The greatest novel of modern times? (The Road - Cormac McCarthy)

Member Name: midpikyrozziy

Product:	The Road - Cormac McCarthy
Date:	04/04/09 (387 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Harrowingly beautiful language, terrific plot, very thought-provoking novel

Disadvantages: Not everyone will enjoy it

THE ROAD - CORMAC MCCARTHY

Intro:
I first came across this book when searching for 'No Country for Old Men' by the same author, but as the library were all out, I decided that, not having read any Cormac McCarthy before, I should give this a try. I didn't know anything about the book at all before I read it, but I'm very glad that I decided to read it now, and I'd recommend it to anyone.It was published in 2006 and has enjoyed a very positive set of feedback from critics, and has won a whole host of prizes, including the 2006 James Tait Black Memorial prize for fiction, and the much coveted Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2007. These awards are thoroughly deserved, and a suitable testament to the author.

Plot summary:
The Road is a post-apocalyptic tale of a man and his boy journeying across the desolate wastelands of America trying to reach the sea in hope of survival. The world has suffered greatly at the hands of a monstrous climate-related catastrophe, that remains largely unexplained in the book. Civilization has been destroyed, and nearly all species have become extinct. The sun remains trapped behind deep dark clouds, which means nothing new can grow. The humans that remain are mostly cannibals, killing and eating fellow travelers to survive.

The man will not sink to such inhuman levels, which makes the task of survival that bit harder. When he realizes that the boy will not survive another winter in current surroundings, he knows they must leave and move towards the sea. Fighting their way through the ash-covered landscape, the father and son, each 'the others world entire', face new obstacles and challenges each day in their desperate bid to survive.
The man often remembers his wife, who it is revealed chose suicide instead of the life that they are now facing. She says that they will be raped, killed and eaten if they carried on living, and says all chances of another fate have disappeared. This is only one of many horrors of this new world, the man and boy discovering many more unspeakable scenes on the way.

Writing Style:
This book has a fairly major change from the normal writing style, in that it omits all forms of punctuation except for the very simplest, meaning we have no apostrophes, commas, or quotation marks. This stripping down is used quite often by McCarthy, and while it may seem annoying used wrongly, it is used to brilliant effect here, giving the novel an eerie feel that adds so much to the book.

The writing style of The Road has often been described by critics as 'biblical', and I personally think this is an absolutely perfect description. Whether or not you believe the contents of the bible, you can see that every sentence or saying has a powerful meaning, and is not simply a page-filler. This parallels in The Road with the deep, haunting prose being the reason that this book is head and shoulders above anything else in this common sub-genre of science fiction.
My opinion

I would go so far as to say that this is the best novel I've ever read, although it's a bit hit and miss for some people. For a start, don't read this book if you're the sort of person who would get queasy reading about very graphically described cannibalism, as this element features quite prominently in the book.I also wouldn't recommend this book to anyone who feels depressed or wants a cheerful read. This book is absolutely brilliant, but I must admit it's not the happiest of reads, and you can't come expecting many laughs.

With that aside, I can move on to the positives, and there are many of them. This is one of those books that you just can't put down. We all know them, books that you start at 10 PM for a nice half hour read before bed, but find yourself still reading, captivated, in the early hours of the morning. Such is the entertaining pot and transfixing description of the post-apocalyptic world that you simply can't stop reading.
The best thing about it, and the reason that it is so good, is the brilliant use of language from Cormac McCarthy. The language seems like it comes straight out of a brilliant poetry book, and it helps us become engaged with the plot and feel like we're living each day with them. A few brilliant examples are, 'By day, the banished Sun circles the Earth like a grieving mother with a lamp..', 'Eyes collared in cups of grime and deeply sunk. Like an animal inside a skull looking out of the keyholes...', and 'He raised his face to the paling sky. Are you there? he whispered. Will I see you at the last? Have you a neck by which to throttle you? Have you a heart? Damn you eternally have you a soul? Oh God, he whispered. Oh God.'. This terrific standard of writing is constant throughout the book, and it's the reason why I am so obsessed by this book today.

It's no surprise that this book is being made into a film in 2009, and hopefully it can live up to the success of the other brilliant Cormac McCarthy adaptation 'No Country For Old Men'. If the settings and cinematography are achieved to a proper standard, this could be one of the true great films.
I'd recommend this book to anyone over the age of 14. It's primarily aimed at adults, but children can take a lot away from it, and it can deeply impact the lives of anyone. At the very least it will make you take global warming a lot more seriously! In my opinion this is one of the true modern classics, and I'd encourage you to give it a shot.

Product information:
256 pages
Can be bought off www.amazon.co.uk for £2.99 paperback (absolute bargain) or £11.89 hardback.
Published by Picador
Should arrive within a week or two if ordered off Amazon

Summary: An absolutely brilliant must-read