A miss

I'm probably alone on this one, but I don't think that No Country For Old Men was one of McCarthy's best. Check Metacritic for a span of views on it. His point about the world becoming darker was well established and I thought the dialogue and the writing in general was great. For me it was a cross between Hemingway and Highsmith. It has the spare nature of Hemingway and the detached approach to violence of Highsmith. It lacked the normal lyrical tones of other McCarthy books, at least for me. The characters were all a little off as well. The principal bad guy was pure evil, probably representing the dark changes to society. His quarry was clueless, and the sheriff ineffectual. There is a large moral point and it was interesting, I just don't think he quite nailed it in this one. Try his other books.