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Loading... The Road (2006)by Cormac McCarthy
Work detailsThe Road by Cormac McCarthy (2006)
 BrookeAshley | May 19, 2013 |  Listen to springsteen's devils and dust while you're reading this book. You will not wake up the next morning. (  ) usefuljack | May 17, 2013 | Listen to springsteen's devils and dust while you're reading this book. You will not wake up the next morning. ( ) usefuljack | May 17, 2013 | Really good, albeit somewhat depressing. (  ) Velcrosky | May 12, 2013 | Firstly let me say that about half-way through this somewhat slight slip of a book I was non-plussed to learn that it was an Oprah bookclub selection. See previous posts for my counter-cultural tendencies but in this case the content was dark enough to justify breaking my own rules. In short, McCarthy's "The Road" is the story of a father and son as they make their way across the U.S. after an unspecified apocalypse. The details of the plot in and of themselves are not all that interesting but the book does make several interesting points about the human condition. On the surface, the book is a simple admonishment to the reader to appreciate the state of the world under the orderly governance of human law. The unnamed protagonists are assailed by cannibals, faced with the possibility of starvation and constantly on the alert for an untimely end to their fragile lives on the planet. All this is relatively standard for the post-apocalypse genre. What is very slightly unusual is the idea that in such a situation pockets of benevolence will persist. The father and son travel in search of "the good guys" who, we presume, will take them in. What is not clear is how the couple knows that such people even exist given that they haven't fallen in with them up to this point. Further, it's ironic that despite their claims to being on the side of "good" (whatever "good" can really mean in such a situation) they demonstrate benevolence towards the other human beings they encounter only begrudgingly. To sum up, this is a fine example of the genre but not really one that introduces any grand new ideas. The standard plots and subplots apply in the same expected ways. A good introduction to the idea for those who may not have read the 1,000 books on the same topic which preceded it or been blessed with having watched the 20 TZ episodes that deal with the situation... (  ) slavenrm | Apr 28, 2013 |
 But McCarthy’s latest effort, The Road, is a missed opportunity.  Like Steinbeck, McCarthy shepherds his protagonists from an apocalypse of man's making into a hell where man himself is the scourge. Like Steinbeck, McCarthy never holds more than a fistful of scavenged victuals between his heroes and death. And like Steinbeck, McCarthy conjures from this pitiless flight the miracle of unswerving humanity. Astonishingly, this is a book about grace.  With only the corpse of a natural world to grapple with, McCarthy's father and son exist in a realm rarely seen in the ur-masculine literary tradition: the domestic. And from this unlikely vantage McCarthy makes a big, shockingly successful grab at the universal. “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. Post-apocalyptic fiction isn't automatically better when written by Cormac McCarthy, but he does have a way of investing genre clichés with fine gray tones and morose poetry.
No descriptions found. "A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food - and each other." "The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, "each the other's world entire," are sustained by love."--BOOK JACKET.… (more) (summary from another edition) |
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If I hadn't seen Children of Men, might I have enjoyed this more? It's possible, but difficult to determine. There's certainly something to be said for using simplicity to convey a story, but I kept feeling like so much more could have been done with the themes. (