No Country For Old Men Book Club Questions
Welcome to the Buddy Book Club – we have a light-hearted comedic podcast that covers a variety of books. No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy is a gritty western thriller. It features unforgettable characters, great writing and like most Cormac McCarthy books, isn’t for those looking for a happy feel good ending. The book was adapted to the big screen in 2007 and ended up winning four academy awards, primarily because they did a great job of bringing Cormac McCarthy’s characters to life. If you’re interested, you can check out our podcast on the book.
Our book club questions try to be a little more outside the box/comedic than your typical book club questions – hopefully you enjoy them.
Book Club Questions – No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
-> Did Llewelyn Moss’ tactics once he found the money, upset you? What would you have done differently?
Other than changing the bag out immediately, I would have flown somewhere and been living it up rather than hiding in dingy motels in Texas.
-> Did Llewelyn actually just hate his wife?
Seems like filling her in and escaping with her or sacrificing himself for her would have been the more chivalrous act, but maybe deep down he didn’t actually love her (and why he was with a 15-year old hitchhiker instead of with his wife).
-> Does Texas come off feeling awfully small in this book? It seems like the characters were constantly bumping into each other.
El Paso isn’t really a small city, it has a population of a million and is 1/5 the size of Rhode Island, yet everyone seems to be running into each other at the same motels and diners.
-> What did you think of the endings for all of our main characters?
I actually liked the ending because it made Anton one of the best villains ever written, especially the final scene with Carla Jean.
-> What did you think of the dream sequence ending from Bell?
Maybe it’s my 8th grade reading abilities, but I wasn’t sure what the purpose of that ending was, kind of made the book come to a screeching halt.
-> Do you think Anton was really into quantum mechanics and Schrödinger’s Cat experiments? He tells Carla Jean, “Somewhere you made a choice. All followed to this” and is constantly making people determine their own ‘fate’.
It’s like the darkest timeline in Community or the Silicon Valley explanation, everything was based around coin flips and chances that were already predetermined and had nothing to do with Anton.
-> Where does Anton rank in terms of villains for you?
I loved that it felt like Anton was playing Grand Theft Auto the whole book and everyone else were just bystanders getting in the way.
-> What did you think of the interaction between Llewelyn and the 15-year-old hitchhiker?
Was kind of weird right? Also, just because you give someone money doesn’t mean you’re allowed to talk down to them like Llewelyn does the whole time. He seemed so smug (and creepy).
-> Did you get the ‘old man yells at clouds‘ vibe from Bell the whole book?
Seems like he was just constantly saying “kids these days” over and over and that was his role in the book.
-> Are you glad we don’t rely on mail as much today? It seems like all the detective work was done by just looking through some ones mail and finding out exactly who they’ve been talking to and where they’ve been.
Kramer was right about the mail along!
-> How do you think the book compares to the movie? Would you cast anyone different?
I was pretty surprised at how similar the gas station scene was and how great it was, they cast Anton perfectly.
Did we miss some questions? Reach out to us or check out our podcast.
