Fiction novel-"The Road"

Best to borrow "The Road" to read. That way you won't feel bad about spending money on it.
I read most of it in one night, wanting it to get better.
 
Blood Meridian and Suttree are both outstanding. The Crossing is a big favorite of mine as well. In my opinion :D, McCarthy's punctuation style takes some getting used to but is very well suited to his subject matter and tone.

Edited to add: I couldn't put The Road down, and wish I'd purchased it in hardcover instead.

JR
 
IMO McCarthy is one of the great stylists of our time in the dying art of the novel. But his stuff is just so damned depressing. Took me a long time to shake the effects of "Blood Meridian", if I ever really did. Great lit should change you, & I don't want to be changed by Mr. McCarthy anymore.
 
This is one of my favorite books. There are parts that are redundant (how many cooked babies can one read about) but it left me wondering what I would do in a similar situation.

A great read!

Actually - I listened to it - verbally the punctuation seems to roll much better when spoken that when read - if that makes sense.


TF
 
The Road was a good book in it's relentlessly brutal way; it certainly destroys the edenic romance and muted optimism that you find in a lot of apocalyptic stories. It literally gave me nightmares - maybe because I read it shortly after the birth of my daughter.
 
There's a reason The Road won the Pultizer Prize: it's an amazing work of literature, despite how darkly nihilistic the tone and language. While not my favorite McCarthy novel---that would be Blood Meridian--this one is a close second. There's not a lot of hope in that book, and I hope things don't ever play out that way. I'm a big fan of Cormac McCarthy, and I consider him probably our greatest living author. Suttree and Child of God are also great reads. But his style of writing is definitely not for everyone.
 
I got this book for father's day. I could care less about his style of writing. It was story about a father trying to keep his son alive in abrutal reality. I enjoyed it.
 
bltjr1951 said:
I read most of it in one night, wanting it to get better.
Click to expand...

I read all of it in one long evening/night, because I was afraid to stop reading!

I brought his book, "Child of God" on a hunting trip and ended up spending the first day sitting in the woods reading until the book was finished. :-)

Stay sharp,
desmobob
 
I love reading a good book in the woods.


I will have to check out blood meridian.

I did not like the movie "No Country" especially the ending.
 
I read the Road last winter (2007) and it scared the hell outta me. i dont ever want to end up like they did, without enough food, ammunition, and other necessities. This book stepped up my aquiring of survival supplies.

----- Eric
 
I have it for my book club read thsi month - I suggested it. After waking thinking about work - I read a third before dawn the morning.

I gather it does not get any lighter.


So far it is a good book exploring the relatinships unders stres issue BUT I regret reccomending it as frankly - "be alert but not alarmed" I have enough darkenss forced on me in the real world, I don't like pushing my mind by choice even further into dark places, lest it get stuck there.

It portrays a world only of futility and depression - implying that is the only, unrelieved, response - not so

The style also intentionally ignores the glimpses of happiness taht would naturally occurr (if rarely) - only mentions the "coits" in the trolley they played with when they are lost..... i.e the half empty without the half full.


So it may be great book and an appropriate style, but is not a style I will choose to follow to closely
 
I'm very curious about how this book could be a movie. Very dark read.
 
borrowed time said:
I read the Road last winter (2007) and it scared the hell outta me. i dont ever want to end up like they did, without enough food, ammunition, and other necessities. This book stepped up my aquiring of survival supplies.

----- Eric
Click to expand...

Eric, I think you missed the point if you think you can prepare for a world like the one portrayed in The Road. The events in the story play out YEARS after the collapse of society. The main characters have no choice but to be on the road headed South as the nuclear winter just keeps getting colder and worse and the land more barren. There is no safety hunkering down, anywhere. Once your food or fuel ran out you have to move on... down the road. If that scenario comes to pass that's it, humanity is done for, I don't care how much stuff you've stored in the basement or up at the little cabin in the woods.
 
I think the physical situation is really an artificial set up to show a variety of pressures on humans in extremis and their responses. I don't even think the pysical situation is meant to be a realistic projection, even less say there is in David Brins The Postman type book or others, or Larry Nivens (in the second ringworld book he apoligises, as after the first book some calculations were done to show the floor of the Ringworld was impossibly strong and could not exist!!). I see several elements that do not seem consistent/realistic to me - but that is not the key point from the Authors point of view

I assume, without having yet finsished the book yet, that there is no way out - it is merely a delaying of the inveitable - and how people address that (or don't as in the mother) and how far they will go and why (having a son/somone you love, but are there still limits?). That is clearly the core of the book and it seems to be doing it very well

My issue with the style is that even in horrific situations people get glimpses of pleasure - however fleeting and expectations adjust. A game of coits, A wam ray of sun after a bitter night - these are in the book but turned very gray. Not ultimately a style I prefer.
 
chasden said:
Eric, I think you missed the point if you think you can prepare for a world like the one portrayed in The Road. The events in the story play out YEARS after the collapse of society. The main characters have no choice but to be on the road headed South as the nuclear winter just keeps getting colder and worse and the land more barren. There is no safety hunkering down, anywhere. Once your food or fuel ran out you have to move on... down the road. If that scenario comes to pass that's it, humanity is done for, I don't care how much stuff you've stored in the basement or up at the little cabin in the woods.
Click to expand...

I read the book awhile ago - very good book. I agree with your assessment about the time line and conditions assessment. (If I remember correctly) The wife could not handle the situation and in her own way chose to die. The father chose to live and raise the child. So it was about 6-7 years (child's age guess) after the start of the calamity.

My limited view on the meaning of the book is:
1. The basic purpose of life is to impart your values (and other things) to your children
2. Highlight the role of the father in the family - (devalued in modern times)
3. Sacrifice - farther for son

http://www.themodernword.com/reviews/mccarthy_road.html
 
chasden said:
Eric, I think you missed the point if you think you can prepare for a world like the one portrayed in The Road. The events in the story play out YEARS after the collapse of society. The main characters have no choice but to be on the road headed South as the nuclear winter just keeps getting colder and worse and the land more barren. There is no safety hunkering down, anywhere. Once your food or fuel ran out you have to move on... down the road. If that scenario comes to pass that's it, humanity is done for, I don't care how much stuff you've stored in the basement or up at the little cabin in the woods.
Click to expand...

I took a bit different read on it. I saw the father, through his internal dialogue, as an unprepared individual, sort of the average joe who had been forced to move, and really had no knowledge of survival at all, but new he had to get the kid to the coast. I kept thinking to myself as I read it that he should have had a bit more forethought to a lot of what he was doing, but that he probably represented the majority of people in the country in his reaction.

I did find a nice ray of hope later on, but it's a very dark road to travel, no pun intended.;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top