I barely know where to begin with this one.
I picked up “The Road” because I’m currently waiting for reader comments on my own post-apocalyptic novel, THE SOWING, and I wanted to take advantage of the downtime to research the classic dystopian and post-apocalyptic stories – the ones that my own work will inevitably draw from and be compared to. I picked up “The Road” because I’ve always wanted to read McCarthy’s work and it was the first one on our shelf. I picked up “The Road” because Viggo Mortensen is hot and I figured this way I could finally justify watching the movie.
I got more than I bargained for.
This book is a killer, in multiple senses. First, in the sense that it’s amazing. Second, in the sense that it kills your will to live. Third, in the sense that (in the story) it quite literally kills everything but for a few lone struggling human souls who dare to continue to live in a vision of Earth where everything else is dead.
The Road is the story of a father and his son crossing from one deadened side of the world to the other, traversing from North to South as the weather turns cold, searching for warmer weather so they can survive yet another desolate, bleak, hopeless year. They must hide from other humans; in the wake of such complete devastation, many humans have turned to cannibalism to survive. The father and his son – neither of whom are ever named – cling to each other alone out of everything, as everything else is gone. They struggle variously to find shelter, stay out of the snow and wind and ash, to feed themselves on abandoned, buried caches of canned goods, and to frighten away the would-be predators – other humans.
The most interesting theme in the book for me was the generational divide between the man and his son, who I’d guess to be between seven and ten years old, based on his language and the way his father addresses him. The father remembers life before the apocalypse. He dreams of it and by those dreams he knows he’s given up on this life. His son, by contrast, knows nothing but the ashen world. His dreams are dark and misshapen and his father tells him never to dream of things that are golden and beautiful – once that happens, his father says, you will have given up, and you can never give up. But the child asks questions about that past world, about crows and fish and Mars and what people were like before they turned. As the father struggles to describe what they see, and how the world used to be, McCarthy explores themes of hope in a hopeless world, innocence in a guilty land, and faith where God is dead. In a kind of Oedpial progression, the son represents the present world, the father the past, and they are occasionally unable to overcome these stark differences despite the love they have for each other.
This book dramatically affected the way I view post-apocalyptic stories. In a way, an apocalypse presents a grand promise: By sweeping away the old world in fires and chaos, humanity is allowed a second chance, a chance to rebirth and get it right this time. But McCarthy’s vision, which takes apocalypse at its literal meaning – total destruction – destroys that promise. There is no hope of rebirth. There is only the barest hope of survival. What is lost may never return.
I’m going to stop here and simply share a few of my favorite quotes from the story, in the hopes that you’ll fall for McCarthy’s sparse but haunting language in the same way I did, and by that be convinced to read the book. (If, of course, you haven’t already. I realize I’m a little late on the bandwagon here.)
In the dream from which he’d wakened he had wandered in a cave where the child led him by the hand. Their light playing over the wet flowstone walls. Like pilgrims in a fable swallowed up and lost among the inward parts of some granitic beast. Deep stone flues where the water dripped and sang. Tolling in the silence the minutes of the earth and the hours and the days of it and the years without cease. (3)
A person who had no one would be well advised to cobble together some passable ghost. Breathe it into being and coax it along with words of love. Offer it a phantom crumb and shield it from harm with your body. (49)
…he sat holding him while he tousled his hair before the fire to dry it. All of this like some ancient anointing. So be it. Evoke the forms. Where you’ve nothing else construct ceremonies out of the air and breathe upon them. (63)
He’d had this feeling before, beyond the numbness and the dull despair. The world shrinking down about a raw core of parsible entries. The names of things slowly following those things into oblivion. Colors. The names of birds. Things to eat. Finally the names of things one believed to be true. More fragile than he would have thought. How much was gone already? The sacred idiom shorn of its referents and so of its reality. Drawing down like something trying to preserve heat. In time to wink out forever. (75)
Where men can’t live gods fare no better. You’ll see. […] When we’re all gone at last then there’ll be nobody here but death and his days will be numbered too. He’ll be out in the road there with nothing to do and nobody to do it to. (145-146)
Do you think your fathers are watching? That they weigh you in their ledgerbook? Against what? There is no book and your fathers are dead in the ground. (165)
The slow surf crawled and seethed in the dark and he thought about his life but there was no life to think about. (200)
Once there were brook trout in the streams in the mountains. […] On their backs were vermiculate patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming. Maps and mazes. Of a thing which could not be put back. Not be made right again. In the deep glens where they lived all things were older than man and they hummed of mystery. (241)
According to my rating system (as outlined here) I’m giving this book 5/5 stars. You can find this majesty here.
Have you read The Road? Did you like it? What else have you read of Cormac McCarthy’s – and what did you think?
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I’ve checked The Road out from the library on multiple occasions, but have never actually been in the mood to delve into it before I had to take it back. I guess I’m a bit intimidated. It is on the TBR though.
You shouldn’t be intimidated – I was too, but McCarthy’s prose is almost childish in its simplicity and the themes he tackles are well worth the investigation. I highly recommend taking a stab at it. Thanks for commenting!
You’re definitely right about the losing the will to live bit. I had to read it in February for a class, and it was rough! And I also loved the quote about Death eventually dying or losing power. All in all, it was a great book, although it took about 50 pages for the editor in me to stop fussing about missing punctuation.
I also love the point you made about post-apocalyptic stories. Most post-apocalyptic stories on the market are romanticized version. This one was real and a bit depressing but made me think seriously about life and humanity.
Glad I’m not the only one who thought it was depressing but still loved it!
It is a tough one! I had to read it in bits and pieces because otherwise I think I might have been unable to sleep at night. It was difficult anyways.
A few other people have mentioned the punctuation thing to me, which I find interesting because I pretty much took it in stride. It seemed natural to me that, in a world where nothing else of the old world remains, punctuation wouldn’t be necessary. I only had problems following the dialogue on occasion, so it didn’t bother me.
I’m glad you loved it too! Most people I’ve talked to so far didn’t really love it, so it’s nice to have met a kindred spirit!
I did not enjoy it at all. I hated the writing style – it was so fragmented and the “story” and character development was such that I cared very little for either character. I was incredibly frustrated reading this book and the ending just felt like McCarthy got bored and decided to just end it.
I had to read this for book club and got our meet up tomorrow so will be interesting to hear what other people thought!
Well, I’m glad you stopped by to read the review! I’m sorry you didn’t like it, funny we had such different tastes on the book. I loved it – the language was beautiful. I thought, to the contrary, that the story flowed smoothly from one part to another, just like real life. And I thought the development of the father’s illness was well done, and brought the book to a (admittedly not-climactic) slow but steady end.
Would love to hear what the rest of your book club thought! Feel free to come back and share, and thanks for stopping by!
Excellent review.
The Road was a suggested read (highly suggested) when I was taking a class a few years ago at college. I picked a copy up and scanned the first few pages, and then threw it down. “This guy doesn’t write like normal authors.” A few years later I purchased the book and really began to read–knowing I wouldn’t like it. Once I got past the dialogue/punctuation strangeness…
I loved it! Beginning to “non-climactic” ending. There’s no doubt in my mind McCarthy deserved the Pulitzer for this one.
I agree wholeheartedly! I actually found that the lack of punctuation and proper grammar really didn’t bother me at all. The lack thereof only served to further accentuate the post-apocalyptic nature of the book; in a world where everything else has deteriorated, why should language remain pure?
Agree.
It’s rather like prologues, lol. Dialogue/punctuation, that is. When you KNOW what you are doing, when you’ve mastered the craft, rules may be present, opinions might way heavily, but you can and must follow your writer’s instincts.
McCarthy certainly did.
Precisely! I aspire to one day be a good enough writer that I can actively disregard the rules. Until then, I’ll practice 🙂
McCarthy is a master.His style is inimitable. This novel flows so well. It is so lyrical and bleak yet beautiful. It moves like a dream. And you’re right – it’s an absolute killer. The funny thing is, I don’t it’s his darkest work. For my money that would be Child of God or Outer Dark.
I’ll have to add those to my list of his to-read. I’d like to read through most, if not all, of his works. His style is inimitable, you’re spot on about that, it’s indescribable, too. He’s truly a writer to learn from and admire.
Oh, and thanks for commenting!
I loved ‘The Road’. So bleak yet so beautiful. Some horrific moments and a novel that will stay with me.
Absolutely, same here. Novel really swept me off my feet.
Just stumbled on this post randomly from you liking my recent one. I kind of wanted to read The Road after my brother had to design a new cover for it last year as part of his graphic design course. I haven’t yet and now I don’t know whether to or not! Though recently I did read 1984 for the first time and that’s thoroughly depressing with no hope/happy ending so perhaps I can cope with The Road! I am a little scared to though!
I would pretty definitely recommend it. Especially as someone who has classified herself as a realist, I think you’ll find McCarthy’s approach to post-apocalyptic fiction very interesting. And the prose is crazy good!
Then it’s going to have to go on the to read list then! 🙂
It was a great book, but there were some cons as well. Maybe it’s personal, but the writing style really threw me off at first. Near the end of the novel I started to appreciate it, but it was still quite the challenge to read. The sentences are so minimal, with little punctuation marks. For example; dialogue is without quotation marks as it is mixed in with the rest of the paragraph. Aside from that, the book itself is very, but quite depressing. The world is empty and dark, and this reflects itself in how the book is written and how the characters are.