Book - The Road

The most recent pick for my book-club was "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. I am so happy that this was our choice. What an amazing novel: my favorite since "...Edgar Sawtelle." It doesn't sound like it should be an enjoyable book: the story takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where a father and son wander the lands trying to survive. However, thanks to the captivating writing and the powerful emotions it provokes, reading this book was a beautiful experience. Read on for further discussion.

The reader doesn't know what cataclysmic event took place to ruin the continent, but the land is now burnt to a crisp and ash hangs in the air making is dusty and gray during the day and absolutely pitch-black at night. We don't know how long the world has been in this shape, but can estimate that it's been perhaps somewhere around eight years (the boy was born into this world just a few days after the incident and seems to be around eight years old when we pick up their story). The father and son, who are given no names nor any real physical descriptions, are heading south to beat the worst of the winter and to perhaps see the state of the ocean. They search for survival supplies and exist on any found canned foods, as nothing is able to grow in this utterly barren landscape. Perhaps most frighteningly, there are roving gangs of evil people who have resorted to cannibalism - real life zombies!

The writing is simple prose mixed with poetic and cryptic passages that are chilling and beautiful. I had to resort to my dictionary about a thousand times thanks to McCarthy's vast vocabulary, but his way with words is worth the effort. One reviewer remarked that the urgency provoked in the writing made the reader feel they HAD to turn the pages in order to help the father and son survive: so true!

This is a tremendous parable about love and humanity that has often been associated with a biblical style. It's true that the father comes off as a sometimes vengeful God while the son is the encapsulation of mercy and hope. Together these two "carry the light" while in the darkest of circumstances that is in no way clichéd.