The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

dantzk8 said:
If you have liked those books you will like "Blood meridian".dantzk.
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I'm reading Blood Meridian right now. It's slow going for me, because I don't have a lot of time to read, since I mostly work and sleep. Blood Meridian has been tough for me, and not because it isn't a well written book, it certainly is. Everything that is said about this writer being the mythopoeic heir to Melville and Faulkner is true and he has a wonderful gift for vivid descriptiveness and I like that. My problem with him is his relentless violent darkness. There are "scenes" in this book that honestly made me angry with the author for having put them in my mind. He conjures these horrific images before your imagination and they stick fast in your consciousness, repulsive and disturbing. I almost quit reading the book several times. But, too many reviewers, both professional and lay, give him such fabulous acolades that I've just kept ploughing through. As a matter of fact, noted literary critic Harold Bloom, who wrote the introduction to the modern Library edition of Blood Meridian admits that he quit reading twice himself, but felt well rewarded for finally finishing the novel and thus gave McCarthy excellent reviews, calling him America's greatest living writer. So, I have continued on, hoping to be similarly rewarded for my perseverence.

If you read Blood Meridian be prepared to be punished by repetetive images of extraordinary violence, moral darkness and relentless hopelessness. Also, keep a dictionary handy as you read, becuase McCarthy uses many dozens of words that you've probably never heard before. He either has a massive personal vocabulary or writes with a thesaurus and dictionary constantly by his side. People I work with constantly poke fun at me for using too many words that no-one else knows, but even I can't understand much of his jargon. All that said, be also prepared for a novel of unusual vivid descriptiveness and verbal imagery. And enjoy the fact that he is a writer with quite an extraordinary vision and imagination.
 
I would highly recommend "Suttree". One mans struggle to escape alcoholism and its attendent problems. I have read it a number of times and get something new out of it every time. It takes place around the fifties in the south and is a glimpse of life that I never dreamed of. Really facinating. The background of the story is typical of what you would expect from a McCarthy novel.
 
I hated "The Road". It bored me, I almost didnt get through it. That and the way he writes without any regard for punctuation. The kid was a freaking crybaby too. "Oh dont kill those guys even though they are trying to kill us" BANG "Daddy, why?" WAAAH.
 
Tiewas said:
I hated "The Road". It bored me, I almost didnt get through it. That and the way he writes without any regard for punctuation. The kid was a freaking crybaby too. "Oh dont kill those guys even though they are trying to kill us" BANG "Daddy, why?" WAAAH.
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Sorry Tiewas, but I don't remember it that way at all. I saw a terrified young boy, in a horrible world, just trying to survive.

I could hardly put the book down, myself.
 
Tiewas said:
I hated "The Road". It bored me, I almost didnt get through it. That and the way he writes without any regard for punctuation. The kid was a freaking crybaby too. "Oh dont kill those guys even though they are trying to kill us" BANG "Daddy, why?" WAAAH.
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How tough is a six year old supposed to be in that wasteland???
 
I read The Road about a year and a half ago . . . a couple of months after the birth of my daughter.:eek: It left a hell of an impression on me; all I could think about was the two of us in that situation. I actually had nightmares about it, and that is something no book has done before. In every other apocalyptic book or movie I've read, there's always a glimmer of hope at the end. Not this time . . .

It was profoundly stirring and disturbing. It was a great book, but I wonder if I could bring myself to reread it.
 
if you've never known anything but men trying to kill you and eat you or use you before they kill you and eat you; would you cry over them? Keep in mind that this boy has never known anything else but the world he was born into.

Yes, I think he should be that tough, if you'd call it tough, I'd prefer to call it calloused.
 
It was pretty dark, but an accurate portrayal of a fairly normal person thrust into that sort of thing.

The roasted newborn was pretty graphic. It'd be a hell of a movie, but I don't know how they could get the ashes right.
 
Probably the only way to do it would be like 300 and sky captain and the world of tomorrow.
 
Tiewas, although I do not share your view on the book I certainly can understand your point of view. For me this is one of THE most profound and troubling books I have ever read...and I have read some crazy things and for what it is worth not much shakes me. I think that the boy being a cry baby is not totaly acurate.

First, how much death and suffering can one take before saying "no more this is wrong". Secondly, this goes back to a philosophical question is man inherintely good...or is man inherintely evil? I would argue that the boy even being born into the horrid world is inherintely good, even when all around him are seemingly inherintely evil..including arguably his father. I suspect that is why his father referred to his son as a god a couple of times in the book.
I think the use of allusion and description used in the book is very, very effective. For alot of the mental horror on the reader is what is not said by the author...in esence the author leaves it up to the reader to fill the void.

Another point I feel what seperates the boy and his father is the reference to "carrying the fire". To me this reference is used to signify that they are not only the "good guys" but to a lesser extend civilized and humanly more advanced than those around them.
The reference to carrying the fire has been used in literature to signify human advancment which seperated men from ape. To know how to make and carry fire would mean survival on many fronts, thus the superior creature evolves and thrives, while the lesser still would walk on all fours.
 
Foilist, I thought there was a very slight glimmer of hope at the end...without giving away the end for those who did not read it. But I thought the end was enough of a glimmer for me anyway, a suiting ending for the book.
 
McCarthy should have won the Nobel for literature years ago, but he's too dark for those hippies.

F*ck Nobel anyway.... Doris Lessing? Give me a freakin break!
 
I got this book for Christmas from my brother along with No Country For Old Men. :thumbup:

I finished The Road the same day and loved it. It was great how it showed just normal people in a screwed up world.

No Country I liked more so after seeing the movie because the actors do such a great job filling out the roles. Both fantastic books, along with Blood Meridian.
 
Diamond Dog said:
Foilist, I thought there was a very slight glimmer of hope at the end...without giving away the end for those who did not read it. But I thought the end was enough of a glimmer for me anyway, a suiting ending for the book.
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I agree that there is some hope for the individual character of the boy, but not for the feeble remnants of the human race; it seems like they'd be extinct soon, since every other living thing in the world of that book seems to be gone already.

McCarthy seems to be very interested in examining the very worst and very best that humanity is capable of and then juxtaposing those extremes. That's what the real point of The Road was to me; that being the case, the slight glimmer of hope at the end is enough for what I thought he was up to as an author. I might take a deep breath and give it a reread.
 
Just a heads up for fans of The Road. A film starring Viggo Mortensen as "Father" and Charlize Theron in flashbacks as "Wife" is in preproduction now for a probable Christmas 2008 or early 2009 release. My quibble with this production is that the director is a little known Australian and the screen adaptation is by a lightly credited English screenwriter. Fingers crossed that they don't sheepify the movie.

For fans of Cormac McCarthy more broadly, Ridley Scott is directing Blood Meridian, which is in prepoduction for a possible 2009 date. The adaptation is being handled by William Monahan, who wrote Kingdom of Heaven and The Departed.

With Scott, it's either going to be great, or suck greatly, but no matter what, it will be well filmed.;)
 
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