Reading Through My Fingers

You may be wondering, after all my enthusiasm, whatever ever happened with 'No Country for Old Men'. It can't be that long a book. It isn't. I have been reading it off and on, but the truth is that it is a difficult book. I don't mean in terms of language, or ideas; the novel is difficult because McCarthy makes you care too much. It's populated by some wonderfully drawn characters. Even those that could be a cliche, like Bell, win you over. Indeed from the moment I heard Tommy Lee Jones was in the movie version, I knew there could only be one character he could play, and Sheriff Bell could only have one face. With Moss though McCarthy has created a real character to root for. The difficulty then is that these likeable folks must face in Chigurh one of the most venomous sociopathic creations in literature. I remember speaking to a psychiatrist friend of mine about sociopaths and Chigurh accords with everything Peter described. I'm hardly surprised though, as McCarthy seems to really do his research (you know he knows his guns!). If there is a problem it is in the extremity of Chigurh's psychosis; how could such a person survive so long in the world, let alone function in any kind of an occupation, even a murderous one. McCarthy himself seems to see this and halfway through we have the entrance of Carson Wells to address (and so acknowledge) this issue. Still the character doesn't ring entirely true for me; it's a little like Hannibal Lecter cropping up in an episode of 'E.R.'. Sure he's a doctor, but.... Nevertheless I cringe a little whenever Chigurh takes centre stage; you just know something nasty is going to happen. Anyhow I continue to read it, even if from behind the couch and through my fingers.