Here is my review - my husband really didnt like this book at all its funny how people can love a book and others hate the same thing. I couldnt make up my mind to give this 4 or 5 stars but in the end went with 5 stars because I think this is a book which Ill continue to think about for a long time and it got under my skin. The book is about a man and boy who are struggling to survive as they make thier way towards the coast. We know that some event has taken place which has detroyed all life including most plant life and animals. The only things to eat are tinned food they come across as they are unable to eat animals as there are none and even if they could cultivate land for food they couldnt stay in one place for any length of time due to the roaming cannibals going around the road hunting down people like the man and boy. So you are left with a hopeless situation and I guess the question is if there is no future whats the point? Well the man sees in the boy a great hope and is his only reason for carrying on even though they are both starving. First off I can completely understand why people will not like this book, we know no details of this event that has taken place, no details on the backgrounds of the man and boy (well very little) and I can understand how this would bother people. If your the sort of person that likes everything tied up at the end of a book then perhaps this wont be for you. I can however get past this and these details were not important to me as I read the book. Its about the depth of feeling between these two people along with the struggle and hope they have and in this the book works brilliantly. I dont think Ive ever been more desperate for a happy ending for these characters in my life (and ive read some depressing stuff) I was reading on scared that something terrible was going to happen to them which is another reason its got 5 stars from me.
Well, the environment of the boy and his father is very bare, which is why he wrote using minimal prose. He also doesn't like quotes for some reason. I've read two of his novels (The Road and Blood Meridian) and neither use quotes. It takes a while getting used to, but it's not that bad after a while. As for his writing style, he writes like Faulkner. I would highly recommend reading McCarthy's Blood Meridian. It's probably one of the best (if not the best) American novel in the past 50 years. I've heard that All the Pretty Horses is also good.
Very good post, Pinkpaper. I actually enjoyed the fact that McCarthy did not dive into what caused the scorching of the earth since it presented the desperation of the story as absolute. I believe he actually put in one line describing a bright flash with a series of concussions. I applauded him for doing this. If he would have dove into what caused the scorching then it may have taken away from the actual story of the father/son relationship. Regarding the man and boy – again I felt he did a really well job at presenting them as absolute. If he would have went back and described details of his early years with the boy more than he did, where they were staying before setting off for the coast, how they survived for so long where they originated from it would have thinned out the impact of the desperation for me. I did; however, feel a little flat about the parts involving what the man and boy called “Bad Guys.” He didn’t really convey the true horror of what they did for me (mainly the one involving the basement of the house they discovered) or the suspense of running and hiding. I think he could have spent just a tad bit more time on those areas. Overall, I give it a 3.5 out of 5. I loved the world he painted and how well he developed the father and son relationship but I have to take ½ a point off for the effort it took to understand conversations and who was speaking. One thing that I simply cannot understand is the final paragraph of the book. I’m not going to dive into here and have Cogito take time out of his day to correct my spoiler mistake (Thank you, sir btw) but I took it as an explanation of life going on even after a horrific event. Thoughts? Comments? Smart Remarks? Thirdwind – on your recommendation I just ordered Blood Meridian.
So have I, I ordered this morning . Thirdwind your have alot to answer for if its rubbish and at the very least you should demand commission from Cormac
The Road I didn't see any threads on this yet, so please forgive if I missed it. I just started reading The Road by Cormac Mccarthy. The first thing that stands out to me is the grammar and, though I read Mccarthy's explanation why the grammar is so -- controversial -- I think the reader is a bit cheated. The whole idea in writing fiction, as far as I'm concerned, is suspended reality. And while yes, I know who is saying what without quotes, everytime I read a quotation, I'm pulled from the fictional world, even if just briefly. But what gets to me is that there's little uniformity among his own grammatical style. You will see "dont" and "don't" on the same page, with no rhyme or reason why one has an apostrophe and the next doesn't. Now I don't even really care, because you can still read the story and I'm sure that's some marvelous feat for Mccarthy. And you can get around it enough to enjoy the story, which is great. And so on, and so forth. BUT I notice it all the same because it's so different from the countless books I read before his. So, I'm curious what other's opinions are on this writing method. Does grammar matter? Does it take away from the story? Even though you enjoy it still, could you have enjoyed it more without these oddities? Is it unconventional and "cool" or does trying to prove a point just come out as sloppy?
I don't remember seeing this, but my guess is that the difference has to do with whether the word is spoken or whether it's in the narrative. McCarthy is a great writer (IMO, he's the best writer alive), so he can pull this off while still writing in a clear and accessible manner. For the purpose of The Road, I think these "oddities" are perfectly well-suited for the theme of the novel. For me, using proper grammar would have made the novel worst; it would not have had the same effect. I like it just the way it is. I've read another one of McCarthy's books called Blood Meridian. There are no quotes in that book either. And I think it's the same case with most of his other books. That's just something he finds "logical", and he's not trying to be unconventional by doing it.
I've only read The Road, and at the time of reading it I thought his punctuation-less style choice was brilliant and used to further the post-apocalyptic theme. Since then I've learned that he's used this style on all of his books because he likes to keep things as simple as possible; he hates a lot of commas, quotation marks, and such. My evaluation of him has gone down a notch since understanding this, but nevertheless, I think it worked extremely well with The Road.
^ Ooh, thanks for reminding me. I almost forgot there was a movie. I think I will watch it this weekend if possible.
While I thought Mcarthy had very vivid imagery, I didn't care for the novel. It just didn't effect me on an emotional level. That being said I'm quite excited for the movie and hope to see it before it leaves theaters.
Read the book, haven't seen the movie- hopefully it doesn't detract too much from the brilliance that is the book. The imagery, the description, the language, seems unparalleled. It was my introduction to McCarthy as well, and since then I've read several more of his works. It was his "Suttree" that took the top spot in my favorite novels list. Work of genius, as far as I'm concerned, even more so than The Road.
I recently read Suttree and found it to be very good. It's definitely better than The Road, IMO. It reminded me a lot of how Faulkner writes. But Suttree is still nothing compared to Blood Meridian, which I think is his best novel.
I read Blood Meridian too: a vivid and relentless read. It was my favorite- until I picked up Suttree. I think this is because I feel a more personal connection to the latter. Something about it touched me- there's no other way to put it. It affected me. It's a book I'll read again and again. Blood Meridian was terrific, but paled in comparison to the language and description and sheer emotional weight of Suttree. I knew it was going to be an exceptional book after reading the opening. Of course, it's no coincidence that Faulkner is my all-time favorite author. McCarthy cites him as an influence.
