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The Road by Cormac McCarthy
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The Road

by Cormac McCarthy

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations
11,42562883 (4.16)451
▾Recommendations

LibraryThing recommendations

  1. Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
  2. No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
  3. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
  4. All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
  5. The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy
  1. The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
  2. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
  3. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
  4. On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
  5. Dies the Fire: A Novel of the Change by S. M. Stirling
see more recommendations for this work

Member recommendations

  1. JD456 recommends The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
  2. bdav1818 recommends In A Perfect World by Laura Kasischke
  3. lmichet recommends The Drowned World by J. G. Ballard
  4. klarusu recommends Far North by Marcel Theroux, "Far North is less harrowing than The Road but equally thought provoking"
  5. psybre recommends Earth Abides by George R. Stewart, "Earth Abides, a classic post-apocalyptic novel published in 1949, is a bit less dark, and as an ecological fable, contains more science than The Road. (see more) When pondering to read The Road again, read this book instead."
  6. Boohradley recommends Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler, "There are a lot of similarities between the plot of this book and The Road. In Parable of the Sower an adolescent girl, who suffers from hyper-empathy, (see more) makes a long journey in hope of survival in a hostile, post-apocalyptic world."
  7. PDcastello recommends I Am Legend by Richard Matheson, "Same type of small and silent epic"
  8. Stbalbach recommends The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski, "Kosinski & McCarthy were born 5 weeks apart in 1933 and were ages 6-12 during WWII. Both books are dark violent fables told from a child's view."
  9. dhoyt recommends A Wrinkle in the Skin by John Christopher, "A much better father and son story in a post-apocalyptic world."
  10. gonzobrarian recommends The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson

(see all 14 recommendations)

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▾Member reviews
English (599)  Spanish (8)  French (7)  Danish (3)  Dutch (2)  Swedish (2)  Italian (2)  Catalan (2)  German (1)  Czech (1)  Norwegian (1)  All languages (628)
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Showing 1-5 of 599 (next | show all)
This was another one of those, 'I read it in a day but when I was done I couldn't tell if I liked it or not' books. It was just so damn depressing, and the author's style isn't my favorite but it did mesmerize me and convince me to want to see the upcoming movie... I just hope the movie is a little more uplifting. ( )
  Kat_In_Wonderland | Nov 21, 2009 |
Depressing, yet somehow strangely intriguing. I had to keep reading to find out what the heck was going on. You really root for the main characters in their struggle. ( )
  KarriDawn | Nov 19, 2009 |
I hate to say it, but I was underwhelmed. The book was engaging and interesting to read, for at least the first 50 pages, but the story never seemed to go anywhere. I was also offended by the [LIGHT SPOILER] scene when the man and son come upon an infant's corpse that has been cooking over a fire to be eaten. [/LIGHT SPOILER] How pointlessly gratuitous can you get? As a reader, I'd already been lead to understand what the other "travelers" were doing for food; this scene seemed pointless but for the gross-out/shock value.

The suddenly-happy ending came out of nowhere, and though I'm sure one could go on about symbolism and McCarthy's intended message, on the most basic level I can't say I enjoyed this book. ( )
  krysbrezinski | Nov 17, 2009 |
The trailer I saw to the upcoming film of this book intrigued me. The film appears to be a special effects vision of post-apocalyptic battles between ragged survivors and cannibalistic refugees from the Deliverance hillbillies.The book, fortunately, is nothing of the sort. Yes, it is a tale of post-apocalypse survival, but McCarthy has crafted an amazing character study where all the characters are faceless (symbolically) and nameless (literally). Don't expect neatly wrapped up plot lines, McCarthy's forte has always been experiencing a moment in time ( )
  jwcooper3 | Nov 15, 2009 |
A GREAT FATHER AND SON STORY ABOUT SURVIVAL, COURAGE AND INNER STRENGTH... ( )
  ricky2love | Nov 15, 2009 |
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Showing 1-5 of 599 (next | show all)
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▾Published reviews
“The Road” is a dynamic tale, offered in the often exalted prose that is McCarthy’s signature, but this time in restrained doses — short, vivid sentences, episodes only a few paragraphs or a few lines long, which is yet another departure for him.
added by eereed | editNew York Times Book Review, William Kennedy (Oct 8, 2006)
 
“The Road” offers nothing in the way of escape or comfort. But its fearless wisdom is more indelible than reassurance could ever be.
added by jlelliott | editThe New York Times, Janet Maslin (Sep 25, 2006)
 
Through his scaled-down view of a post-apocalypse American east, McCarthy has discovered a rich, engrossing landscape that is distinctly his own. It’s a horrible pleasure to watch the father and his son make their way through it, even as one remains unsure whether it would be more humane to hope for their survival or hope for their gentle death.
added by eereed | editThe Quarterly Conversation
 
▾Common Knowledge
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Series (with order)
Canonical Title
The Road
Original publication date
2006-09-26
People/Characters
the man
the boy
Wells
Loretta
Ely
Important places
USA
southeastern North America
Important events
Apocalypse
nuclear winter
Awards and honors
Pulitzer Prize (Fiction, 2007)
James Tait Black Memorial Prize (Fiction, 2006)
National Book Critics Circle Award finalist (2006)
Oprah's Book Club selection (March 28, 2007)
SF Site Editor's Choice (2006)
Epigraph
Dedication
This book is dedicated to John Francis McCarthy
First words
When he woke in the woods in the dark and the cold of the night he'd reach out to touch the child sleeping beside him.
Quotations
He'd not have thought the value of the smallest thing predicated on a world to come. It surprised him. That the space which these things occupied was itself an expectation (149).
From daydreams on the road there was no waking. He plodded on. He could remember everything of her save her scent. Seated in a theatre with her beside him leaning forward listening to the music. Gold scrollwork and sconces and the tall columnar folds of the drapes at either side of the stage. She held his hand in her lap and he could feel the tops of her stockings through the thin stuff of her summer dress. Freeze this frame. Now call down your dark and your cold and be damned.
He pulled the boy closer. Just remember that the things you put into your head are there forever, he said. You might want to think about that.

You forget some things, don't you?

Yes. You forget what you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget.
It took two days to cross that ashen scabland. The road beyond fell away on every side. It's snowing, the boy said. He looked at the sky. A single gray flake sifting down. He caught it in his hand and watched it expire there like the last host of christendom.
He thought if he lived long enough the world at last would be lost. Like the dying world the newly blind inhabit, all of it slowly fading from memory.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Shepard, Sam
▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (2)

Cormac McCarthy

The Road

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▾LibraryThing members' description
Book description
The Road follows a man and a boy, father and son, journeying together for many months across a desolate, post-apocalyptic landscape, some years – the period of time almost the same as the age of the boy – after a great, unexplained cataclysm.
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