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The Road

Author: Cormac Mccarthy
Publisher: Picador
Category: Book

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Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars

125 reviews
Sales Rank: 91

Media: Paperback
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.9

ISBN: 0330447548
EAN: 9780330447546
ASIN: 0330447548

Publication Date: June 1, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New Book - In Stock - UK Seller - Very Fast Delivery - First Class Customer Service

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Customer Reviews: Read 120 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Indelible July 11, 2008
As a fairly new parent Ive spent moments imagining worst case scenario's relating to my son and the emptiness that must follow. This book gave me that same wrenching physical feeling of loss, only magnified to levels I had never imagined. Loss of everything including, in the darkest moments where bravery gives way to reality, hope. No fiction has ever made me feel so desperately sad. For me the scenario isnt what hurts, its the love.

5 out of 5 stars

Desperately good July 8, 2008
It is odd to recommend so strongly a book in which there is so little pleasure in the reading. From the opening sentences of The Road you are left in no doubt that this is going to be a tough journey. The central characters never have names. The prose is so pared down that even a comma soon comes to represent a feature in the landscape of the page. Even dialogue is given none of the normal grammatical flourishes.

Two figures - a man and a young boy - struggle to survive in a post apocalyptic landscape. Everything is burnt. Ash is like snow. Those who survived the initial conflagration have long since passed by, looted the food, and now learnt to live by preying on each other. The man and the boy travel in hope, but with fading expectation. And as the reader is drawn more closely to their ordeal, their hope fades too.

This is not a book to be constantly picked up and put down: the monotony of survival which provides the plot will make the plot itself seem monotonous. Read it instead in a burst. If you do you will get your reward. You will then experience the poetry of the barren prose in the barren landscape, and how it only serves to make the flame of human spirit which is at the centre of the book shine more brightly. And then gradually, and paradoxically, you will begin to enjoy reading.

Because oddly, brilliantly, and almostly unbearably sadly, this bleak book is entirely about the human spirit. It is like a humanist anthem: a tale of how when everything is gone, including religion, the flame of loyalty, love and devotion is almost impossible to extinguish.

By the end, which I read on the Tube, I was openly crying - it was impossible to do otherwise.

The Road has already secured its status as a modern classic. In years to come schoolchildren will be made to write essays on it, and doubtless seek out unintended metaphors and meanings. So read it now, before it is burdened by too much fame, and be enriched by its simple, skeletal beauty.

1 out of 5 stars

The Road July 8, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful

A 'Road' to boredom, better than any anaesthetic. A good read for those who annually roll about in Glastonbury mud! The words 'just awful' compliment this dire read.

Mike

3 out of 5 stars

The end of The Road... July 7, 2008
...is what lets it down.

The reader is invited to walk alongside the man and the boy on their journey through a post-apocolyptic landscape in search of sanctuary. It's a grim and gloomy journey but is made bearable by the author's skill with language and by the tender and tense relationship he portrays between a father and son in the midst of extraordinary circumstances.

The major quandry throughout is how will the journey end. And the end is where it all unravelled for me. It felt rushed. More importantly, it felt implausable.

Still, The Road was better than most books I've read of late. I'd actually give it three and a half stars if I had that option. Certainly worth a read.

5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant but difficult July 4, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Having just finished this in 2 days and then reading the mixed reviews, I felt compelled to stick my own oar into the debate.

Overall it is brilliant, absolutely brilliant. Set in a post apocalyptic world, it's meant to be depressing. The landscape is grey throughout and there is very little to take joy in. The descriptive passages are very repetitive and I found myself skipping forward at times barely reading sentences. So far so bad.

The writing style is absolutely infuriating. Part sentences. (Just like that one.) Many times I had to rewind to ascertain who was speaking in the passages of text. After a while I did get attuned to the style of writing and it didn't hinder my overall enjoyment of the book. But it was difficult for the first 50 pages or so.

As regards being given an insight into what could happen to our world, that's just rubbish. Anyone with a brain knows it's going to be pretty bad. We're not told what actually caused the destruction, but if it's a nuclear war or a giant meteor hitting the earth, I don't need an author telling me it's going to be tough going from now on.

So is there anything good in it and why did I give it 5 stars. Because of the relationship between the father and son. The situation is totally irrelevant. The dialogue between the two at first seems artifically brief, as if McCarthy has used it for literary style. But after a while I realised that a lot of the conversations between myself and my 6 year old daughter are similar. Oh yea we have big chats. But very often the dialogue is rat-a-tat with just a word or two from either. Not indicating coldness or distance, but reflecting the depth of understanding between us. So it was with the father and son. Often things were said which seemed like telepathy between the two. The strength of each, individually, or to be supportive, or to make the other proud, made me very aware of nuances in my own situation which I hadn't always been aware of.

As I said the situation is irrelevant. It could be a marriage break up, a death, a tough year at school, a disappointment in a football match, being let down by a friend - anything where one party is upset. It made me consider how good I would be as a father. What lengths would I go to help and protect my child? Maybe the situation would only last 5 minutes but would I respond then?

I agree with many of the reviewers who criticised this book. It is bleak. The writing style is difficult. The narrative doesn't flow and is confusing at times. But the insight into the relationship between a parent and child is heart-warming, optimistic, enlightening, awakening, helpful and thoroughly enjoyable.