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highly recommended |
A searing, postapocalyptic novel destined to become Cormac McCarthy?s masterpiece.
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. 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.
From the Hardcover edition.
Awesome read 
I remember having to take those advanced English courses back in High School. I was drafted because I did pretty well in a Creative Writing course, and the English department had an authoritarian system that forced the unwilling to take more English. All whining aside, I actually came to enjoy analyzing stories and earning the nickname "misanthrope".
The only reason to inflict my sufferings on the rest of the world is that "The Road" is the first book in my life that would have inspired me to write a paper of my own volition. I want to write about the lessons in the book, the underlying meanings, and even search for symbolism that I am not sure the writer actually meant to put in there, but are sufficiently plausible to satisfy an English teacher looking for symbolism and archetypes and whatnot.
I have read the 1-star reviews to see why the writers felt this excellent book deserved just one. The poor grammar and punctuation were so much a part of the book that I did not notice them. And I'm the sort of person who notices all of the errors in the emails of others, and cannot catch 100% of my own until I re-read my messages after sending. I noticed some idiosyncratic words and grammar, but they belonged to the characters, not to the author. I almost want to shout to the negative reviewers that they must have missed the obvious lessons in the story. They must have missed the fact that there are scenes of great horror, but this is not a horror story.
More than anything, I want to cast a 5-star vote for this gook. Technically, it may not be great, but it is awesomely good. I am inclined to create an entirely new class of "good" for this book.
'Nuff said
Living with No Hope
No color. No beauty. Music is meaningless. Art is pointless. Sounds mask danger and no one is to be trusted. Not even family.
The characters have two bullets and few choices for their use: Survive for the next day or end the horror of living with no hope no food no government no safety.
This novel is classic McCarthy. Antihero characters. Ambiguous endings. Harsh settings. And cannabalism.
reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
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