Description
Imagine a world void of color, dominated by slight variations of black and white. Grey skies, ash covered fields, charred skeletons of trees and buildings. There are no birds, no animals, and the rare sight of another human poses the enormous threat of being enslaved, or eaten. This landscape is where Cormac McCarthy's characters find themselves in his latest novel, The Road.
The Road is told from the viewpoint of a father who, along with his young son, has somehow survived the destruction of America. Armed with nothing more than a broken shopping cart filled with plastic tarps, scavenged food, and a one-shot pistol, the pair navigates their way through remains of towns and forests in search of useful supplies and a safe place to rest at night.
When I first heard about The Road I admittedly avoided it, deeming it inappropriate for a ‘summer read'. Too dark, too depressing, too hopeless. After reading it though, I came to realize that McCarthy's novel is much more than a trip through the remains of a post-apocalyptic land. The Road presents to its readers a unique love between father and son and an unmatched will to persevere, all spattered with desperate confidence, hope and total fear. Tattered, moldy blankets, unopened jars of preserved food, and rusty tools in abandoned stores become precious jewels to the pair, aiding not only in survival but in remembering the forgotten ways of a previous world. By glorifying the simplistic joys experienced by his characters with elegant prose and stunning language, McCarthy manages to bring beauty and light to the otherwise ugly and dark. The story trudges along at a steady pace, mimicking its own characters' seemingly endless journey, yet quickly reaches a point where one cannot help but read on in order to discover the fate of the father and son. I realized after a while that the father, whose primary goal (other than keeping his son alive) was to reach the ocean, was unsure of the ocean's existence in the first place. What then, kept him alive? I'd like to think it was love. Both characters were living solely out of love for the other, and that love produced a faith strong enough to keep them walking down abandoned roads day after day, not necessarily in search of something better, but only to experience moments with the other.
I found The Road to be a deeply moving story, with pages full of heartbreaking dialogue and a setting so convincingly dark and cold I occasionally looked outside to remember it wasn't real. I'd recommend reading it slowly, which I did the second time around; I was panicked to reach the ending, desperate to discover the fate of the characters, and subsequently overlooked several gorgeous descriptions in my haste. (Don't read ahead, but in my opinion, the final paragraph is one of the most beautiful paragraphs ever written.)
A final component to consider when discussing or reading The Road is its status as the 2007 Pulitzer Prize winner in the Fiction category. The work selected by the committee must be a piece of "distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life". I find it very interesting that such a dark, seemingly hopeless story which portrays an annihilated, ugly America was chosen to represent this year's best work. Any thoughts? And how do you feel about this work being selected by Oprah's Book Club?
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I think reading this book a second time is an excellent idea. Having finished it once – admittedly hurrying through the last few chapters in order to return it – I can't help but wonder exactly how much I might have missed.
The Road is a book to be read slowly and intently, consumed like a fine wine. Rushing through McCarthy's beautiful descriptive writing (my favorite since Steinbeck, I think) is nothing short of a crime. I'd love to read it again and see what I missed.
My favorite "theme" of the book is the father's notion of "carrying the fire," and the question of whether the nameless father and son were, in fact, any better than those they encountered on the road.