The Road

Oof. That was bleak. I feel a little wary about writing down my thoughts on The Road, because I suspect the book could function as a kind of litmus test for how a person sees the world, and I’m afraid of what my results might say about me.

The Road sets us in a post-apocalyptic nightmare. Everything has been destroyed. Food, shelter, clothing, safety, and every other basic necessity are hard to come by. People are attacking and eating one another. And in the midst of that environment, we have a father and son who are sustained almost entirely by their love for each other. There is little to no suggestion that the world is going to improve. There is only a man trying to keep a boy alive, and a boy who represents one small remaining spark of goodness among the ruins of civilization.

You could read that and be moved by its message about love, devotion, and goodness surviving even in the worst imaginable conditions. Or you could read it and come away thinking that life, in such world, seems so stripped of purpose that there is no point at all to prolonging the torture. And I’m afraid I may fall closer to that second camp.

As for the prose itself, I thought it was incredible. McCarthy has certain stylistic quirks that are easy to parody, but when he's really flowing with his more elegant, poetic passages, his unique command of language is unmatched. It is the same kind of brutal beautiful as Blood Meridian, but much easier to read on account of the sparse plot.

Book author: Cormac McCarthy