"By day the banished sun circles the earth like a grieving mother with a lamp". (The Road - Cormac McCarthy)

Member Name: burtybookworm

Product:	The Road - Cormac McCarthy
Date:	26/08/09 (99 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: beautiful quotes, brilliantly written which captures the mood perfectly

Disadvantages: its depressing of course as is the nature of the subject so not really a disadvantage!

Probably most famously known for writing "No Country For Old Men", Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" is story focussing on the desperation and despair of an unnamed man and his son travelling across post-apocalyptic America. Trying to travel to the coast, the mans concerns are on what they will eat, where they will sleep and what other humans they will encounter on their way as most survivors in this new world have turned to eating their own for survival.

This novel from the beginning represents a very bleak prospect, especially off the back of reading such an upbeat and heart warming book. Everything that "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" was, this is the exact opposite. Even at the beginning of the father and sons journey, it is abundantly clear that their travels are not going to have the fairytale ending and in fact, the book itself will paint the most bleak, depressing and horrifying picture of humanity that most people wouldn't even be able to imagine.

I think it depends entirely on what you think is enjoyable reading - I like to consider myself open minded when it comes to book genres and new writers and I was curious despite the clearly brutal tone the book was going to take. From the outset, I wanted to know how it had happened and what would become of the father and son - I felt immediately drawn to them and their plight and anxious for them! I think the reason for my interest in this book and my enjoyment of it (if you can call it that considering some of the content!) was that it was extremely well written.

The way In which this story is told manages to capture the mood and tone of the characters and the country. The sentences are short and sometimes incomplete suggesting a sense of urgency which is exactly how the man and boy feel about travelling in such a dangerous world. The conversations are abrupt and short also perhaps depicting that there is not a lot that can be said and the dreary realisation of their life means that there is no need for creativity and imagination. It is only when the father and son talk about their dreams (or nightmares) that things are elaborated on. This all helped to create the atmosphere for the two characters and provided me as the reader a chance to see quickly and clearly through these short sentences and observations how they were coming along in their travels.

I did read a review that suggested that this book was quite gory, and although there are some chapters which talk about cannibalism and the decay of human bodies, I found that this was also quite beautifully described and in no way did it glorify or sensationalise those sections that - for the most part - are beyond what any human should ever have to witness.

The one thing that this simplistic and abrupt writing structure did prevent however, was many clues as to how this devastation came about. Most of the book is seen through the eyes of the father, and our only ideas of the destruction is through his memories of the time before, how people started becoming desperate for food and how his wife decided to take her own life as she found it was the only way to escape.

Just from that last sentence, you can imagine how absolutely brutal and horrifying this book is sometimes to read. McCarthy is describing a world where suicide is sometimes the best choice; that there is worse out there than death - rape and slow torture through cannibalism as well as literally surviving in the cold wilderness and scavenging for food. The man is always thinking and telling the boy how to use the gun to put a bullet through his head if he is ever captured and it is amazing how quickly I found myself adjusting and agreeing with that as the right thing to do purely because of the atrocities described in the book.

The two characters without doubt provoked a strong sense of sympathy from me, especially the boy. This boy had only seen the world as it was, had little or no experience of going to school, playing and enjoying his life and I couldn't help but ache for him. As well as that, the young boy hadn't lost his sense of decency, wanting to help other people they came across despite It proving a possible danger and having to ask for constant reassurance from his father that they would never kill a dog or cat and they would never eat another human.

The father on the other hand was a little more difficult to figure out. ON the whole, his account was excellent to read about and I particularly liked how, despite the language and the sentence structure, It was clear he was only alive because of his instinct to protect his son - through the ferocious way he protected the boy at all times, there was at last glimpses of some nicer emotions! However, the one bit that did let me down was that the constant use of "the boy" felt a bit impersonal. I would have liked to have had both of their names, I found it difficult when reading about the father referring to his son as "the boy" as it contrasted so strongly with the emotions that were sometimes played out between them.


My title for this review is just one of the beautifully thought out quotes from this book, there are plenty more that are just to the point and perfectly display the mood of the situation.
This is a devastating book that you cannot help but be shocked at. There is nothing pleasant about reading the story, but if you are after something different, intelligent and beautifully written, I'd suggest giving this a go. Afterwards, you might want to pick something more light-hearted to read to take away the depressing edge!

Summary: .