Rating  - Total waste of time
When I realized that Cormack McCarthy also wrote No Country For Old Men, I knew I was in trouble since that was one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Now I can add that The Road is one of the worst books I have ever read and that I obviously conclued that I need to avoid any title or movie associated with the author.
I don't care how the critics rave about him, he is vastly overrated.
The book was boring, unpleasant, had a weird ending, and was just kind of sickening.
Grim, dark, depressing, nauseating. Nuff for me from him.
Anne
NYC
Rating  - Good, but not great
Mr McCarthy is a brilliant writer, but this is far from his best work. Of course, if you enjoyed "Child of God", then this is probably right up your alley.
Rating  - Keeping The Fire...
Some plot spoilers ahead, but none too specific.
This is a bleak depressing book, but you keep on reading it to find out more about the close relationship of a boy and his father trying to survive in a harsh post apocalyptic dawn. A bond reforged by the graphic suicide of the mother, the family remnant leaves the memory of home for the harsh reality of 'the road.' Their quest is two fold: keeping the fire, and to make it south to the coast and warmer climes. As the book progresses, we learn about how 'keeping the fire' means holding on to humanity's virtues, by helping others, and not resorting to cannibalism, which is widespread after the loss of photosynthesis and the resultant loss of animal life.
The central conflict surrounds this pact, which the father realizes mainly the objective of reaching the coast, without keeping the fire, and the boy mainly wants to keep the fire, regardless of reaching the coast. The father's decline is gradual, being more benevolent in the beginning, and more and more unheroic in the many questionable situations which follow. The father is quick to justify his actions, and the boys budding understanding of the reality of the situation gradually brings about a schism between the two characters. Their love always binds them, but the rift grows as the child's innocence is replaced gradually by understanding.
The boy serves as conscience for the family for the majority of the book, and even though he become a boy who is much more aware, he always remains a boy. He is genuine, innocent, and youthful, seemingly undamaged by the harsh environment. It is heartwarming.
In the end this is a book about two people who made a pact to live up to some high ideals. During the course of their journey together, only one of them ended up living up to these ideals, and it damaged their relationship. You learn that when you live in a world where hopes are always on the verge of shattering, your morals may shatter with them, but yet, in the end, sometimes innocence can still triumph.
Rating  - Total Surrealism
I do not know what makes somebody to write such a novel. Like a bad dream, grim, dark and doom-laden. There is no beginning and no concrete end. Man, his boy and the shopping card. They appear from nowhere and in the end disappear. World has ended and without any explanation. I would envision such scenario after collision with a large asteroid or huge volcano eruption (for example Yellowstone). Only small number of "good" and "bad" people roam around. And God Almighty, who equipped us with free will, so we can behave like evil or like true humans. Walking, sleeping, suffering, cold, hunger, fear, death and boundless devotion - that is all. Essentially there is no true action here, but text is sort of mesmerizing. However it is hard for me to imagine movie based on this book. Movie will be rather boring, nothing like "Waterworld" or "Mad Max".
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Customer Reviews for Vintage Books,0307387895,9780307387899,0307387895,813.54 |
