corny and crude in the way of all great folk art, the intrinsically pessimistic crime novel - as opposed to the basically optimistic detective novel - is not about the workings of human justice but the dominion of inhuman time. The freedom (perhaps illusory) to make poor choices and the space (as real as the highways) to flee their consequences - temporarily, at least. LIKE classic French cooking, the best American crime fiction relies on a limited number of simple ingredients (which may be why it's so popular in France). NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN By Cormac McCarthy.
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