Title: The RoadAuthor: Cormac McCarthy
First Published: September 26, 2006
Publisher: Vintage
Pages: 324
Genre: Dystopia, Horror, Post-Apocalyptic
Format: Ebook
Source: Purchased
Rating:
Synopsis:
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 Roadis 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. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation.
Buy the Book: AmazonReview
The Road was my first Cormac McCarthy book and it’s a book I still feel conflicted about nearly ten years after reading it. The book was equal parts fascinating and frustrating to read. There is a part of me that wants to read his other books because the plot and themes of The Road was fascinating, but the other part of me is honestly hesitant because of how miserable my reading experience was. It is easily one of the most horrifying and memorable works I’ve ever read, but McCarthy’s writing style was not palatable.
The lack of punctuation, especially the total absence of quotation marks signifying conversation irked me. It wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for the fact that there was little to no notation as to who was talking, and conversation between all of the characters was so bland they were indistinguishable. I found it distracting having to go back and re-read lines of dialogue until I got used to it. I understand that McCarthy writes this way on purpose, that’s his own prerogative but I don’t have to like it.
On the flip side, the story was actually pretty interesting and it kept me reading. The world is described in great detail and although the characters are flat, I still found myself caring at least a little bit about what happened to them. Many of the events in the story are truly shocking, though they begin to fall into a predictable pattern. The theme of hope in humanity and children was sadly missed on me, and I didn’t find the messaging in this book to be all that new or thought-provoking.
Overall it was alright, I like it and don’t like it and the more that time passes I like it even less. There were moments where I was drawn into the story and had knots in my stomach with full-on dread, on the scale of one to ten for visceral horror it is a solid ten. It’s a book that could be great but will not appeal to every reader.
Quote
“When we’re all gone at last there’ll be nobody here but death and his days will be numbered too. He’ll be out in the road there with nothing to do and nobody to do it to.”
Content Warnings
View Spoiler »About the Author
About Cormac McCarthy
Cormac McCarthy is an American novelist and playwright. He has written ten novels in the Southern Gothic, western, and post-apocalyptic genres and has also written plays and screenplays. He received the Pulitzer Prize in 2007 for The Road, and his 2005 novel No Country for Old Men was adapted as a 2007 film of the same name, which won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
His earlier Blood Meridian (1985) was among Time Magazine’s poll of 100 best English-language books published between 1925 and 2005 and he placed joint runner-up for a similar title in a poll taken in 2006 by The New York Times of the best American fiction published in the last 25 years. Literary critic Harold Bloom named him as one of the four major American novelists of his time, along with Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo, and Philip Roth. He is frequently compared by modern reviewers to William Faulkner.
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