"The Road" by Cormac McCarthy (novel)

[gymdudeva]

Posted: 7/1/07 at 3:43pm

Have any of you read this? I'm curious what you think. (I'll give my own opinion later...) Note: Be careful about spoilers...

[Roninjoey]

Posted: 7/2/07 at 2:11am

I finished it yesterday. I thought it was an above average end of the world novel extremely similiar to many of the end of the world novels I have read (it's a genre I like)--only less creative. The prose is extremely pretty and poetic and the relationship between the father and the son is touching and compelling. I'm not quite sure why it won the Pulitzer though.

[chinkie azn jai]

Posted: 7/2/07 at 2:35am

I read it as well, I agree with everything that Roninjoey said. I didn't like the ending to it though. It seemed so abrupt.

[tazber]

Posted: 7/2/07 at 5:41am

I loved it. I was deeply moved and disturbed by the story. I thought his writiing was spare and beautiful.

[Luscious]

Posted: 7/2/07 at 6:37am

Didn't like it at all or feel anything for the characters. In fact, I gave up on it 2/3 of the way through and just skipped to the last few pages. Didn't appear to miss very much. If someone decides to film it, it's going to make for one really boring movie.

[tazber]

Posted: 7/2/07 at 7:26am

They are making it into a movie Luscious. I had the same thought as you, I mean there is no plot.
But I found the relationship of the two characters touching. I will confess to shedding a tear.
The strength of that paternal love through the absolute desolation of everything known to man resonated with me.

It's definitely a book that you need to go into knowing that it's a more cerebral exercise and gets it's power from images rather than story.

[mejusthavingfun]

Posted: 7/2/07 at 10:05am

I loved it.

[gymdudeva]

Posted: 7/2/07 at 12:35pm

My reaction was like tazber's. I found it quite touching and haunting. I can't remember the last time I was more affected by a book. I don't care much for science fiction or anything close to it, but the emphasis on the relationship and the spare human elements really worked for me. The story on its surface is anythng but original, but McCarthy is a very good writer who brings something new to it. I undserstand how it left some cold, but for me it hit the right notes, and I found it stunning.

I agree that the ending, although touching in itself, was sort of arbitrary and out of place. But imgine the most logical ending, yikes!

PS: Please don't tell anyone that I actually read an Oprahs's Book Club selection.

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 7/2/07 at 2:35pm

My feeling was "Meh." I kept thinking that it was really interesting, but "when am I going to get an explanation of some sort about why this is happening or what's going to be happening", etc. But then the end came and I was pretty let down. I'd rather read THE STAND or ORYX AND CRAKE than this one again.

[gymdudeva]

Posted: 7/2/07 at 3:02pm

I *liked* that it didn't explain everything. I thought it was more powerful that way.

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 7/2/07 at 3:48pm

See, I guess I got the point that explaining everything would be far too easy. But it's a fine line between explaining enough and explaining too little. I just feel like there wasn't enough.

I'm still creeped out by when the man opens that closet or cupboard or whatever it was. That was mucho disturbing.

[BNN]

Posted: 7/2/07 at 3:56pm

It killed me to get through it because it gave such a bleak look on the world but the ending made it all worth it.

[gymdudeva]

Posted: 7/2/07 at 4:06pm

Yes, it was hard to get through. Sometimes I dreaded picking it up.

SorryGrateful, I think it was a cellar door. Yeah, that was disturbing. But very well written...I kind of wish there had been a little more of that kind of thing, though, to break the monotany just a tad more....

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 7/2/07 at 4:29pm

Yeah, I agree with you on adding a bit more horror in there. The part with the cellar door really gave me the shivers. It was so vivid in my mind. And...


SPOILER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


















...wasn't someone eating a baby at one point? I have to admit that was pretty awesome in terms of representing a society in a complete mess and everyone's having to reevaluate right and wrong and all that good stuff. Creepy.

[tazber]

Posted: 7/2/07 at 4:37pm

there was no right and wrong anymore. It was all about survival.

POSSIBLE SPOILER

that's why the boy was such a heartbreaking character, he was the only one who had a sense of morality and consequence.
And that cellar is the event that most sticks out in my mind as well. That, and the beach scene.

[gymdudeva]

Posted: 7/2/07 at 4:50pm

SorryGrateful, yeah I think that was suggested...not actually shown...they found evidence of that, left behind by others. I think. In light of that, think how the book could have ended (re: the boy)!!! That would have been a bummer.

I agree with with tazber (again!). The boy's character is what made the book so heartbreaking for me. In spite of everything, he was so caring, kind, and innocent. The little dialogs between him and the dad were, for me, the heart of the book.

[tazber]

Posted: 7/2/07 at 4:58pm

definitely the heart of the book gymdude. He and the father were like that one little flower that somehow grows up through the cement. So fragile and alone, with everything going against it.
And yet, a little beauty always finds a way to survive.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/2/07 at 5:02pm

I love his writing style, and I'm glad at his advanced age he got Oprah and the Pulitzer for this book, but the first book in the Border trilogy, All the Pretty Horses, remains my favorite. It didn't win a Pulitzer but it won both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award for best fiction in 1992.

You could do worse than read all of his books. He's that kind of writer.

[mejusthavingfun]

Posted: 7/2/07 at 5:11pm

I just liked the perpetual hopelessness of the story. I love the bleakness of it all, shoes, food and shelter are primary their concerns. I think when you read it, you walk with them. Could I do that, could I eat that? Could I sleep there? Is it selfish to die and leave the child behind? Who am I living for? What am I living for?

I love Cormac's prose so much.

[gymdudeva]

Posted: 7/2/07 at 5:22pm

The only other of his books I have read is All the Pretty Horses, which I liked but didn't love. I'm going to read some more of his stuff now, though. "Suttree" looks good.

[sally1112]

Posted: 7/2/07 at 9:08pm

I just read this book on the advice of a very good friend, and it is the first full price book I have purchased in years (I am a thrift store junkie).

I just thought the book was very mediocre. I kept waiting for something to happen. I thought there were lots of moments of tension, but nothing really EVER happens. I knew it was going to end how it did, so there was no surprise there.

Updated On: 7/2/07 at 09:08 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/2/07 at 9:57pm

He is an acquired taste, like smoked oysters.

[Roninjoey]

Posted: 7/2/07 at 10:35pm

I just thought it was a real cop out to not explain what had happened to the world. In these sort of novels one of the most interesting aspects is why the world is in turmoil. See: The Stand, Children of Men, etc...

I got that it wasn't the point, but I guess I really wanted to know.

At first I found the prose a little pretentious but there was a line early on in the story (I don't remember it but I'll find it later) that pulled me in, and from there on I thought much more highly of the prose. The last 50 pages or so of the book are really thrilling, and I'll confess I was moved.

SPOILER






When the little boy gets sick, that part was really hard!

[sally1112]

Posted: 7/3/07 at 9:09am

I too really wanted to know what happened to the world. I too knew it wasn't "the point" but it helps the reader connect.

[Tom1071]

Posted: 7/3/07 at 11:48am

Reading it now and having a hard time getting through it but am committed to finishing it. The lack of punctuation is annoying.