Fiction novel-"The Road"

C

Cooter DeGraw

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Jan 13, 2005
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Has anyone read "The Road? The Road is a 2006 Pulitizer novel by American writer Cormac McCarthy. Read it and you will feel a new reverance toward your comfortable life and and the lowly peanut butter sandwich. All of us can/will think of better ways to survive in such a world, and this book is a thought provoking piece.
 
Interesting...it's been in my wishlist box for a while. Looks like they've made a movie of it as well (releasing in November).

ROCK6
 
A good read. Not so much about survival, more about human relationships, how people react in times of adversity.

Hope the movie is as good.

Andy
 
FYI, McCarthy is the guy who wrote "No Country for Old Men": it was a book before it was a movie.
 
Andrew Colglazier said:
A good read. Not so much about survival, more about human relationships, how people react in times of adversity.

Hope the movie is as good.

Andy
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I agree. Not sure how well the book will translate to the big screen. Who's going to be in the movie??
 
The novel is well done, though I generally don't like the pretense of the style in which it is written. (Writing in fragments does not automatically equal profundity, but in this case it works well enough.) It is brutally, horribly sad.
 
It blew me away with the relationship between father and son. Those freezing nights worrying about survival were well done. I really loved it, but McCarthy's style isn't for everyone. His lack of commas and punctuation marks can get confusing.
 
It's not just confusing; it's annoying. The book could have been a hell of a lot better had it been written traditionally using simply, established rules of written English. It's still a good book and has a certain raw power, but I'd respect it a lot more if it wasn't so gimmicky.
 
If you can't read Spanish, don't bother reading All The Pretty Horses or The Crossing. When his characters speak Spanish, there's no translation. It's not just "agua" or "si" but whole conversations. Annoying for sure.
 
Sharp Phil said:
The novel is well done, though I generally don't like the pretense of the style in which it is written. (Writing in fragments does not automatically equal profundity, but in this case it works well enough.) It is brutally, horribly sad.
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I think he used that style to enhance the bleakness and grayness of the landscape he was literally portraying.

Andy
 
Sharp Phil said:
Yes, I know it was done deliberately. It's still pretentious.
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In your opinion. It's pretentious (in my opinion) to state that otherwise.

I've read many of McCarthy's books and this one was definitely a bit of a departure for him and not my favorite, but a provocative read nonetheless (imho).
 
The Road is one of the better works of real literature to come along in awhile. Not a bright and shiny novel for sure, but a solid story.
 
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Bear Claw Chris Lappe said:
The Road is one of the better works of real literature to come alone in awhile. Not a bright and shiny novel for sure, but a solid story.
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"Bright and Shiny" doesn't seem to apply to any of McCarthy's books that come to mind. He definitely tends to explore the darker side of events and human nature in my experience.

(And in my opinion. ;))
 
McCarthy's "Blood Meridian" is one of my all-time favorite reads. "The Road" and "No Country..." are good, but some of his other stuff is fantastic. Check him out; I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Stay sharp,
desmobob
 
If you're looking for "light reading" do not pick up any of Cormac MacCarthy's books. "Blood Meridian" is probably one of the most violent novels I've ever read. It is an accurate look at the scalp trade in the mid-1800's in the Southwest and Mexico. And a working knowledge of Spanish is very helpful when reading any of his Border Trilogy novels.

Ron
 
Blood Meridian, Outer Dark and Suttree are some of my favorites. :thumbup:
 
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