The Road (Oprah's Book Club)

I did not have sky high hopes for this book. I've been through that and knew better. My hopes were moderate. Even so, they were dashed. I realize that the minimalist approach the author took was meant to create a haunting atmosphere and it did work, but there was SO MUCH MORE he could have done with the 'story'. I kept waiting for something interesting to happen. Heck, I kept waiting for ANYTHING to happen. Unfortunately, the entire book can be summed up as follows;

We have to keep walking.
Okay Papa.
We should eat.
Okay Papa.
Okay.

And that's what passes for a 'great book' now in our TV, WalMart, McDonald's culture.

Here's what "The Road" is not. It's not science fiction. The story is set in a post-apocalyptic America but it doesn't bother to go into any detail about what happened. It's not an adventure story. Our protagonists don't fall into the hands of an evil army and forge a daring escape. It's not a traditional story. If you're looking for a three act arc with beginning, middle and end it's not here. You get a beginning and maybe an end, that's it. So what is it? To me it's about us; as a race, as individuals. Ask you're self what would happen if the world changed tomorrow? Changed in such a way that everything we know, our cars, our food, our friends, our sky were all gone. How would you adapt? How would you survive?

In McCarthy's "The Road" we follow a man and his son down a road as they move east towards the sea, their world reduced to themselves and a shopping cart which they push slowly forward. Through their eyes we see the planet as it has become, a forever gray sky, humans reduced to cattle, giant fires that sweep across the land. The writing, the dialogue, even the punctuation is minimum. Often it felt repetitious and too simplistic, but I was still drawn to their struggle. After some time reading, I knew I wasn't going to get a predictable "Hollywood" story. Rather, I was just going to get their story; a story that anyone of us might face some day, utterly lacking in adventure, predictability, and even dialogue but a story that reeks of paranoia, fear, and uncertainty.

Is "The Road" a classic? I don't know if that's for us to decide, but it's a perfect read for those in high school and on up. So maybe some 12th grade Lit. Class will debate the "classic" question, because people seem to be debating it now. And the fact that they're debating now tells me that McCarthy doing something right.

I've been trying to read this book for about six months, and I can never get more than 1/3 of the way through. It's frusterating because I have yet to read a negative review, so I assume it must just be because I am stupid that I don't like the book.

It's the end of the world and a father and son are traveling down a road. That's it? Yes, that's it. Maybe if the father's narrative used proper grammar and actually said things that made sense, it might have had more meaning, but as it is it is just meaningless garbage.

Every other page is a description of them building a fire and burning a tin can of food, and almost every paragraph ends like this: What is it, Papa? I don't know.

Eventually, I decided not to waste another minute of my life reading it and built a fire with it, keeping myself and my child (each the other worlds entire) warm as we ate from a tin can. What is it, he asked? I didn't know.

No technology, no living animals except man (and much of mankind is little more than animals), no living plants, the world in the midst of a prolonged winter. It's depressing to think the world could come to this. The book still sends chills down my spine weeks later.

The Road is an excellent book. Through a unique writting style the author allows you to live the simply raw terrifying experience of a father care for his on a post apocalytpic america. It stirs and meddles in our most basic instincts of protection of our young vs. a scenario of complete dispair.