No Country for Old Men - Cormac McCarthy

Advantages: Compelling and thought provoking Pulitzer Prize winner.
Disadvantages: Overly simplictic and impersonal language

...‘The Road’ an admittedly boringly titled book, written by Cormac McCarthy was published in 2006 and won the prestigious Columbia University Pulitzer prize this year. Cormac McCarthy, an American writer, born 1933, has written many other books including his first novel The Orchard Keeper, which was published by Random House in 1965, All the Pretty Horses (1992) and No Country for Old Men (2005). The Road is the first of his books I have read and I read it in conjunction with my recently joined book club. The book generated some interesting discussions and it was in fact only later that we realised it had won the Pulitzer Prize. ‘The Road’ is set in a post-apocalyptic era in which the sun has been obscured by ash and the ground covered in its dirty residue. Most of world’s population has been wiped out. Murder and canabalism... Read review

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Advantages: In Review.
Disadvantages: In Review.

...gets to the reason why you bought the book Roy gives us a brief history of his team playing for Ireland and how when McCarthy took over the managers job he treated some players disgracefully. He told a 30 year old Denis Irwin one of the most professional honest hard working men I have ever met to work harder or leave. He is working harder than anyone and he is playing week in week out for Manchester United what more did he want. Embarrassed by these comments Irwin retired. Not happy destroying one great player’s international career after Paul McGrath publicly gave up drinking McCarthy forced Paul to have a drink with his Irish teammates. After that Paul went on a bender and McCarthy never called him up to the team again. To those of you reading this YES McCarthy was a bully and he was worse than he sounds. When the Irish team... Read review

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Advantages: Insightful, amusing, fascinating
Disadvantages: Falls a fraction flat before the end perks things up again

...Is it possible, ponders Pete McCarthy, to belong to a place in which you've never lived? Born and raised in the grim northern English town of St Helens, he insists he doesn't feel English, yet he's only ever spent time in Ireland, the land of his parents, on short childhood holidays. To discover some sort of answer to his doubts, he sets out to drive his battered old car through the Emerald Isle - the country laid claim to by half of America, any number of Englishmen and a gaggle of emigrating Germans; has he any more of a connection to Irishness than them? His travels take him from Cork in the south to Donegal in the north-west, in a meandering route determined by nothing in particular save a desire to explore his Anglo-Irish identity by immersion. In his dedication to Guinness and living half his life in the pub, the author must... Read review

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