The Road (Oprah's Book Club) by Cormac McCarthy Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Road (Oprah's Book Club)
Book Review: A haunting and powerful story that transcends its genre
Summary: 5 Stars
This bleak, spare, and beautifully written story follows a father and son on their journey to the sea in a land ruined by nuclear war.
The pair travel through a cold world covered in ash, where no plants grow and no animals live. During the day they search for food: canned goods that were somehow overlooked by earlier scavengers and the odd treasure - a handful of grain sifted from the dirt on a barn floor or shriveled apples under a dead tree. At night they sleep on the ground and keep their campfires small so they won't be spotted by roving bands of cannibals. One frightening close encounter shows us a man with flecks of human flesh coating his rotten teeth.
We don't know what the father is hoping to find at the ocean's edge. The journey is its own reason, and the hope it gives him is one of the only things he can offer to his child.
"The Road" transcends the post-apocalyptic genre - it's a small jewel by any standard. I consumed it in one sitting, which gave it even more power because it didn't let me back into the real world until the entire story was told. And as a powerful piece of literature can do, it made me look at the real world with fresh eyes and a renewed appreciation for its bounty and beauty. I strongly recommend this haunting story.
Book Review: Fantastic book, but hard to get out of your head
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a fantastic novel, particularly in the context of some of McCarthy's earlier work.
Some are describing this as a break from the usual subjects Cormac McCarthy has written about in books such as "Blood Meridian" and the Border Trilogy. While the subject matter is different, I think this is a broader meditation on many of the same themes.
McCarthy frequently writes about civilization as the point of change, where the old world is fading away. The world of the wolves, Native Americans, and cowboys in "The Crossing" is vanishing, and the characters are getting caught up in the chaos.
"The Road" is similar, except in this case the whole world is vanishing. A few descriptions of places that were beautiful and now spoiled are heartbreaking. It is a great novel to make you look at the world with appreciation and wonder again.
PS - Interesting that some reviewers give McCarthy negative reviews based on his grammar and punctuation - as if this is a high school English class. Did this crowd give bad reviews to Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury" too? Apparently some people are unfamiliar with the concept of "prose".
Book Review: Haunting and unforgetable
Summary: 5 Stars
I read The Road two days ago. I finished the book in six or seven hours of almost non-stop reading. Ever since then, my nights have been haunted. I wake up many times during the night and wonder where I am, and when I realize that I'm in my own bed with warm blankets and loved ones about, I think "thank God". But then I steal into the boys rooms and check on them. I stand there for minutes and stare at them while they sleep. Tears well up in my eyes. In the morning when the sun is up and the sky is blue, I wake up and run to the living room and grab my sons and hug them and kiss them until they squeal and pull away laughing. They just think their dad is a kook. They don't know that the world has changed for me. Never in my life have I read a book as disturbing and yet as precious as this one. I re-read the last eight pages yesterday and sobbed like a child. Life is for the living. Little hands are made for holding and going for a walk... but with blue skies and flowers and green trees about. God help us to never lose sight of what really matters in life. Thank you Cormac McCarthy for showing us this.
Book Review: chilling and unforgetable.
Summary: 4 Stars
I finished this book a few days ago and can't get it out of my mind.
In The Road the world we know is gone. The nights are utterly black and freezing cold.The days a dismal gray, wet and never warm. A father and son struggle in this grim landscape to find their way south, perhaps to warmer weather and to find other "good guys". Good guys don't eat other people. And the reader has to guess early on if the world no longer has animals, birds, or a single blade of green grass that the only thing left to eat is other people.
Some of the scenes seared my soul: the child's continuing compassion for others, the old man found along the road who confesses "I live like an animal.", the scene in the cellar where bad guys store their food source, the moment the father realizes that his son has no reference points for understanding the stories the father shares about his childhood, ancient myths and fairy tales. That world is dead. Humanity is lost.
Or is it? At the end of the book (read no further for this might spoil the end) the father chooses life over death for his son, despite the fact he knows the boy faces dreadful odds. And the son, a child of 8 or 9, chooses hope, faith and trust, over distrust and death.
The writer's style occasionally got in the way for me. The conversations between father and son use simple phrases, simple language. Descriptive sections use words I've never seen before: gryke, vestibular, torsional, and vermiculate. The author uses periods and commas, but no quotation marks or apostrophes. These arbitrary choices were disconcerting but didn't ruin the book for me.
Advice. Don't read this book before bedtime.
Book Review: Definitely Worth Reading...
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Road" is certainly a novel that leaves the reader moved. The first half of the book is chilling. The stark, repetitive, ashen imagery interspersed with scenes of total violence and cannibalism make the reader feel as though he has been punched in the chest. The latter half is also chilling, but something besides shock becomes apparent. The father's love of his son, as well as the son's complete innocence are made more clear.
Some reviewers have stated that the repetition of the dialogue makes the story dull are unaware of what Mc Carthy is trying to convey. The dreary, repetitive landscape, coupled with the dialogue forces the reader to feel as though their environment is completely hopeless.
This novel is to be read quickly. Something most readers will no have no difficulty doing. The novel's pace, along with it's underlying meanings of hope, along with meanings of love, compassion, and morality make this a great read.