The Counselor

My favorite author. Only written about a dozen books. They are all great. I have all but one in hardback. Four have been made into movies. The Counselor is a screenplay for the movie. As usual, both the book and the movie omit none of the gore that is associated with McCarthy's writings. If your not a fan of the author, you probably won't enjoy the story. If you are a fan, it is too short to whet your appetite for a McCarthy saga.

Accurately keeps up with the movie and only differs at two points.. loved reading it.

The book is better than the movie but they both are GREAT!!!

The Counsellor is about a man who is driven by greed and agrees to enter into a drug deal with a cartel run by viciously violent drug lords. The deal goes south and the counsellor's world crashes down around him. This is the first screenplay I've ever read and it was an interesting experience. It didn't feel as disjointed as I thought it would but I think this story would have been better told in the traditional novel format. I say this because the theme of the book is 'Choice' and with such a theme you need to delve deep into the characters' psyches and backgrounds in order to understand their motives. It's almost impossible to do this in a screenplay. Another problem with the format is that the consequences of the consellor's choice never feel as serious as they should because the characters' actions and happenings in the book are described as they would be in an instruction manual. Despite not enjoying this read I still am a big fan of McCarthy's work because he is very good at using his character's dialogue as commentary on the human condition. His spartan use of language never leaves you wanting more and gives his writing a beautiful and unique rhythm and feel.

Not what I expected - both the book and the movie paint vivid pictures of dancing with the devil while convincing oneself you're above being burnt.

I am sure the movie will be excellent, but the book is written as a screenplay, and not as a novel. Dissapointing....

Even the movie trailer scared the bejesus out of me when I saw it on TV, and the book is undeniably a compulsive read ... but the sentences that use "and" where anyone else would put a period get to be a bit contrived after a while. Notwithstanding that, I still think he's a great writer ... kudos to AMazon for getting this out as promptly as you did!

A masterwork. I learned more from this script as well as the unedited film version than I ever did in two grad schools, and maybe even college, all rolled up in one. The "story" is classic McCarthy. A drug deal gone bad wrapped around this author's incredibly profound revelations and observations about existence. While the drug deal drives the story, the highlight of the experience is the teaching done in five key scenes, namely the Diamond Dealer, the dog food scene, Westray & The Counselor at the bar, and finally, the breathtaking wisdom of El Jefe, the drug lord, as he explains the world to us and our Counselor.

i love it . fantastic.

the film is truly wretched but don't be put off reading this masterpiece of literary fiction. not sure if its actually a script as its so layered and dense with text but its a very powerful read. if you are in any way into cormac mccarthy this is a must buy.

Qualche settimana fa ho visto il film The Counselor in TV ma non mi ha convinto, secondo me mancava qualche passaggio, così ho deciso di leggere il libro ed ho scoperto che era disponibile solo la sceneggiatura. Tutti i dubbi sono stati chiariti. Che storia.....

THIS BOOK IS A SCRIPT FOR A PLAY, NOT A NOVEL. THIS SHOULD BE MENTIONED ON THE WEBSITE.

While watching the movie, not only the beauty of the actresses, but also the beauty of the dialogs impressed me. What made me buy the book was the wish to reread the dialogs. The book makes the movie come back to one's imagination, but leaves you the time to think about the dialogs. Great, I enjoyed it.