Road

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The Road by Cormac McCarthy is not what I was expecting. The novel follows a father and his son in a post-apocalyptic world, travelling to the southern coast. Their struggle to survive dominates the story. The somber tone of the novel is depressing throughout and never wavers. McCarthy’s decision to abandon the readers with an unhappy ending was intentional, leaving them wanting more. The boy and his father’s fight for life in McCarthy’s The Road is brought on by the post-apocalyptic, dull world they live in. The unchanging and relatively uneventful plot portrays a devastating journey that turns readers off. The setting of The Road is dreary to say the least. Ash covers all. Everything is described as black, filthy and lifeless. Each night is “dark beyond darkness” (3) so nothing is visible. McCarthy describes everything in this way to emphasize the horrible conditions the world is in. No specific information is given throughout the entire book. Readers remain unaware of the names of characters, where exactly they are located and how long the world has been in ruins. The boy is most likely a pre-teen, but no age is ever included. One bit of information provided is the boy does not remember the previous world at all because he was too young. The father does everything he can to keep the boy alive. Hunger becomes a constant reminder of how he cannot provide for himself or his own son. While it pains the two, many “bad people” resort to cannibalism. The boy sees a “charred human infant headless and gutted and blackening on the spit” (198). This would scar any normal child, but the boy is almost resilient. Feelings of hunger, cold, and sadness are always present; sometimes they come in pairs. In the tragic end, the father finally dies, but the boy lives on, “carrying the fire” (283). Many novels are full of literary elements that provide interesting detail, but The Road excludes most elements to showcase its uniqueness. McCarthy’s choice to eliminate important literary devices is intentional, but lacks purpose. The missing punctuation and terrible grammar is careless and overrated. McCarthy notes, “he drained away the filthy water he sat in and laved fresh warm water over him from the pan and wrapped him again in a blanket”, proposing a run-on sentence. The act is very common in the novel. If it was a way to show the toll the world has taken on the characters, it failed. Characters, as mentioned, remain nameless, which are in need of personal connections. Readers do not respond as well to the characters because all they have to call them is “the boy” and “the father”. They want something personal to latch onto, even if it is just a name. Also, the plot remains anticlimactic. The only major event happens in the very last pages of the novel when the father dies. The boy is left to fend for himself until someone comes for him. He joins a group of people, the group he and his father were looking for the whole time. Although it presents itself like a hopeful ending, it is just the opposite. The story focuses on the father protecting the son, but in the end, he cannot even protect himself. The tone of The Road is constant throughout. The depressing, heartbreaking tone feels like a burden on the soul. Dialogue is another omitted component. Though there is a little of it, the dialogue is not very prominent. It stays in the background, not playing a key role. The author does this to communicate that speaking is not everything. The fears and thoughts that go on in a character’s head is just as important, if not more than dialogue between them. Overall, McCarthy’s novel is missing key elements of literature. When considering the book as a whole, it is still intriguing even though it lacks action. For the majority, the father and son are only walking. The road they travel is bare, dark and cold. The same ideas are regurgitated over and over again. Hunger comes up in so many instances that it is odd when the pair are not speaking of it. For me, it was obnoxious to be told multiple times that the same thing was happening. I wanted more twists and turns in the plot. I found myself to be bored with the storyline, wishing for excitement. At the same time, McCarthy’s artistic choices left me in awe. He was very specific with the relationship the father and son had. The son’s backlash against his father illustrates his coming of age in a confusing world. The major issue deals with lack of hope. The major theme is when hopelessness sinks in, there is not a lot to do about it. Their journey to the coast is filled with hope that better life will be waiting. Without hope, the son and father give up. The man proclaims, “hope is for eternal nothingness” (57). Readers are aware that he does not have the energy left to hope. When their dreams are shattered, the story takes a turn for the worse. The unpleasant death of the father is McCarthy’s way of getting under his readers’ skin. He does not give them the happy ending they desire, but instead writes their worst fear. The major complaint about the novel is the shortage of surprises. The Road by Cormac McCarthy is mostly uneventful, but it has its moments of pure artistic genius. The novel is overwhelmed by the struggle for life. The depressing thoughts are extremely prominent and carry a somber tone. The hope the boy and man share dies off, followed by the loss of life. McCarthy’s novel proves that a person can only hang on to hopelessness for so long before he must give up.

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Well written.

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Simple and powerful prose that made me read the novel all the way through in one go. The Road is the first novel of Cormac McCarthy's that I read, and I came to it with my partner's strong recommendations for his other books, particularly Blood Meridian. It is a tough story of the end of human civilisation as we know it, told through the characters of a father and his son, and I was right there with them in the blackened remains and the frightening encounters with other humans mostly stripped bare of their humanity. Absolutely devastating; I will never forget it.

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“The Road”, written by Cormac McCarthy is a novel that tugs at the harsh reality of the outcome of a destructive society. In this post-apocalyptic novel, two protagonists struggle to survive as they embark on a seemingly never-ending journey. As a reader you will be introduced to the conflict of good vs. evil and what is justifiable in the midst of ‘life or death’ situations. The audience will discover the definition of perseverance and will be able to visualize the depth of a father-son relationship. The novel was a wonderful novel that taught me many life lessons. I would recommend you read it although you must be aware that the novel is very depressing and is quite violent in some scenes. The novel ”The Road” begins with a father and a son in the midst of an extremely horrific setting with “Everything paling away into the murk. The soft ash blowing in loose swirls over the blacktop,” (McCarthy, 4). The novel progresses as the man and the boy travel the country on foot in order to escape unfriendly people and unwelcoming situations. Along their journey they encounter cannibalism, hypothermia, and extreme malnutrition. Not only is their journey significant for how it reflects modern-day society, but their journey also gives the reader a strong appreciation for shelter, food, water, and clothing. “The Road” reflects society as a ‘dog eat dog’ world; everyone looking out for themselves or their loved ones and caring little about those who they don’t affiliate themselves with. A secondary theme is the conflict between determining who is ‘good’ in the world and who is ‘bad’. The struggle between good and evil is utterly difficult. Is the man who steals their clothes in order to stay warm an evil person? Is the group who kills a dying man in order to eat his flesh to fuel their hunger a bad group of people? You as the reader have the liberty to decide what is justifiable in a twisted world. You may also begin to question the actuality of human nature and how one will do anything to survive including putting someone else in misery. Where is the line drawn and how does our society in the 21st century reflect these selfish motives? It is important to take notice that there are no chapters in this novel, nor are there any sections. McCarthy chooses to organize different thoughts, the changing of scenery, and t coming of a new day through page breaks. There are also no quotations in the dialogue. For example, “It’s okay Please, Papa. Please. It’s okay. No it’s not.” (McCarthy, 134) Although, the story is still very easy to follow and very rarely does the style inflict confusion. The story is told chronologically although flashbacks do occur causing the plot to bounce around a few times. The flashbacks take the reader to a time that is still post-apocalypse; leaving the reader with no insight into how the world came to perish. One can identify this novel with other futuristic novels. For example, Brave New World, written by Aldous Huxley, and Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury, also showcase a distorted future occurring as a result of society’s materialistic desires, narcissistic motives, and warped morals. Overall, this is a wonderful novel that will give you a gripping vision into the world’s possible future. The novel will teach you many new and important ideas into the harsh reality of our society in this day in age. The comments on egocentric personalities and the difference between good and evil is a heart-quenching story that will force you to question life’s current state. If you enjoy reading about futuristic novels and are not threatened by the depressing themes the novel centers around, then “The Road”, written by Cormac McCarthy, is most definitely a novel for you. Enjoy your reading!

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Suffering, terror. Hopelessness. Good and Evil. Cormac McCarthy's The Road embraces all of these as the reader delves into the painful lives of an unnamed man and his son. This pair traverses the wasteland in hopes of salvation, when it is uncertain that salvation exists at all. In the meanwhile, they do their best to survive in their caustic and danger-riddled world where some messy issues are brought up. In my opinion this book is a must-read; It is incredibly tense, the next step is never certain, and the novel bears an important theme for the reader to ponder. This novel is, however, very graphic and disturbing, so I would not suggest it for younger readers or the faint of heart. If you can bear with it though, absolutely read this book. McCarthy's story is very bleak, taking place in the near future after the apocalypse. As the pair travels westward across what was once the US they encounter horrors, obstacles and regrets that would never be seen today’s world. All of these things happen in the hope that the man and his son will discover salvation once they reach the west coast. The Road is a dystopian novel, but given this categorization is limiting, as this story is very different from others and cannot be directly compared to many novels in the genre. The Story begins with a premise which is key from beginning to end. "They were moving south. There'd be no surviving another winter here"(4). Immediately readers are thrust into a frantic migration for survival. Near the journey's beginning they encounter a dying man, the boy's first view into reality's severity. Soon thereafter they face one of many problems: the so-called bad guys who rove the wastes preying upon unfortunate survivors. In their dwindling chance for survival, they enter the heart of their worst nightmare. This isn't initially clear, as they hope to scavenge food behind a locked door in a house. "There's a reason this is locked"(91) the man claims, and he is right. Behind the door isn’t salvation, but something much more sinister. Their travels continue and they struggle against the past and their hunger until questions like "are we going to die now?"(74) become commonplace. The road these two travel holds many more winds and bends, both literally and figuratively, but nothing that happens could be predicted. Ultimately, The Road works toward the idea that the line between good and evil blur as the post-apocalyptic wasteland confronts the reader, man, and child with unimaginable horrors, sufferings and sorrows. As the plot progresses, language becomes increasingly important to this theme. Conversation between the man and boy grow more sparse, and almost always end with "okay"(172). They have witnessed so much, done so much that little can be said. McCarthy creates what is perhaps the most convincingly gray tones and environments ever devised (the shade gray is referred to over eighty times in the novel,) and because of this gray world opposing characteristics are highlighted in the man and the boy. The man, having been hardened by the wasteland sees no good in others. Yet, his child is much more sympathetic, even begging "just help him"(218) at one point. After so many things go wrong, he is constantly troubled by the question "are we still the good guys?"(65) Herein a massive gray area arises. In the end, the reader is left to conclude that the line between good and evil does blur; In order to survive, many characteristics of the good guys are not necessarily good, but in order to survive many things representative of goodness have to be sacrificed. Under such extreme conditions nothing else could be expected. For all of the agony and hopelessness wrapped within, The Road is a very powerful and engulfing novel which I wholeheartedly recommend.

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The Road by Cormac McCarthy The Road is a gripping novel that keeps the reader on the edge of their seat the entire time while making the reader ask the question, "What would I do if the world ended and I survived?". The Road is the story of a father and his son's struggle for survival. The novel is set in a utopian society in a post apocalyptic world where few have survived and resources are scarce. The main plot of The Road is the father and son's journey along the road toward the coast in search of a government safe haven. Along the way they encounter many conflicts and life threatening situations against the "bad guys". After the world ended many became desperate and would do anything to survive. These "bad guys" would, rape women, kill, steal, and even eat other human beings just to survive. The Road is a gripping, edge of your seat, and bone chilling thriller that easily keeps readers entertained. I would give this book 4/5 because of its great word choice, and the re-occurring themes of conflict and survival. I gave this book four out of five stars, but the description and word choice at times was easily a five. McCarthy went into such description with various interesting words to paint a picture in the readers minds. "Middens of anonymous trash. Farmhouses in the fields scoured of their paint and the clapboards spooned and sprung from the wall-studs" (127). As I was reading this I could easily picture the father and his son walking along the road and everything they saw. McCarthy was constantly alluding to the gray ash and how the rest of the world was completely gray. "Nights dark beyond darkness and the days more gray each one than had gone before. Like the onset of glaucoma dimming away the world" (1). At times the language got too graphic for my stomach and I imagine many other readers. This is one reason I would hesitate to recommend it to some of my friends. I have always considered myself having a tough stomach and being able to handle gross things, but sometimes I was taken back by The Road. "A charred human infant headless and gutted and blackening on the spit" (58). This type of description and word choice was common and is a main reason I would only recommend this novel to people over the age of fifteen. As a reader it was really easy to pick out the themes of conflict and survival. The main conflict comes between the son and father when it comes to survival. The son wants to help everyone along the road, but the father wants to worry just about themselves. Also the conflict between the "good guys" and "bad guys". This conflict makes the readers imagine what they would do if the world ended. Would they become a person like the son and father? or would they become like the "bad guys" and become desperate and eat other humans? The Road constantly makes the reader think what they would if they were put in the shoes of the son and the father. Overall I would give The Road by Cormac McCarthy 4 stars out of 5. At times McCarthy's word choice and description was brilliant, but at other times it was disgusting and gut wrenching. For this reason I would not recommend this novel to anyone under the age of fifteen or anybody who does not do well with violence. The themes of good versus evil, conflict, and survival are all applicable to our lives today and were easy to understand. The Road is an easy read that will be sure to keep you entertained and on the edge of your seat.

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I love the writing style in the book. Poetic, and beautifully tragic. It was really short, but emotionally more difficult to read. Probably could be read in 6 hours. This is how every parent/child relationship should be-apocalypse or not. It gives perspective in the sense of simplification, survival and how those can be achieved with out certain sacrifices. I seen the movie before I read the book, and the book was well worth the read... way more detail and description, and subsequently, more exp...moreI love the writing style in the book. Poetic, and beautifully tragic. It was really short, but emotionally more difficult to read. Probably could be read in 6 hours. This is how every parent/child relationship should be-apocalypse or not. It gives perspective in the sense of simplification, survival and how those can be achieved with out certain sacrifices. I seen the movie before I read the book, and the book was well worth the read... way more detail and description, and subsequently, more explanation. Though it still remained perfectly anonymous, which is why this is one of the best end of the world books out there. The thoughts I had during this read, whether apocalyptic or just (about)relationships kept going beyond the words on the page.

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This book is at once bleak and beautiful, simple and complex, raw and refined. It’s a triumph in terms of McCarthy’s use of language, with descriptions of a post-apocalyptic world that are achingly evocative. I have a longstanding (and maybe peculiar) interest in utopian and dystopian fiction, and this book will stand out in that genre along with masterpieces such as “Brave New World” and “Fahrenheit 451.” It’s amazing to me that McCarthy can at once offer so little detail about what caused the apocalypse or even where in the former United States his characters are and yet leave no doubt about their circumstances or the outlook for their survival. My own hopes and expectations for humanity are more optimistic than those expressed here, but there’s no doubt that McCarthy’s imagined future could come to pass in a world with so much violence and hatred. “The Road” is difficult to read -- and impossible to put down. Experiences like this are the reason I read novels.

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At once unbearable to read and impossible to put down, this book took my breath away from the start and I held it until the last page. As a busy mom to two young boys and freelance writer, I rarely read a book this quickly. This book kept me up turning the pages late into the night, and kept me awake even longer after turning out the light while Cormac McCarthy's vivid imagery held my imagination captive. The phrase "triumph of the human spirit" is tired and over-used, but it is truly the best description for this book. After reading it, I found myself watching my two boys with different eyes.

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One of the absolute best novels I have ever read. I'm glad it won Powells' awards, it truly deserved it. I thought I had already commented and cast my vote for it, but since it's not showing up in the comments, I figured I'd have to do it again. It is a page-turner from start to finish, but more than the suspense, it's the beautiful prose that hooked me. I found myself rereading paragraphs not for confusion, but because McCarthy's word choice is so stunning at times. This is a work that truly demonstrates the power of the written word.

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I'm an editor and what I most admire about every Cormac McCarthy book is that I wouldn't remove -- or add -- one single word to his works in order to improve them.

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This is one of the best books I have read in the past 5 years. It should be required reading for every American. As one reviewer said when it was first released--"you'll never look at a can of peaches the same way again." A haunting novel that has stayed with me from the moment I started reading it.

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Provocative and disturbing. A book you won't want to put down, but won't want to keep reading either, but you'll have to, and you will. The Road is a must read and is extremely relevant in our unsteady global times. It is a book that will stay with you, whether you want it to or not. Heads up: Not for the faint of heart.

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This book has so much suspense in it! I loved it from start to finish and I appreciated how McCarthy made the reader feel as though the main characters were never safe, and always looking behind their back in a way. I will read it a second time because it was so great!

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The Road is a novel that features a science fiction setting, but not the little geeky bits that make most science fiction novels lose their humanity. It is set in a Post-Apocalyptic world but feels real enough to be a reflection of our race a few years from now. In this setting are a father and son, who are making a journey across America's burnt, barren landscape. There are entire cities and towns that are devoid of population or food or people. Everyone has died and our two protagonists perceive themselves as the only survivors of this world, making their way to the coast, where they hope to find something - perhaps an escape, perhaps a safe heaven. The journey forms the bulk of the book and the writing is more descriptive than situational. Author Cormac McCarthy (also the writer of No Country for Old Men) establishes a unique style that does the bleak outlook of his setting much justice. The spoken conversations are sparse, but the little that is there is elliptical and highly transcendent. Much of it is between the father, a man who will go to any length to protect his son, and his child, a curious little boy with little of his fathers world weary attitude to survive on his own. The threat of the setting comes in many forms. There are those sent forth by nature in the form of drizzling ash (hinting at a post nuclear fallout), extreme snow and rain, dust, forest fires and everything else that would make tree huggers nod in agreement. There is also the anticipation of not knowing who, if anyone, they might meet on their long journey through every town that they pass. Many pieces of dialogue evoke a sense of poetic irony. Unlike other such pop-culture settings (I am legend etc), there are no surprises about what is in store. You are able to believe with the conviction of the very strong writing that the father and son might die, if nothing else, due to starvation, and that provides enough fuel for the book to move along in a manner that never allowed me to put it down. It is on the strength of its observations and some very powerful literature that the books goes above and beyond the genre conventions expected of it and delivers a haunting, profound tale of the bonds that tie us.

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Dark and heart wrenching at times, but also a beautiful underlying story of courage, fight against all odds and love between a father and son. I recommend it highly.

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The first 100 pages are pretty excruciating. The language is beautiful but everything is dead and dying and ash-covered and nothing happens. After about page 91 things pick up but there's till no real plot and it goes from excruciating to excruciatingly heartbreaking. It's so sad and hopeless until the end with its strange "The Savages" twist. The blurb on the front refers to "the miracle of goodness." I'm not sure I saw any "miracle of goodness" but it is a testament to the tenacity of life and in the end the hopefulness. Overall it's worth reading.

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One of the hardest books to stop reading; and one of the hardest books to keep reading. Pervasive, heartwrenching. McCarthy's writing is beautiful. It just goes to show the amazement of his writing when he can hold the reader in a state of simultaneous terror, horror, hope, and compassion. He is an artist!

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The sparse writing style and heartbreaking situation provide an unusual background in which to examine the father/son relationship. I kept wondering how he was going to end the story given there seemed to be no way out of the dreary, gray world created but McCarthy but the ending proved just as sadly beautiful as the rest of the book. I couldn't put it down.

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This is one of the most ghastly, beautiful books I have ever read. It felt like I was reading a piece of art. My breath was taken away by the way McCarthy peppered the long, grim columns of prose with moments of far-off hope and beauty. The book reads like an epic poem, and one that you will not soon forget. Every human should read this book.

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Absolutely powerful novel. You won't put this one down until the end. Amazingly descriptive.

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I found this book starkly enticing.....memorable to the point of, when time-constraints forced me to put it down for a while, I found it nearly intolerable waiting till able to read it once again. Opening in an already "dead " society, we find ourselves with a father and his son, (having lost the mother in the unnamed catasrophe), as they step carefully thru this new barren world together. With each other, the only one they may trust, each page turn opens unto a new surprise/a new terror........continuing this way to the end. EXCELLENT!

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Sorry, but this is the worst book that I have ever read! I read till the end hoping that it would get better, but was disappointed. I suppose that, although I have enjoyed post-apocalyptic stories in the past, this is just too grim for me. There has to be something to focus the mind on besides bad things happening to the characters then more bad things happening to the characters. There is no explanation of what happened. There is no hope for better things to happen. I cannot find any art in this book, or any grace.

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In terms of its seeming simplicity, from other novels he has written. Dark, terrifying and powerful, this is one of the finest American novels in years. Its structure and muscular prose are so stark and well-crafted, this story picks you up, shakes you and won't let go even after you've read the final page. Also, if you missed Tino Georgiou's masterful novel--The Fates, go and read it. It is the first novel of the century that could rightly be called a masterpiece.

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A beautifully written and disturbing book. The post-apocalyptic tale, in truth, is a distillation of the secret fear all parents harbor in their hearts: Does the overwhelming love I have for my children blind me to what is best for them? And what choices would I make for them if all options seemed equally terrifying and wrong?

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If you're searching for a new take on the frequently visited Apocalyptic novel, look elsewhere. I enjoyed the book for the fact that it had pages, little black letters and a cover - my mother always said that I shouldn't be so easy - but it's psychological delve into post-apocalyptic America didn't raise any new enlightenment to a subject that has "gone before". I prefer to keep my "end of the world" literature pure, sickly sweet Science Fiction. Other dystopian or apocolyptic suggestions: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, The Stand by Stephen King (the book, not the movie my friend) or Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.

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Indeed, this book’s post-apocalyptic stage is characteristically dark, depressing, and replete with desperate characters and imagery (and perhaps a wakeup call). However, the heart of this book is the tender, loving, and dedicated relationship between a father and son, as they struggle to survive each day’s terms. Indeed, the landscape is one void of any semblance of social or natural order, however, such did not overshadow the human will and spirit to survive – some good, some not so good. Every page moved me like none have in some time, and I finished it with the assurance that the power of love may endure the greatest of hardships.

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This grim book imagines the end of the world as we know it with gray skies, charred earth, and starving people struggling with basic details supporting life. Its philosophic queries focus the almost phantasmagoric setting and the relationship of one man and his son. One wonders whether this life-sustaining relationship would be possible.