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The Road

Author: Cormac Mccarthy
Publisher: Picador
Category: Book

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Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars

139 reviews
Sales Rank: 102

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
Condition: Brand new, in stock. Shipped from the UK by First Class Royal Mail service in eco-friendly packaging.

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Customer Reviews: Read 134 more reviews...

2 out of 5 stars

Borrow it from a library, if you must read it August 15, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful

I am immensely puzzled by McCarthy's fame. I keep thinking I should love his books, but I just don't. People I admire and whose opinions I trust urge his books on me and I conclude that these people must be nuts. I managed to read All the Pretty Horses. Goodness, what a waste of time. I read about ten pages of No COuntry for Old Men, hoping desperately that it would grip me. No luck.

So, when I read the first few pages of The Road and instantly felt the kind of exhilaration I wanted to get from his other books, I bought it. Should have saved some cash and visited the local library. Once you get the gist of the narrative framework (post-apocalyptic, father and son trying to reach safety, bad guys everywhere), that's it. It is left to Mr. McCarthy to fill in the graphic details, tick the boxes that will make people feel a bit queezy, and then end the story -- with possibly the most schmaltz you can imagine. I won't spoil it, but it seems clear to me that the author had no idea how to wrap up a story that was utterly bereft of hope (there is a way: be more European about it and don't shy away from the abyss).

Unlike some people, I did not find myself repelled by the bits that are graphic or by the apparent amorality of the tale (in fact, those are the things that made it too samey for my liking). If you are sensitive to such things, definitely do not read this book. You will not feel psychologically or emotionally enriched.

On the positive side, the book is written in a brisk style and a rainy Sunday should be all the time you need to read it. If you buy a copy, you can donate it to a charity shop when you're finished. I can't see this on anyone's list of books to read again and again.

5 out of 5 stars

Definitive. Courageous. Emotionally draining. First classic of the 21st Century August 14, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/RXNN8LTJA1KD0 A searing tale of a possible future for all. Relentless, emotionally challenging, genre defying and both life affirming and changing. If ever your sense of the presence or absence of God is going to be challenged in a book- this is it. I felt as if I had faced up to my own worst nightmare and came out the other end with a ray of hope still intact.

5 out of 5 stars

This stands alone...... August 11, 2008
Alan Warner said it best; "All the modern can do is done here." 'The Road' is a mesmerising novel, full of delicate but powerful prose, with pure poetry flecked within its simple dialogue and basic narrative. Whilst many contemporary novels are often self-indulgent and weighed down by pretentiousness, 'The Road' reduces everything to essentials, focusing on the relationship between a father and his son in a demanding situation with incredibly moving consequences. I simply haven't read a book that's affected me so much for years; heartwarming yet devastating, 'The Road' will have you hooked, and you'll still be thinking about it long after you've turned the last page.

5 out of 5 stars

A masterpiece. The best book that i have ever read!! August 10, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful

I first came across this book when i was reading an article in Empire magazine(it's film version is in post production) I liked the sypnosis so i thought i'd give it a go. I read it in one sitting on a Friday evening and even though i had things that i should have been doing once started i couldn't put it down.It is quite simply incredible.Touching,terrifying and, as i am a parent, the way that this Man will do anything to protect and shelter his young Son, very pertinent.It is set in a world that has been devestated by an unnamed event and the remnants of our species are either "good guys",people who have'nt resorted to eating or enslaving other survivors,or maurarding gangs of road pirates and cannibals,the "bad guys".In such awful times they are each the others world entire and anyone who has a child will recognise at once the significance of the narrative and the structure of the writing.You can read this book and view it from any number of angles(religous,environmental,humanistic)and from a personal point of view, unless we start to take stock of our destruction of this Planet,prophethic.I have never read anything that has been powerful enough to prompt me to even consider writing a review but this book is something very special. I just hope the film can do it justice!!

5 out of 5 stars

Poetic Portrayal of a Post-Apocaliptic Nightmare August 10, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

Written in a haunting, poetic style, Cormac McCarthy's 'The Road' is a tense and atmospheric, yet touching story of a man and his son, struggling to survive in a post-apocalyptic America.
Lead onwards by a human instict for survival, and a child's naive trust in his father, the couple are good and moral, in a world where such things seem to hve become rare (almost as rare as humans themselves).
The book has it's disturbing moments, but these are dealt with in McCarthy's gentle narrative style, and so the book is not overly shocking. It is a little depressing-the future in which they are isolated is scarily like that predicted by scientists now, albeit slightly more extreme, and the causes of the downfall of life is never specified- but in a resigned way, it does not leave one dejected, but strangely at peace; it leaves one thinking.
This book is a gripping read, and because of it's short, poetic form of sentences and structire, it does not take long either. It took me one day of lying in the sun on holiday, and i thought it completely worth my while. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys a well-told story, and i look forward to seeing the film interpretation when it is released later this year.